Must see West Wing episodes for a newbie
- Thread starter bigdaddy
- Start date
It's the only year where the wheels came off the wagon.Very very true. There were some great moments but all the fighting between the characters that John Wells added was a joke. I'm amazed Toby and Bartlet didn't have a fist fight in season 7. Wells probably thought of that and then realized the MS president probably shouldn't fight the jew! 
But there are some great moments even in the John Well years just some of the shit he added really took away from the show.
But there are some great moments even in the John Well years just some of the shit he added really took away from the show.
While season 5 is mostly a mess, there are still some gems, especially "The Supremes."
I definately have my suggestions and I will mention them but honestly watch the whole first season from beginning to end. There really aren't too many series that have a solid first but the West Wing really had a good start. You know what, I really can't make a short list of "must see" episodes so instead I'll just bold those I wasn't too keen on. I hadn't thought of the WW in a while even though I have the first four seasons on DVD and I didn't realize how much I enjoyed the first season so again tell your friend to watch all of them.
If he/she enjoys the first season then I would recomend Aaron Sorkins other series like Sports Night, Studio 60 and his movies "A Few Good Men" & "Charlie Wilsons War" He's an amazing writer, one of the few who's stuff I will watch with only knowing who wrote it.
Pilot
"Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc"
A Proportional Response
Five Votes Down
The Crackpots and These Women
Mr. Willis of Ohio
The State Dinner
Enemies
The Short List
In Excelsis Deo
Lord John Marbury
He Shall, From Time To Time...
Take Out The Trash Day
Take This Sabbath Day
Celestial Navigation
20 Hours in L.A.
The White House Pro-Am
Six Meetings Before Lunch
Let Bartlet Be Bartlet
Mandatory Minimums
Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics
What Kind of Day Has It Been
If he/she enjoys the first season then I would recomend Aaron Sorkins other series like Sports Night, Studio 60 and his movies "A Few Good Men" & "Charlie Wilsons War" He's an amazing writer, one of the few who's stuff I will watch with only knowing who wrote it.
Pilot
"Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc"
A Proportional Response
Five Votes Down
The Crackpots and These Women
Mr. Willis of Ohio
The State Dinner
Enemies
The Short List
In Excelsis Deo
Lord John Marbury
He Shall, From Time To Time...
Take Out The Trash Day
Take This Sabbath Day
Celestial Navigation
20 Hours in L.A.
The White House Pro-Am
Six Meetings Before Lunch
Let Bartlet Be Bartlet
Mandatory Minimums
Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics
What Kind of Day Has It Been
I would never ever let anyone watch Studio 60, that show is a horrible mess. You also forgot An American President, that movie is the reason we got The West Wing!
Minus 5 points off my Aaron Sorkin membership card for leaving out "The American President". It was late and it just slipped my mind, lol. I loved "Studio 60" and was sad to see it go and despite the complaints that the sketches were bad I need only point to SNL for bad sketches but I digress. Anyway rumor has it that Aaron Sorkin is working on a new untitled TV project. What ever it is I will watch, even if its about making keys I will be there from beginning to end. Oh and one finall thing, he's writing a new movie called "Money Ball"
The sketches were horrible, the show had poor storylines, the blonde bitch couldn't act, it was way too preachy for a show about SNL.
His next show will be a show about being behind the scenes at a... new show? Maybe a sitcom, or maybe it will be a begin the scenes look at The West Wing show.
But the sketches on Studio 60 were supposed to be good, as we were constantly told that Albie was a comedic genius.
Even beyond that, Studio 60 was just so noxiously self-satisfied I couldn't like it.
Regarding The West Wing, season 5 definitely had problems; given that they were trying to replace what had basically been a single authorial voice, it's not unexpected that they struggled with it. Seasons 6-7 really succeeded, though.
Eh, Sorkin would always discard his own continuity whenever he felt like it, so I'll give the other writers the same leeway.
Olmos apparently didn't enjoy his time on The West Wing, from what I understand, so a return appearance wasn't in the cards.
Sorkin writes everything by the seat of his pants, so everything from minor details to characters and their storylines just disappear if he gets bored with them; at his best, he's a wizard at making it all look seamless. On the demerit side, for example, there's the first episodes of season three make a big deal of setting up tension between the staff and Bruno's crew, but they and that plot just vanish two or three episodes later (Bruno alone briefly turns up again later).
More broadly, not mentioning Mendoza fits within a larger pattern that both Sorkin and his successors generally fell into: that the White House staff doesn't really succeed in altering the status quo much (there are some exceptions, generally foreign policy related, ie, the Israel-Palestine thing), so that subsequent episodes can translate stuff in from real life. That episode that revolves around the near-certainty that mad cow disease is coming to the US ends with it still a near-certainty, and it's never mentioned again. The closing episodes of season one make a huge push toward major campaign finance reform (soft money, in particular), but soft money never goes away.
Sorkin writes everything by the seat of his pants, so everything from minor details to characters and their storylines just disappear if he gets bored with them; at his best, he's a wizard at making it all look seamless. On the demerit side, for example, there's the first episodes of season three make a big deal of setting up tension between the staff and Bruno's crew, but they and that plot just vanish two or three episodes later (Bruno alone briefly turns up again later).
More broadly, not mentioning Mendoza fits within a larger pattern that both Sorkin and his successors generally fell into: that the White House staff doesn't really succeed in altering the status quo much (there are some exceptions, generally foreign policy related, ie, the Israel-Palestine thing), so that subsequent episodes can translate stuff in from real life. That episode that revolves around the near-certainty that mad cow disease is coming to the US ends with it still a near-certainty, and it's never mentioned again. The closing episodes of season one make a huge push toward major campaign finance reform (soft money, in particular), but soft money never goes away.
Glenn Close's performance definitely saves that episode but I'd say the only good season five episode is "Slow News Day". It was nice for Toby to have one last hurrah before John Wells assassinated him.
On a more frightening note, Josh has been abducted and replaced by a Mexican paedophile impostor: http://twitpic.com/xp41g
Oh dear. Yeah that doesn't really work for him
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