# Does anyone else HATE "The West Wing?" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 6, 2001, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-hate-the-west-wing/85742 "2001-10-06T04:04:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![lurkernomore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@lurkernomore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lurkernomore)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2001, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-hate-the-west-wing/85742/21 "2001-10-09T18:48:24Z")
Basically I like the show, but there is an ENORMOUS bias in the writing. It is well acted and the characters are good, but calling it The Left Wing is justified. IMHO it would be a better show if it wasn’t so slanted. ---
**Author:** ![Oblong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c0e974/32.png) [@Oblong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oblong)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2001, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-hate-the-west-wing/85742/22 "2001-10-09T19:03:47Z")
Do you think a Republican would ever take office on that show? It would go a long way in my mind. I am a conservative and rationize the show by saying “it’s a show about a President who happens to be liberal, so naturally those policies will be featured. It’s from the West Wing’s perspective”. ---
**Author:** ![Tygr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/df788c/32.png) [@Tygr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tygr)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2001, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-hate-the-west-wing/85742/23 "2001-10-09T19:25:09Z")
I watched the very first episode and found it exactly as **lurker** described. I realized afterwards that I had better ways of spending my Wednesday nights than arguing with my television. Trust a Hollywod leftist to over-simplify every single government policy. ---
**Author:** ![Alzarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@Alzarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alzarian)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2001, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-hate-the-west-wing/85742/24 "2001-10-09T21:58:09Z")
While I haven’t watched it religiously, I did catch the premiere last week, and it seems as if the President’s chief advisor is a racist bigot (the older guy interrogating the Arab-American, suspected of being a terrorist). ---
**Author:** ![Fortean\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6de8d8/32.png) [@Fortean\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fortean_Girl)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2001, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-hate-the-west-wing/85742/25 "2001-10-09T22:05:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rushtopher \* > \*\*HATE IT HATE IT HATE IT! > > I HATE Sorkin, is what I have decided, because I couldn’t stand Sports Night. Why? Becausepeopledon’ttalkthisfasttheyactuallyhavetothinkaboutwhattheyaregoingtosayespeciallyifitisreallyimportantorincrediblyclever. If people ever talked that way in real life you would smack them. I never could stand that, then I found out Sorkin had a coke problem, and it made sense :). > > \*\* I remember an episode of FAMILY GUY where two teenagers are tripping on acid, and one says to the other, “Dude, I finally understand SPORTS NIGHT, now. It’s so good, it doesn’t HAVE to be funny.” ---
**Author:** ![Eternal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@Eternal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eternal)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2001, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-hate-the-west-wing/85742/26 "2001-10-09T22:30:18Z")
I don’t have anything to add that the other West Wing haters haven’t said. I’ll just say it’s dangerous to give people the impression that runnign the government can be done as easily as governing by principle. ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2001, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-hate-the-west-wing/85742/27 "2001-10-09T23:12:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jwg \* > \*\*I hate the Left Wing. My wife, who by definition, has The Big Guy understands Latin better than English? Why not Aramaic or Hebrew maybe? Did the president feel that by using Latin he could add emphasis to the point he was making to the omniscient being? \*\* Heh. An excellent point. ---
**Author:** ![Gadarene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2001, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-hate-the-west-wing/85742/28 "2001-10-09T23:18:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jwg \* > And remember when the President was mad at god and spoke to him in Latin? Boy, was he educated and erudite and smart or what? How about deranged? The Big Guy understands Latin better than English? Why not Aramaic or Hebrew maybe? Did the president feel that by using Latin he could add emphasis to the point he was making to the omniscient being? Um, I think it may have been his Roman Catholic upbringing. Just a thought, though; don’t let it get in the way of a good case of bile. ---
**Author:** ![HelloKitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecccb3/32.png) [@HelloKitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelloKitty)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2001, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-hate-the-west-wing/85742/29 "2001-10-10T00:58:10Z")
LOVE the West Wing, however did not enjoy the classroom lesson on terrorists and why we are the good guys and they are the bad guys that was presented last week. Now THAT insulted my intelligence and nearly destroyed the credibilty of the rest of the cast. But I can let it slide. