Doing a West Wing marathon at the mo...

[Candlelight]

Since catching a cold last Friday I have been stuck in front of the telly watching almost nothing but The West Wing. As I only managed to get up to part way through season three before TVNZ buried it after midnight it's a welcome return to see how it all ended.

Am currently just up to the part where Sam leaves and the momentum for Toby's babies is building.

 

[ancientone51]

Wish I could do that...nice cure.

 

[unimatrix7]

God I love that show.

 

[Harvey]

Great show. It stumbles in season five (which is part great, part not), after Aaron Sorkin leaves, but picks itself right up in seasons six and seven.

 

[CaptainCanada]

Season Five was definitely a rough transition, but the final two seasons picked up the ball and ran with it (certainly, I'd much rather watch them than Sorkin's insufferably smug Studio 60, which makes it appear he spent the entire time between Season Four and the new show's launch stewing in message board posts from people who beg him to return to WW and praise everything he does as genius).

 

[JonathonWally]

One of my favorite shows of all time, first season is still my favorite.


My favorite episodes, so the list isn't too long, "Celestial Navigation, Noel, Dead Irish Writers"

There are tons more, but those always ring out for me.

"Abigal, your breasts look magnificent!"

You can never go wrong with Marburry.

 

[Mike Okuda]

One of my favorite shows of all time!

 

[LeadHead]

The West Wing remains my favorite show, it was a family event to watch the show together Seasons 1-4, then that dropped off in season 5 because the quality dropped. Even though it recovered signifigantly in seasons 6 and 7, I always missed the great comedic writing within the dramatic stories.

 

[Roger Wilco]

I watched all of West Wing withing two weeks a couple months ago. It's a great show, but I think it loses some of it's appeal when watched in such a compressed way.

There were lots of things that bothered me (like the president's constant micro-managment for dramatic purposes, and Seaborn's abrupt departure which left me thinking I missed an episode or so until I looked it up on wikipedia ), but overall it's excellent.

 

[Angel4576]

I was actually gutted that they didn't continue with the West Wing:The Next Generation that they'd set up through the backend of Season 6 and all of Season 7.

Although I think in terms of consistency of quality the first three seasons are easily the best, one of my favourite parts of the entire series was the Santos Vs Vinnick campaign.

I think that season one is arguably one of THE great seasons of television.

I'll also add that despite liking Will, the show most definitely suffered when Rob Lowe left, and clearly suffered during the transition from Sorkin to Wells.

 

[KLOEN]

I found this really neat complete series box, so I just started out from season 1 and began to work my way through to the end. God it's a great show.
One scene in particualr always comes back to me, it's from the episode where Bartlett plays chess with Toby and Sam, and he tells Sam that one day Sam will run for president, and that he should have faith in himself and that Bartlett has faith in him.
When he leaves Sam remains, in a rare speechless moment, with tears in his eyes.
Great stuff.

 

[Angel4576]

My favourite scene is the one at the end of the season 2 finale, Two Cathedrals. The whole clip that plays to Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms is just fantastic. It's one of my favourite scenes from any TV show. Seeing Bartlett confidently striding through the halls of the White House after spending most of the episode coming across as a broken man resigned to his fate, and the snowball effect as one by one his staff all fall in behind him, absolutely brilliant. By the time he gets to the press conference we already know his answer.

Always narks me that at the beginning of 3x01, they recap the scene, but without the music, which completely negates the impact of the press conference scenes IMO.

Of course this is all after earlier calling God a 'feckless thug' in an earlier scene that's almost as good!

 

[Roger Wilco]

I loved the scene where Bartlet berated the right-wing radio host.

 

[BrotherBenny]

When the President stands...nobody sits! - President Josiah Bartlett

 

[Endymion]

I'm also in the middle of a West Wing marathon. Just finished season 6. Although there was a drop off in quality after Sorkin left, the show was still better than anything else on at the time, save maybe Deadwood or The Sopranos. One of my favorite lines from the series is when Josh is talking to the media consultants for the Santos campaign...

"This is probably the greatest assemblage of Democratic talent since the last time Jed Bartlet dined alone."

 

[ParticleMan]

"Pilgrim Detectives. By day they churn butter and worship according to their own beliefs and at night they solve crimes."

 

[sidious618]

The episode "Two Cathedrals" is one of the best episodes of television ever produced.

 

[DanCPA]

My favourite scene is the one at the end of the season 2 finale, Two Cathedrals. The whole clip that plays to Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms is just fantastic.

QFT!

For me, another powerful moment was the whole transition to the acting President of the United States. Such a shame they didn't bring Goodman back as the GOP candidate for POTUS. "Mister President, you're relieved"

 

[bigdaddy]

Yur in season 4 if Sam is leaving.

Season 5 and 6 and 7 are horrible, all of them. What John Wells did to the characters is terrible. Will works for the new VP after about 6 months of speech writing? CJ was sexually something from the old VP? CJ took Leno's job? Toby has a trader? Middle Eastern Peace in 5 episodes? It was just terrible.

 

[CaptainCanada]

CJ took Leno's job?

An unorthodox choice, but I can see her doing a good Top 10 list.