The West Wing now on Netflix

[MacLeod]

I'm sure plenty of people would buy a blu-ray release of The West Wing.

[Jax]

MacLeod wrote:

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I'm sure plenty of people would buy a blu-ray release of The West Wing.

GOD YES I WOULD

[MacLeod]

As would I. And I suspect one of my friends would as she likes the show as well.

[shivkala]

TheGodBen wrote:

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Here you go.

That is awesome! Thanks! But, you left out Mrs. Landingham.

Leo pretty much runs the West Wing, he manages everything so that the President is freed up to focus on important policy decisions, and as such his job is arguably more demanding than the President's. Leo is also the only member of of the senior staff to be involved in military decisions and sits at the President's side in the Situation Room.

And, as seen in episode 3, he bitch slaps the President when needed.

Josh is Deputy Chief of Staff, which is a fancy title that doesn't seem to mean much. His main role is to direct political affairs, it's his job to push the President's agenda through congress and the various government departments.

That makes sense, and fits nicely with his introduction in the first episode, as well as his lack of a task in episode 3, seeing as how the President was exercising his powers as Commander in Chief, acting without Congress.

Toby is the Communications Director, so he orchestrates the President's message and decides how it's presented to the public, although he rarely deals with the press directly. He's also the President's main speech-writer. Sam is Toby's deputy, and he works with Toby on the speeches.

And directs White House Tours when Leo wants to mess with him, right?

CJ is the Press Secretary and it's indicated that she technically works under Toby, but in practice she does her own thing and reports directly to Leo.

And, given her frustration at the Sam/Cuddy situation, it seems Toby answers to her, at times!

Mandy's job is to annoy people while they're trying to do actual work. She answers to Josh and she answers to Toby.

So, to be clear, she answers to Josh and she answers to Toby, right? I talked to my sister today and she echoed the comments in this thread: no one likes Mandy and she's gone fairly quickly.

Donna is pretty much Josh's secretary. Her role in the first season is to not understand how the government works so that Josh can explain everything to the audience.

She also seems to excel at making Josh's life more difficult, under the guise of helping him.

Charlie is the lowest ranked of the main cast and has no official role in policy, but he works extremely closely with the President and has a desk right outside the Oval Office. His job is to be the token black guy.

I liked how they addressed and quickly brushed off the issue of race in terms of Charlie by making a big deal about it and being told by an Admiral it's not a big deal.

[TheGodBen]

lurok wrote:

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I've heard there's a doco special feature on (US?) boxed set which has interviews with real-life politicos, and some deleted scenes. I'd like to see those when finish S7. That debate episode was interesting

A lot of the special features are on Youtube, including the documentary special. Honestly, they're not great, but I'd still like to hear some of the commentaries.

bigdaddy wrote:

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The thing I really like is his plan had them being Christains and not Muslims. I'm being vague for the newbies. He would connect it more to the season 1 storyline.

Wow, I had no idea that was Sorkin's plan. That sounds so much more interesting than what we got. The first two episodes of season 5 are good for the most part, but the conclusion was rushed, poorly explained, and was just an excuse to rapidly return to the status quo. Revealing the kidnappers to be neo-nazis would have at least exposed the audience's biases in believing most terrorists to be Muslim.

shivkala wrote:

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That is awesome! Thanks! But, you left out Mrs. Landingham.

I left out a lot of minor characters, I included Donna because she joins the main cast in season 2, although you could probably have figured out her job on your own.

And directs White House Tours when Leo wants to mess with him, right?

He also gets Sam to write birthday ̶c̶a̶r̶d̶s̶ messages.

So, to be clear, she answers to Josh and she answers to Toby, right? I talked to my sister today and she echoed the comments in this thread: no one likes Mandy and she's gone fairly quickly.

Not quickly enough, sadly. Because Mandy has no real role on the show, most of her scenes are detours from the plot that exist purely to justify her being in the cast, and that makes an already annoying character super-annoying.