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by watsonwil \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by jwg \* > > \*\*I hate the Left Wing. My wife, who by definition, has The Big Guy understands Latin better than English? Why not Aramaic or Hebrew maybe? Did the president feel that by using Latin he could add emphasis to the point he was making to the omniscient being? \*\* > > Heh. An excellent point. \*\* Pres. Bartlett was raised as a devout Catholic and nearly went into the priesthood, so this made perfect sense for the character and situation. Catholic masses were said in Latin until the early '70’s, so he “talked to God” in Latin many times, presumably. He DID feel that by using Latin he could emphasize the point he was making! I can understand why someone that is not a regular viewer would find this over the top, however…it’s not every day you see a prime time TV character speaking Latin. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2001, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-hate-the-west-wing/85742/30 "2001-10-10T01:33:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Alzarian \* > \*\*While I haven’t watched it religiously, I did catch the premiere last week, and it seems as if the President’s chief advisor is a racist bigot (the older guy interrogating the Arab-American, suspected of being a terrorist). \*\* To be fair to the character of Leo, they did mention before the show that that episode stands alone, so any character development done in that episode may or may not carry over. ---
**Author:** ![bagkitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ab992/32.png) [@bagkitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bagkitty)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2001, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-hate-the-west-wing/85742/31 "2001-10-10T02:12:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jack Batty \* > **When I first saw the show, I was a litle irritated by the tempo of the dialog. Everything is so staccato, so clipped, and --I don’t know – artificial. Nobody ever pauses to think, they just always have the perfect thing to say right out of nowhere.** JB… have you ever watched Buffy The Vampire Slayer… if so, you may have noticed that they deliver their dialogue to the same metronome… ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2001, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-hate-the-west-wing/85742/32 "2001-10-10T06:15:52Z")
I think **astro** has the show pegged perfectly. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2001, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-hate-the-west-wing/85742/33 "2001-10-10T06:40:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bagkitty \* > \*\* > JB… have you ever watched Buffy The Vampire Slayer… if so, you may have noticed that they deliver their dialogue to the same metronome… \*\* I’ve never seen a second of _Buffy …_, but I do like to look at the ads (Sara Michelle Somethingorother, right?) But I think **Munch** kind of missed my point with his earlier response to me … > [@](#): > > \*\*…for the life of me, I can’t figure out why more people aren’t watching C-SPAN. I mean, it’s realistic, people take forever to make decisions and have conversations, valid points are made at the rate of about one per week, and, best of all, it’s on 24 hours a day! > \*\* I wouldn’t expect an hour long show of um’s and er’s and confusion; it just occured to me that everybody is _too_ perfect. Snappy comeback? Not a problem. Obscure fact? Got it right here. Display of fortitude? Won’t even waste a beat. Like I said, I now dig how it’s an artistic liscense that moves the show, but it is very robotic sounding dialog. Except, of course, how every fifth word is “okay”. That still irks me. ---
**Author:** ![lurkernomore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@lurkernomore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lurkernomore)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2001, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-hate-the-west-wing/85742/34 "2001-10-10T11:53:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by HelloKitty \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by watsonwil \* > > \*\* > > > > > [@](#): > > > > > > \*Originally posted by jwg \* > > > \*\*I hate the Left Wing. My wife, who by definition, has The Big Guy understands Latin better than English? Why not Aramaic or Hebrew maybe? Did the president feel that by using Latin he could add emphasis to the point he was making to the omniscient being? \*\* > > > > Heh. An excellent point. \*\* > > Pres. Bartlett was raised as a devout Catholic and nearly went into the priesthood, so this made perfect sense for the character and situation. Catholic masses were said in Latin until the early '70’s, so he “talked to God” in Latin many times, presumably. \*\* I think most places switched over to the vernacular in the early 60s. I do not remember any Latin masses, and I’m 42, so in NYC at least we had changed by 1965. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2001, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-hate-the-west-wing/85742/35 "2001-10-10T13:04:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Town Drunk \* > \*\*I still haven’t decided if I hate it more than THE PRACTICE, though. WEST WING is inherently more annoying, but THE PRACTICE has so many punchable characters. > \*\* I’m not as fussy about The West Wing as most - it’s pretty much a commercial for The Dream Democratic White House, Or What We Think Camelot Might Have Been Like - but to compare it to “The Practice” is insulting. “The Practice” is a staggeringly bad show. I can’t believe it hasn’t been laughed off TV. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2001, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-hate-the-west-wing/85742/36 "2001-10-10T14:46:49Z")
> [@](#): > > Why not Aramaic or Hebrew maybe? Did the president feel that by using Latin he could add emphasis to the point he was making to the omniscient being? Aside from the points already made about his Catholic upbringing and near-entry into the priesthood, keep in mind that President Bartlett is a serious geek when it comes to classical language. In one episode, someone gave him a gift of a copy of the US Constitution translated into Latin. In another, he went Christmas shopping in an antique bookstore and was drooling over classical literature (to everyone’s exasperation). I thought it was perfectly within character for him to start ranting away at God in Latin. Dr. J [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-hate-the-west-wing/85742.md?page=1)