WEST WING - the best season?
SFTV_troy
In my opinion the best seasons were written by Aaron Sorkin - i.e.
seaons 1, 2, 3. And of those, season three was the best because it
dealt with not just issues, but also the president's lying about his
MS, his state of the union address, the Qumar problems, and the ramp-
up to the campaign (but not the actual campaign which I thought was
dull).
mag3
Season Two for me. I much prefered the tensions in re: the "anticipation"
of announcing the MS, rather than the aftermath of it. The last two epsidoes
are the best of that season. I especially liked how they handled Ms. Landingham's
death (although I truly wish they hadn't killed her off), and the ramp up to the
motorcade to the last news conference a la "Dire Straights." I mean, where else
could you have a sitting US President enter the National Cathedral, and have a
"cat fight" with God in His own house, in His own language?
In general, I also prefer the Aaron Sorkin era over at the WW, but honorable
mention to some of the decent eps. from season's 5 & 6 including:
1) Han - (with the North Korean Piano player that wanted to defect);
2) Shutdown - (when the President walked up to congress to negotiate);
3) AnKhe - Where Leo learns his friend who saved him in Vietnam isn't as
honorable as he thought.... Great use of Crosby/Nash....
4) Gaza - For Self Explanatory reasons
5) The Birnam Wood/Third Day Story - When Leo has the Heart attack..
How very tragic that "life imitated art" a year later......
Just out of curiosity, would anyone find value in a "West Wing Movie..." where we find out
what's happened to the characters since then and, perhaps, deal with things we could not
see on television, or, how they deal with the "death of Pres. Bartlett, etc."? It would, of
course, require all the principal cast members to be able to return to their roles (except
John Spencer)....
____________________________________________
Regards,
Arnold
SFTV_troy
Okay. None of them were good. Message received. ;-) Well I still
enjoyed season 3 which is why I got it on DVD.
wildfyre
"SFTV_troy" <SFTV...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1e75f6af-0bc9-4151...@d34g2000vbm.googlegroups.com...
> >>>> (silence)
>
> Okay. None of them were good. Message received. ;-) Well I still
> enjoyed season 3 which is why I got it on DVD.
Personally, I liked S2 for the storylines they covered. I still watch the
whole series front to back, but it's S2 that holds my attention the most.
=wf=
Anne
Didn't Sorkin write season 4 also (the season where Rob Lowe departed) ?
It's a tough call, but I think I liked season 2 best. People had settled
into their characters, and there was some especially great writing. The
season premiere (2 parter) with the flashbacks on how they all met and won
the campaign, and the aftermath of the shooting I could watch again and
again. Then the show with Josh dealing with the PTSD (Noel ?) also a
standout. I am sure there are more great ones, but that is what pops into
my mind all these years later, without even looking. I don't recall if it
was season 2, but the one after they killed off Mrs. Landingham, and
Bartlett gave his speech in Latin to God at the church was also great.
Dawnie
wrote:
>"SFTV_troy" <SFTV...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>> >>>> (silence)
The silence could be explained by some of us having SFTV_troy and his
incarnations killfiled.
>Personally, I liked S2 for the storylines they covered. I still watch the
>whole series front to back, but it's S2 that holds my attention the most.
S2 for me, too. I'd say S1, but it had Mandy!
Dawnie
wrote:
>In general, I also prefer the Aaron Sorkin era over at the WW, but honorable
>mention to some of the decent eps. from season's 5 & 6 including:
>
> 1) Han - (with the North Korean Piano player that wanted to defect);
>
> 2) Shutdown - (when the President walked up to congress to negotiate);
>
> 3) AnKhe - Where Leo learns his friend who saved him in Vietnam isn't as
> honorable as he thought.... Great use of Crosby/Nash....
>
> 4) Gaza - For Self Explanatory reasons
>
> 5) The Birnam Wood/Third Day Story - When Leo has the Heart attack..
> How very tragic that "life imitated art" a year later......
The one I remember best from the later seasons was "The Supremes",
which was great fun. There was another one whose name escapes me at
the moment, it had Josh giving Santos a really good speech about
running for President.
Brian Thorn
<SFTV...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>Which season of the West Wing do you think was the best?
Season 2, by a wide margin, with the superb "In the Shadow of Two
Gunmen" season opener, and excellent episodes like "Shibboleth",
"Galileo", "Somebody's Going To Emergecy..", "The Stackhouse
Filibuster" and the stunning conclusion of "18th and Potomac".
This might have been the best season of any TV drama, ever.
Brian
Sanders Kaufman
news:8q67m.1220$N5....@nwrddc01.gnilink.net...
> It's a tough call, but I think I liked season 2 best. People had settled
> into their characters, and there was some especially great writing. The
> season premiere (2 parter) with the flashbacks on how they all met and won
> the campaign, and the aftermath of the shooting I could watch again and
> again. Then the show with Josh dealing with the PTSD (Noel ?) also a
> standout. I am sure there are more great ones, but that is what pops into
> my mind all these years later, without even looking. I don't recall if it
> was season 2, but the one after they killed off Mrs. Landingham, and
> Bartlett gave his speech in Latin to God at the church was also great.
Those were great *episodes*, but I think the best season was the last -
because it had Alan Alda playing the part of a moderate Republican.
It was very prophetic, representing *exactly* what moderate Republicans are
going through today.
Here he was, trying to be rational; to say rational things; to propose
rational ideas - but his fellow Republicans on the far right (evangelicals,
gun-nuts and racists) undermined his campaign.
As a result, he lost the presidency to a Mexican and a dead guy.
