Does West Wing Get Good Again After Season 5?

I started watching The West Fly as function of a trade. I agreed to sentinel the bear witness, one of my wife's favorites, as long as we would alternate with episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, 1 of mine. And while the pairing seems odd on the surface, the shows have a surprising amount in common. Both center around a clear leader, supported by a core of his almost trusted advisors, each with their own relevant backgrounds and specialized roles. In both series, a typical episode features the team facing what amounts to a crunch of the week, buoyed past loose arcs and character development, using these stories to comment on politics and society.

I grew to truly enjoy The West Wing, but information technology also striking some of the same speed bumps that its space-bound counterpart did. While I suspect that I will ever exist more partial to Star Trek: The Next Generation, equally it'due south buoyed by the affection and nostalgia of youth, the show is not beyond criticism. One of the serial's most glaring flaws was mandated by the male parent of Star Trek himself, Gene Roddenberry. In Next Generation's early years, Roddenberry forbid the bear witness'south writers from having the principal characters meaningfully disagree or genuinely debate with each other. Sure, there could be the occasional spirited debate, but it was all conducted with an undercurrent of collegiality and mutual respect. All real conflicts and threats were required to exist external. That dictate was part of Roddenberry's key vision for his "carriage train to the stars" universe. He wanted to nowadays an optimistic view of the hereafter, where mankind had evolved beyond such trivialities as money or prejudice or petty disagreements.

And then, Gene Roddenberry passed away, and the rules that he had laid down began to exist relaxed. The bridge officers of the UsS. Enterprise, while all the same cordial, began to butt heads from time to fourth dimension and have legitimate issues with 1 some other. The subsequent serial in the Star Expedition franchise, Deep Space Nine, went fifty-fifty further, with internal conflicts providing a more than pronounced basis for the show's storylines.{{one}} The upshot was deeper, richer shows that congenital on the character piece of work and world building done previously, and which immune the shows' creators to tell more than compelling and personal stories in a fantastic setting.

Like Star Expedition: The Next Generation, The West Wing explores a globe that is still adequately fantastical to most of us, and it presents an inherently optimistic accept on conviction, determination-making, and how good governance and stiff leadership can make the earth a better identify. And similar its intergalactic predecessor, The W Wing depicts a group of decision-makers who are all largely on the same page. The senior White House officials who circumnavigate the Oval Office in The W Fly certainly jaw at each other from fourth dimension to time; they even have friendly jousting sessions over opposing views that are expressed with varying degrees of good-natured ribbing and ambrosial grumpiness. But at base of operations, no affair the course plotted or the advice accepted or rejected, the Bartlet White House would remain ane big happy family.

And yet, in the shadow of the departure of The West Wing's own visionary, Aaron Sorkin, his replacement, John Wells, turned that status quo on its ear in the prove's fifth season.

Gray skies are gonna clear upwardly...

Friendly Burn down

The infighting the testify depicted among the senior staff, the characters the show'southward fans had come to know and love over four seasons, was so jarring and off-putting that it soured many on Season 5 of The West Fly, and I can understand why. For a adept portion of the show's 5th season, all these usually friendly faces were just then miserable with each other. President Bartlet keeps having arguments with C.J.  Leo is upset with Josh. Josh mistrusts Toby. Abbey Bartlet is mad at the President. Toby's mad at Will Bailey. Leo seems mad at pretty much everyone there for a while. Everybody is just angry.

That level of discord in a previously harmonious show is a lot to take in all at once. But that shift was reinvigorating for the series as a whole and, frankly, long overdue. I'm no stranger to defending controversial seasons of television shows where fans are put off by the primary characters turning on each other. But I liked the shift. I liked the realism of it. I liked the characters crashing into each other in tension-filled moments rather than but bouncing off harmlessly. I liked the genuine interpersonal tension that went beyond accusations of "Uncle Fluffy." I liked these men and women of principle taking principled stands against each other and walking abroad a chip shaken from the experience.

And I loved when they were immune to stumble in the process. I love C.J. going likewise far in a press briefing and having to issue an amends under her own name. I dearest Josh'south blowhard getting him "taken out to the woodshed" and nearly superseded past a newcomer, only able to pull his atomic number 26 out of the fire at the concluding infinitesimal. I love Toby being Toby, laying himself out for an issue like social security that he truly believes in, and having it come up this close to bravado up in his confront because he tried to take on likewise much on his own.