I liked how they addressed and quickly brushed off the issue of race in terms of Charlie by making a big deal about it and being told by an Admiral it's not a big deal.

They played it off as no big deal, but it kind of was a bit of a deal at the time. After casting the pilot, they found themselves in the uncomfortable position of having an all-white cast and they came under some criticism from the NAACP for it. That's why they cast black actors for Charlie and Admiral Fitzwallace.

[The Mirrorball Man]

TheGodBen wrote:

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After casting the pilot, they found themselves in the uncomfortable position of having an all-white cast and they came under some criticism from the NAACP for it. That's why they cast black actors for Charlie and Admiral Fitzwallace.

Which wouldn't have been a problem if Sidney Poitier had been Bartlett, as it was originally intended.

[CorporalClegg]

I started watching last night. I never owned the DVDs so this is a real treat.

I think my thoughts on the show can best be summed up with: Donna . It's not just that Moloney is gorgeous, there was just something I always found endearing about the character. I think I found her to be the move believable of the whole cast. And really, if it wasn't for her arc in the later seasons, I probably would have stopped watching.

On a side note, Whitford is one of the few celebs I can say I've met in my life time. He's just like Josh.

[Brolan]

CorporalClegg wrote:

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I started watching last night. I never owned the DVDs so this is a real treat.

I think my thoughts on the show can best be summed up with: Donna . It's not just that Moloney is gorgeous, there was just something I always found endearing about the character. I think I found her to be the move believable of the whole cast. And really, if it wasn't for her arc in the later seasons, I probably would have stopped watching.

On a side note, Whitford is one of the few celebs I can say I've met in my life time. He's just like Josh.

Yes, but can he crank out the one-liners like Josh?

[MacLeod]

Well Josh's mouth got him into trouble more than once. After all the pilot was about something Josh had said,

[CorporalClegg]

Brolan wrote:

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Yes, but can he crank out the one-liners like Josh?

He is pretty funny, but I was speaking more of how Josh playfully pontificates with a slight air of sanctimonious snobbery. Albeit Whitford isn't nearly as intense.

[The Mirrorball Man]

Has everyone seen this thing already?

[Phoenicianknight]

I love this ad!

I can see that she won, so hopefully we will more of the West Wing cast in her relections.

[MacLeod]

Yes, Someone posted it around the US presidential elections.

[jbohn]

bigdaddy wrote:

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The best thing they did was skip a year and go to the election. I wish they planned it better so the year didn't just disappear, but most people don't notice that.

Sorry, I watched the whole series when it was on the air and have all but the 7th season on DVD. When did they skip a year to go right into the election?

The first election happened before the first season. Bartlett's re-election happened in season 3. So you add 4 years for his second term which brings us to the 7th season.

[TheGodBen]

The Mirrorball Man wrote:

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Which wouldn't have been a problem if Sidney Poitier had been Bartlett, as it was originally intended.

But if it hadn't been for Martin Sheen's performance in the pilot, Bartlet may have been a bit character.

Brolan wrote:

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Yes, but can he crank out the one-liners like Josh?

Considering Josh was created with Whitford in mind for the role, I'd say there's a good chance.

jbohn wrote:

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Sorry, I watched the whole series when it was on the air and have all but the 7th season on DVD. When did they skip a year to go right into the election?

The first election happened before the first season. Bartlett's re-election happened in season 3. So you add 4 years for his second term which brings us to the 7th season.

Bartlet's re-election happened in the fourth season (Election Night) and it was stated quite clearly in the first season that he had been in office for less than a year.

The time jump both does and does not exist. Some time between the fifth and sixth seasons time jumps ahead one year to facilitate the planned election storyline, but there's no possible place in the show where a time jump would fit as the Gaza crisis clearly didn't last a whole year. Towards the end of the fifth season they are preparing for the 2004 midterm elections, yet at the start of the sixth season they are gearing up for the 2006 primaries. It's a massive plot hole, an entire year inexplicably disappeared, but since it prevented another rocky season like the fifth most fans just go along with it.