Brett A. Pasternack
You haven't even mentioned my favorite from the season, In This White
House.
There are things I like more about Season 1 (it's the most upbeat and
optimistic season) and things I like more about Season 2 (as Dawnie
says, there's no Mandy, for one thing). I suppose I'd come down for S2
but it's pretty close. They're both pretty marvelous.
Brian Thorn
<bret...@gmail.com> wrote:
>There are things I like more about Season 1 (it's the most upbeat and
>optimistic season) and things I like more about Season 2 (as Dawnie
>says, there's no Mandy, for one thing). I suppose I'd come down for S2
>but it's pretty close. They're both pretty marvelous.
The stories in S1 are equally good (well, close...) but Mandy is such
a freakin' annoying character, I just think the show improved a lot
when she departed.
Brian
mag3
In what ways was she annoying? Maybe I wasn't as sensitive to her personality,
but she was sufficiently annoying to get herself canned. She didn't bother me
much at all. I had thought it might have been that she didn't fit the group dynamic
all that well (eg. the "volley back and forth" with each other)....
But yes, S1 had some very decent episodes including:
1) A Proportional Response - (Charlie's debut);
2) The Crackpots and these Women (Zoe's debut);
3) Take out the Trash Day
4) Take This Sabbath Day (Joey Lucus' debut)
5) Let Bartlet Be Bartlet
6) What Kind of Day Has it Been?
Still, S2 Much better.
____________________________________________
Regards,
Arnold
Mills
My favorite episode is the one where Josh has to tell the girl wearing
the Star Trek pin to remove it & then makes fun of all the people who
can't just enjoy a TV show, but have to get together to make lists of
their favorite episodes, least-favorite episodes, etc, etc.
SFTV_troy
>
> My favorite episode is where Josh makes fun of all the people who
> can't just enjoy a TV show, but have to get together to make lists of
> their favorite episodes, least-favorite episodes, etc, etc.
We're not discussing sports fans and their numerous lists of
statistics. Please stay on topic. ;-) But seriously why is it that
enjoying a show & discussing its good or bad parts is considered
"nerdy" but fans of sports teams that can spout off stat-after-stat
are consider "normal". It seems like two identical personalities to
me - only the subject has changed.
Sanders Kaufman
> But seriously why is it that
> enjoying a show & discussing its good or bad parts is considered
> "nerdy" but fans of sports teams that can spout off stat-after-stat
> are consider "normal". It seems like two identical personalities to
> me - only the subject has changed.
The difference is whether you see yourself in competition with your fellows,
or in association with them.
Militants tend towards sports because they feel the only way to do well is
to do beat someone.
Healthy minds tend toward more mutually beneficial pursuits in which
*everybody* wins.
SFTV_troy
> "SFTV_troy" <SFTV_t...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>
>
>
> > But seriously why is it that
> > enjoying a show & discussing its good or bad parts is considered
> > "nerdy" but fans of sports teams that can spout off stat-after-stat
> > are consider "normal". It seems like two identical personalities to
> > me - only the subject has changed.
>
> The difference is whether you see yourself in competition with your fellows,
> or in association with them.
> Militants tend towards sports because they feel the only way to do well is
> to do beat someone.
> Healthy minds tend toward more mutually beneficial pursuits in which
> *everybody* wins.
Ahhh so being competitive over different teams makes you "cool" and
being cooperative in liking the same show makes you a "geek" and
uncool. Interesting theory.
Sanders Kaufman
I wasn't addressing the "cool" issue.
If that's what you're after, try a handful of grease in your hair, a poodle
skirt, or a shark-skin suit.
That'll make you a hep cat fer sure.
SFTV_troy
> "SFTV_troy" <SFTV_t...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
It's a shame. You had my attention with a polite, well-thought
theory, and then you lost it by insulting my choice of the word
"cool".
Foolish.
Micky DuPree
: My favorite episode is the one where Josh has to tell the girl wearing
: the Star Trek pin to remove it & then makes fun of all the people who
: can't just enjoy a TV show, but have to get together to make lists of
: their favorite episodes, least-favorite episodes, etc, etc.
It came off as petty of Sorkin, as getting back at the people he himself
had had a run-in with online, but by using fans of a more famous TV
series as a stand-in. Seriously, he has a bully pulpit from which to
comment on genocide, war, hate, hunger, and disease, and he takes time
out to lecture harmless Trekkies on behavior? *Trekkies*? Like
they're some kind of threat to civil society? It was like stooping to
the level of high school and picking on nerds who haven't hurt anyone.
Far funnier was the earlier episode where Josh went online for the first
time and encountered his fans. Both Josh and the fans came off badly in
that one, as they should have: the fans for being annoying, and Josh for
crazily rolling around in the mud with them in the first place and being
unable to walk away from it. At least Sorkin had a sense of humor about
his own online involvement in that episode.
Back to the question: the best overall season was the second, but my
favorite single episode was "Bartlet for America" in the third, where
Leo gives the best, most heartfelt description of addiction I've ever
heard, and the upstanding Republican counsel tells the witch-hunting
congressman that he's going to be waiting in the tall grass for him.
-Micky
Wiseguy
news:vldq55h03s4emfal8...@4ax.com:
I was in Big Lots the other week and saw that they must have received a
shipment of WB DVD sets. They had the West Wing second season for $6.
Got two. One for me one and for a Christmas present.
Brett A. Pasternack
> I was in Big Lots the other week and saw that they must have received a
> shipment of WB DVD sets. They had the West Wing second season for $6.
>
> Got two. One for me one and for a Christmas present.
Wow. Great deal.