For years, people tried to get me to watch The West Wing. Literally, years. But for some reason, it always ended up on the back burner. I guess part of me figured it would never be able to live up to the hype. Another part figured it would seem dated now that it has been over a decade since the show debuted. But after The Social Network, I found myself on a bit of a Sorkin kick and when I stumbled across season one for $18 at Best Buy (along with an abundance of evenings with nothing to do but watch TV), I decided it was time to pull the trigger.
Season 1 was everything I could have reasonably hoped it to be. It was easy to blow through two or three episodes a night, which was exactly what I was looking for. It wasn't perfect (it wasn't quite as serialized as I was expecting), but it was consistently entertaining and filled with likable, charismatic, interesting people. Generally, I'm drawn to two types of characters. The first, which I'll call the "Jesse Pinkman type", struggles to be good even when they are almost totally unequipped to do so. They just can't get out of their own way. The second, which I'll call the "Fox Mulder type", is brilliant, super-competent, but often times up against forces they could never hope to overcome no matter how hard they try. Because The West Wing takes place at the White House (obviously), the highest level of our government, it's positively stuffed to the gills with the latter. So from the outset, I was loving watching Sam, Josh, CJ, Toby, Leo and President Bartlet go about their hectic days as the driving forces behind the most powerful office in the world. Each is great at what they do, can think about 10 moves ahead, and generally know how to get shit done. Smart people doing smart things. Sounds like a recipe for success.
After season one ended with a delightfully '90s cliffhanger - shots ringing out as the president, his staff and his daughter left a town hall in Rosslyn, uncertainty about who had been hit - any lingering doubt I may have had that this show was anything but awesome melted away. I already knew it could be fun and fast-paced and a good way to spend 42 minutes, but that finale, by weaving the story of Toby's brother together with the crisis of the downed pilot all in a non-chronological storytelling structure, with the capping punch in the face of the white supremacists opening fire on the president proved to me that this show could take it to the next level.
The two-part premiere to season two only confirmed that belief. The drama of President Bartlet going under the gas was top-notch, only to be topped by Josh, probably my favorite character along with Sam, fighting for his life over the course of his 14-hour surgery. But my favorite parts were the flashbacks, all showing how the president's senior staff came to work for him during his presidential campaign. Like a great episode of Lost, it showed how each of these characters came to work for this president and thus found themselves in their various states of confusion, fear, anger and worry that night. The flashbacks, by showing them at a time when President Bartlet couldn't even remember their names, also nicely highlighted how close this group had become, making their concerns in that hospital waiting room seem all the more real.
The rest of the first half of season two was solid at times and superb at others, Josh's crisis with PTSD being a personal favorite. But once Toby shook Leo's hand to form the committee to reelect the president, everything kicked into a higher gear. The subsequent string of episodes each did a spectacular job of integrating the business of the White House into the personal lives of each of the senior staffers. Aside from the finale, my favorite of those was "Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail". It was "Big Block of Cheese Day" at the office again, and incidences of revealed truths turning people's worlds upside-down permeated the hour. The most compelling of those was Sam's discovery that his father had been keeping a mistress for the past 28 years. Sam is a man of tremendous character and integrity, and in this case, finding out that his father had been living a lie all these years was more than he could take. Most boys idolize their fathers growing up, but based on how much this whole situation threw him out of whack, it wouldn't be surprising if we eventually find out this was especially the case for Sam.
The theme of "Somebody's Going to Emergency" nicely foreshadowed the developments of the rest of the season where one hidden secret threatened to undermine not just the Bartlet Administration, but also the office of the presidency itself. In "17", Toby's obsessions with the political maneuvering of Vice President John Hoynes brings him to the brink of a game-changing secret that had until this point been hovering ominously in the background: President Bartlet's Multiple Sclerosis. And when Leo and the president finally tell him the truth, the shit starts hitting the fan. While Toby certainly feels great loyalty toward the president, he's also a strong believer in American ideals, a fierce partisan and naturally a political animal. He had every right to be disgusted that the president would keep such a secret from the American people during an election. It was perfectly understandable that he immediately started worrying about not only the next election, but the White House's upcoming policy agenda that he and the rest of the staff had worked so freaking hard to make happen. Everything about it offended him to his very core.
The President's response to Toby - basically that it was no big deal, some anger that his communications director wasn't more concern for his health - crystallized the arrogance of the Bartlet Administration for me more than any event before then. Sure, the president could have expected a little more compassion from Toby. But that he thought that he could keep such a monumental secret from his staff and the American people, and that such a serious ailment wouldn't have any effect on his ability to do his job, a belief that his collapse before his first State of the Union and the answers to the questions from his lawyer showed to be total fantasy, paints Jed as a man who thinks that the rules don't apply to him, that he has some extraordinary "it" factor that sets him apart from normal people. In some ways, yes, he is an extraordinary man. Sharp as a tack. Capable of making tough decisions. Always remaining compassionate. And often times, he and his administration get things done against seemingly insurmountable odds. But this lie took it a step too far. As president, he has a responsibility to be open and honest. This show demonstrates frequently how that is not always the case.
The last few episodes were a whirlwind with the scramble to manage the eventual reveal of the president's secret taking front and center. But the background stories were also strong, all of which tied into the impending scandal in interesting ways. The Justice Department's fight against the "fraud" perpetrated on the American public by the tobacco companies was a nice way for Josh to realize how voters might interprets the president's announcement. But it also reminded us that the White House often finds itself on the right sides of these fights. The situation with the President of Haiti not only magnified the stakes for a head of state, but also showed how some leaders are facing much bigger problems then merely having to tell the truth about a lie that, to this point, hadn't done any real damage. And Donna's preoccupation with a satellite falling from the sky was a nice metaphor for the imminent doom that was about to crash into the White House. The satellite was no real threat because they burn up in the Earth's atmosphere and disappear before anyone even knows about them. President Barlet probably won't be so lucky.
The finale, "Two Cathedrals", provided an excellent conclusion to a storyline that demanded one. The President Bartlet that we know isn't one to back down from a fight (not since Leo's kick in the pants in season one) and the flashbacks with Mrs. Landingham did a great job of supporting the president's eventual decision that he would still seek reelection. Still, the president and the first lady's secrecy did a lot to fracture the close-knit group we saw huddled in the hospital waiting room in the premiere. Even then, it took some time for the staff to get over the trauma of the assassination attempt. It will even more to earn that trust back and repair these (metaphorical) wounds this time.