These stumbles were not arbitrary or motivated by factors beyond the characters' control.{{2}} They were motivated by who the characters are. C.J. is sharp and opinionated. Josh thinks he can maneuver his way out of annihilation. Toby believes in the purity and truth of his convictions. And each of these things, noble though they might exist, gets them into trouble. The problems come up from something internal, not external, and I cannot tell you how refreshing that is for this testify.{{3}}

Why practise these stumbles and disagreements matter? Well, for 1 thing they're more realistic. Fifty-fifty best friends detect themselves at odds from time to time, especially those who have to face crunch later on crisis in a pressure-cooker of a working surround. But realism is not a virtue in and of itself, and a show like Parks and Recreation, which offers a comedic but often no less trenchant view of governance at the local level, has shown that a television prove, albeit a comedy, can tackle these problems with a sense of community rather than antagonism among its principals.{{4}}

But fifty-fifty if realism is not an inherent virtue, internal conflict and the concomitant setbacks and bits of personal growth that event are an interesting avenue of storytelling and character development that were simply lightly explored under Sorkin'due south reign. Infighting in the Oval Part may not exist as much fun or as heartwarming equally our beloved champions humming along in perfect harmony, just setting these well-developed characters in real, meaningful opposition to each other proved powerful. In replacement showrunner John Wells's efforts to both acquit the torch of his predecessor and chart new territory, that kind of internal tension proved fertile, unspoiled basis in which to outset sowing seeds.

President Snow prepares to address Panem.

Dissenting Views

That's not to say there was nothing missing from the show in Aaron Sorkin's absence. While his departure took away some of the Hollywood gloss that smoothed over the rougher edges of party politics, it also took away much of the trademark spark that he added to the testify'south dialogue. Sorkin's style is hands and often mocked past imitation, but the rhythms that he imbues into his characters' colloquies are undeniably compelling, and while the show equally a whole may proceed, individual scenes are bottom for the absence of his ability to arts and crafts cinema-quality dialogue.

Merely and then again, it's worth thinking most who has the chance to speak in the postal service-Sorkin era of the show. I defenseless enough of flak from my married woman in response to my disdain for the early seasons' incarnation of fan favorite Donna Moss, who seemed to be only to ask questions that are a slight exaggeration past, "But Josh, what if people similar being bombed?" At which point, someone smarter and wiser could cure her, and the audience, of such wrongheaded naivete. Just in Season 5, Donna is portrayed as competent, wise in the ways of the levers and pulleys of the administration, and capable of far more the purview in which she'south boxed in by her dominate.{{5}}

Beyond Donna, Angela Blake presents a credible alternative to Josh Lyman, and sees the value of measured capitulation over stubbornly barreling forrard.{{half-dozen}} C.J. Cregg seems more than apt to speak her mind to both Leo and the President. And Lily Tomlin's portrayal of the President'due south secretarial assistant, Deborah Fiderer, is as irascible as ever.{{vii}} There's more forcefulness coming from the female members of the White Business firm in the series's fifth season than all the impromptu ladies-but cocktail parties and declarations of "these women" the show could muster in the preceding four.

Flavour 5 likewise introduces new Vice President "Bingo" Bob Russell, another outsider who the Bartlet diehards experience is not serious enough and non principled enough to be a office of their assistants, merely rather someone whose only virtue is being just bland enough to be palatable to the opposition. Yet, instead of being an inert figurehead that Toby and Leo tin compartmentalize, Russell proves valuable in figuring out a tense nuclear state of affairs, offers an outsider's perspective to the otherwise monolithic Bartlet braintrust, and stirs up enough problem to be both challenging and interesting.{{8}}

Naturally, when I heard they were bringing in John Goodman, I assumed he was going to play Linda Tripp.

Even more impressively for The Due west Wing, Season v includes a legitimate conservative opposition that is framed as a worthy, non entirely unreasonable set of adversaries, a facet of the show that was sorely lacking in the early seasons beyond an all-too-fleeting run by Ainsley Hayes and a brief story centered on a Log Cabin Republican.

Instead of a "Crime…boy, I don't know" George W. Bush-league straw human for President Bartlet to pontificate to, the show has John Goodman's turn as emergency President Glen Walken, who makes an impression that transcends mere extravaganza. Walken is framed at the finish of Season 4 as a potential bully ready to bulldoze all that Bartlet's team has accomplished.

But instead of taking that leftover bait, Wells and his colleagues humanized the temporary president in his chat with a visibly uneasy Deborah Fiderer, and he returned in "The Stormy Present" as the bourgeois voice on 1 side of Bartlet juxtaposed with James Cromwell'south liberal voice on the other. Walken is not treated as some abstract and largely unseen forcefulness for devastation, only rather a dissenting voice of alien principle, just every bit firmly felt. Even Haffley, the clearest Republican villain of the first half of Season 5 is not treated as simply an obstacle that the administration needs to will itself past, but rather a formidable opponent who has the upper hand on the President for quite a while.{{9}}

The same is true for Matthew Perry's Joe Quincy, who accedes to Toby's wishes to talk the Chief Justice of the Supreme Courtroom into retiring, but not before defending the importance of separation of powers and casting legitimate doubt on the propriety of the Bartlet administration's overtures to the Court. That principle is reinforced in the season's second Supreme Court-focused episode, which shines a spotlight on a principled liberal Supreme Court nominee that the staff is enamored with, every bit well as a strident conservative nominee that prompts the President to blare out a virulent "Nooooo!" through the halls of the White House. That episode, "The Supremes", ultimately stands for the thought of virtue in a balanced, full-throated fence with strong advocates for both sides of the political divide represented, a fairly novel message for a bear witness that can be unyielding in its perspective. Even Toby, the most pointed ideologue of the evidence admits to the President, in reference to his judicial bête noire, "I detest him, but he'southward brilliant and the ii of [the nominees] together fighting similar cats and dogs…it works."

