# I just binged The West Wing (all 7 seasons). **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 13, 2015, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-binged-the-west-wing-all-7-seasons/734586 "2015-10-13T23:47:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2015, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-binged-the-west-wing-all-7-seasons/734586/41 "2015-10-19T15:27:25Z")
> [@Honey](#): > > My favorite scene from the show is from the second season finale, called _Two Cathedrals_ > > After Mrs. Landingham dies and after her funeral, President Bartlett is in the National Cathedral, all alone. He curses god in Latin, and then lights a cigarette, and grinds it out on the floor with his foot. Tilting the camera up to use the ceiling as the eye of God was a very nice touch. ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2015, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-binged-the-west-wing-all-7-seasons/734586/42 "2015-10-19T17:00:37Z")
> [@up\_the\_junction](#): > > Tilting the camera up to use the ceiling as the eye of God was a very nice touch. It was a beautiful scene. WW at its best. ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2015, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-binged-the-west-wing-all-7-seasons/734586/43 "2015-10-19T17:19:11Z")
Just one other spectacular scene. If I wanted to convince someone watch this show, I would just have them watch this one scene. [The ignorant tight-ass club](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhGk6eF65Fo) From 2.3 - _The Midterms_ Perfection. I watched the show when it was first run, but just last year, I checked all of the DVD’s out of the library, and binge-watched the whole thing again. ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2015, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-binged-the-west-wing-all-7-seasons/734586/44 "2015-10-19T18:00:03Z")
I could never get into the show because I can’t stand the way Sorkin writes conversations. It seems like every conversation is an argument or an interrogation. Or worse, it’s an argument about whether they’re having an argument. For example, from the episode “Life on Mars” > [@](#): > > CHARLIE > Are you eating a salad? > > TOBY > Yeah. > > CHARLIE > Why? > > TOBY > 'Cause I am. > > CHARLIE > I don’t think I’ve ever seen you eat a salad. What kind of salad is it? > > TOBY > I don’t know. > > CHARLIE > Just mixed greens? > > TOBY > I don’t know what kind of salad it is. I’m eating a salad, okay? I’m doing it. Do I have to know the names? There’s no difference between them. It’s a bowl of weeds. Some of them have cheese. This isn’t the kind with cheese. Does that answer your question? How many years have you guys been “Toby, you eat like a teenager. Toby, that’s red meat. That’s your second cigar.” Here I am eating a salad, which by the way, you could cover this thing in barbecue sauce and it would still tastes like the ground, and I’m getting heckled from the gallery, who wanted to come in here to eat his roast beef sandwich with ketchup on a kaiser roll and watch the damn tennis on my TV! That’s all I’m saying. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-binged-the-west-wing-all-7-seasons/734586/45 "2015-10-20T00:01:10Z")
I liked the part of “Dead Irish Writers” where at Abigail’s big birthday celebration, in honor of Donna’s new nationality, Abby has the orchestra play “Oh Canada” and everyone sings along. Oh, and Jeb’s reaction. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-binged-the-west-wing-all-7-seasons/734586/46 "2015-10-20T00:24:49Z")
I’m a reasonably erudite political junkie. I lived in DC in the Clinton/Bush Jr. era, across the street from an NPR correspondent and around the corner from an embassy, a senator and an eventual mayor. My favorite scene was Ainslie Hayes, in a towel, dancing to “Blame It On the Bossa Nova.” I also liked CJ playing a deliberate prank on Matthew Perry’s character, resulting in a fired VP, John Goodman and a constitutional crisis of succession. ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-binged-the-west-wing-all-7-seasons/734586/47 "2015-10-20T00:32:53Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > The story is that the original plan was to have Arnie win the election, but after the death of John Spencer/Leo McGarry, they thought it would be too depressing. I heard the same thing, only with an extra layer. By the time they filmed the last episode, they knew they’d been cancelled. They’d intended to go another couple of seasons with Vinnik as POTUS. But given that there would be no more seasons, and that everyone was depressed by Spencer’s death, they decided to go out on (what was for the POV characters) a high note. I, too, loved the show. The plotting sometimes went down the wrong path, but you could always count on — as I said about _The Newsroom_ — smart people talking smart. Rare on TV (and … y’know … in life). ---
**Author:** ![Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uosdwis_R.Dewoh)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-binged-the-west-wing-all-7-seasons/734586/48 "2015-10-20T01:11:26Z")
> [@Honey](#): > > My favorite scene from the show is from the second season finale, called _Two Cathedrals_ > > After Mrs. Landingham dies and after her funeral, President Bartlett is in the National Cathedral, all alone. He curses god in Latin, and then lights a cigarette, and grinds it out on the floor with his foot. I like that scene, and Martin Sheen really nails it, but it always felt to me to be really self-centered by Bartlett. The whole speech is about how her death is god punishing him. Dude, you’re just the president of the United States. You’re not that important. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-binged-the-west-wing-all-7-seasons/734586/49 "2015-10-20T01:28:56Z")
> [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](#): > > I like that scene, and Martin Sheen really nails it, but it always felt to me to be really self-centered by Bartlett. The whole speech is about how her death is god punishing him. Dude, you’re just the president of the United States. You’re not that important. He had just listened to a sailor kid he was talking to die. He was really, really pissed off at G-d. ---
**Author:** ![Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uosdwis_R.Dewoh)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-binged-the-west-wing-all-7-seasons/734586/50 "2015-10-20T01:37:05Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > He had just listened to a sailor kid he was talking to die. He was really, really pissed off at G-d. Sure, I get that. Still made it all about him though. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-binged-the-west-wing-all-7-seasons/734586/51 "2015-10-20T09:16:47Z")
> [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](#): > > Sure, I get that. Still made it all about him though. Well, he was - as everyone was - preoccupied about whether to stand for reelection. As Bartlett says in anger at the end of that scene ‘You get Hoynes’. ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-binged-the-west-wing-all-7-seasons/734586/52 "2015-10-20T09:44:53Z")
> [@up\_the\_junction](#): > > Thinking about it from a writing pov it was all over by the second inauguration - in terms of dramatic structure that was the quest against all odds (Bartlett’s MS) the Famous Five/Magnificent Seven/whatever they were all engaged on. > > I guess what happened was Sorkin told the team he was leaving and they brought forward the reelection and gave the new writers a distinct arc as well as a cliffhanger (Zoey). > > All you could really do after that was introduce some fresh people, rinse and repeat - Hispanic replacing MS as the quest. I got the impression from the stories that Sorkin leaving was sudden, happened over the break between season 4 and season 5, so he had different plans for the cliffhanger (I do wonder what that would be). From his wikipedia entry: Sorkin never watched any episodes beyond his writing tenure apart from 60 seconds of the fifth season’s first episode, describing the experience as “like watching somebody make out with my girlfriend.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-binged-the-west-wing-all-7-seasons/734586.md?page=2)