For the last several years, I have been going back and watching television series that I missed when they were originally aired. I only start watching a show if I am willing to commit to watching the entire series, so I look for highly rated shows or ones that won multiple awards.
I am ready to start on a new series and I’m seriously thinking it should be ‘The West Wing’?!?
What do you guys think?
My boss and his wife have watched every series of The West Wing so often that I mock them about it. I was telling my son the story of their love of the show and he said a friend had been offering him all the series on DVD. So he decided, with this confirmation of his mate’s opinion, he would give it a go.
Since he started watching it is the only thing he watches on TV. All the shows he normally watches are being saved away waiting until he completes The West Wing. So I guess I’ll try it soon.
Just a quick glance at the casting pretty much guarantees that it will excellent-
Martin Sheen
Stockard Channing
Rob Lowe
Allison Janney
It’s one of those shows that makes me wonder how in the hell I missed it when it was originally on the air???
Last fall we started re-watching it on Netflix streaming. We’re most of the way through season 2 now and nearly every episode I’m reminded why I thought, the first time around, it was the best show on television. It still holds up.
The later seasons decline a bit, and there are a few episodes toward the end that were real stinkers, but the early seasons in particular are fantastic.
I watched the whole series on DVD several years ago, and recently started watching it again at a leisurely pace through Netflix streaming. It really is a great show, especially the first four seasons - and then even after that, the comparably mediocre seasons are still pretty good compared to most other shows.
Watched every episode on Netflix streaming over the last couple of months. Really loved the series up until the last two seasons which tapered off for me. Rob Lowe was a highlight for me but when he left I felt the show went downhill.
Still worth watching, best political drama series I have seen.
Agreed. It’s mostly wonderful, and when it’s not, it’s still really really good.
I watched the whole series about 6 months ago, having never seen an episode before. The first four seasons are fantastic, season 5 is a dog, and while the following seasons improve, they don’t get as good as the first 4 seasons again. I highly recommend it. You should probably stop at the end of season 4, but you won’t. I didn’t. Even though it wasn’t as good after that, you still get time with many of the same actors, and it ends on a good note that gives you a decent goodbye to the characters you love.
I’ve watched the whole series several times, and don’t really get why the latter seasons are so poorly thought of. I really enjoyed the Alan Alda versus Jimmy Smits Presidential campaign.
Watched the whole thing over three weeks - finishing this last weekend.
The first three seasons are some of the best TV ever. The last four seasons still manage to beat the pants off of most television.
I wouldn’t stop - finish it. The first time I stopped because I didn’t want it to stop being wonderful, but at its worst, its still pretty darn good.
I just started it - I decided to watch along with Mark Watches (actually for this and Friday Night Lights, which I also haven’t seen). I’m only 3 episodes in, but looking forward to it the entire watching of it.
I like the show as well, but I wonder what conservatives think of it. The Bartlett administration is sort of a liberal fantasy.
Thanks for the recommendations. We’ve run down pretty much all the quality dramas on disc, except for those we’ve rejected for considered reasons, and WW was in the “dunno” category. We’ll give at least the first four seasons a shot.
As fantabulous as it was and is to current fans, has it dated badly? As new viewers, will it seem out of step with reality?
It’s already out of step with reality because the timeline is severely messed up. (Bartlett is elected in 1998 and 2002, with the series beginning in the middle of 1999 or so (but it’s never entirely clear.))
So think of it as a political drama in a parallel universe and it’s fine.
Right, I’m aware that we didn’t elect Martin Sheen either time. I just wondered if the underlying story lines “float freely” enough from reality to not be distractingly anchored in past events.
They do. Most of the show deals with the president’s political staff (rather than his national security staff), which means that 95% of the issues they deal with are domestic issues. That means that unless you’re deeply invested in Congress budget debates from 1999-2006, the stuff they talk about seems more or less plausible.
They call it, The Left Wing. 
I detest MASH, I thought he was just a smart ass, but Alda was great in TWW.
One of my favorite shows ever. Seasons 1-4 were fantastic. Seasons 5-6 were kinda slow. It picked up again in Season 7. It had already been announced that Season 7 would be the last but I was hoping it would continue. I was especially hoping that Vinnick would have been elected. I liked Santos and all, but Vinnick was better.
Spoiler for season 7 election results:
Sorkin has said that originally Vinnick was going to win the election, but after John Spencer died that just seemed cruel.