Never in the show's history has the opposition to the ethos of the Bartlet Administration been so thoroughly explored and humanized. From lesser heard voices within the assistants, to liberal voices beyond the White House, to bourgeois voices who are portrayed as just as earnest, the show is never more than balanced or robust than it is in Season 5. And as a upshot, the Bartlet Administration's crusade feels all the more honorable and worthwhile when tempered in that flame.

"Sometimes I pretend to hold an imaginary baseball only for kicks."

Talking Points

These changes in the show'south scope came together in "Talking Points", a belatedly-season episode. In the episode, Josh helps close an international trade understanding that, unbeknownst to him, paved the mode for a significant engineering company to move thousands, and somewhen millions of jobs overseas. Josh is aghast at the revelation, especially when the agreement he brokered has the unmitigated support of House Republicans.{{ten}} He goes on a i-man crusade to forbid the deal from taking effect and laments the injustice inherent in the members of the Bartlet Administration breaking a campaign promise to the communication workers' marriage that helped ensure their ballot. In seasons past, Josh might have worked some magic and said his piece to the human in accuse, who would and then devote himself to the upshot, give a stirring speech, and gear up everything correct over again.

Instead, Josh is rebuked by Leo, who Josh is surprised to learn knew about the planned outsourcing when he enlisted Josh in the get-go place. Leo's pragmatism is not unprecedented, but the bear witness goes a step farther when, to Josh's dismay, he is further rebuked past the President. President Bartlet brings upwards his economic credentials and throws out words similar "creative destruction" over Josh's objections. Simply what's more hitting about the scene is Bartlet's honest confession that while he ultimately regrets breaking the campaign hope to the communication workers' union and is deplorable for the damage they will suffer, he sees information technology as a necessary evil to assistance the economy as a whole. He'due south not happy, simply information technology'south his best available alternative, and both Josh and the President have to accept that, all the same unpalatable it may be, as the best they tin do. It's not blind optimism; it's real, painful compromise.

A lesser testify would have ended the episode on that bespeak. Instead, a beat out-shocked Josh returns to face up the union representatives the administration betrayed, who have been squatting in his office, and he owns upward to the assistants'southward actions. He is clearly hurt by his complicity in a broken promise that volition harm the people who accept come to confront him, but he faces them nonetheless, and takes his medicine with the promise that somewhen, the pain will be worth it. In the end, information technology emboldens him to stay in the fight.{{xi}}

That kind of middle ground is sorely defective in the cadre of most political dramas. Somewhere between the heart-on-your-sleeve idealism of the early seasons of The Westward Fly and the soapy, conniving pessimism of Firm of Cards, in that location's a bear witness about well-intentioned people in government having to make real, hard choices and work within a system that demands tradeoffs, in the hopes of an uncertain, greater skillful.{{12}} Season five of The West Wing is unquestionably different from what preceded it, and the vision of governance information technology presents is certainly a departure from the one shepherded past Aaron Sorkin, but it's no less strong, no less precipitous, and more robust in both the conflicts and difficulties it brings to the fore and the voices it brings into the chat.

Put on a happy face up...

Truth in Goggle box

Those legitimate conflicts, the being of true challenges both internal and external, bolstered this new incarnation of The West Wing nether the auspices John Wells. People love the early seasons of The West Wing for the same reasons that I often plant them exhausting when viewing them en masse — because it'south a fantasy. Sorkin's Westward Wing is ofttimes a story about a group of all-time friend geniuses changing the world with little more than their pluck and their principles. Sure, there were some serious obstacles–assassination attempts, revelations of secret illnesses, and kidnappings–but these are each the kind of major threats that reek of Hollywood sheen, each so very big and dramatic, that they feel designed only to set up the big moment and the large monologue.{{13}}

Just infighting in the administration? Dissension in the party? Disagreements betwixt Congressional Democrats and the President? Presidential hopefuls needling the incumbent? Hardball legislative opposition? These problems may not be nigh as sexy, just they're a step beyond Hollywood. They're real politics.

At that place'south convincingly a sure uplifting, feel-good sense to the before seasons of The West Wing. And then many people of my generation were inspired by the bear witness to care more than about the world of politics or even to devote their lives to making our country ameliorate through government. It's not difficult to admire the Sam Seaborns, the C.J. Creggs, the Josh Lymans, and the President Bartlets, who come across a problem, and have the choice of a half-baked merely politically tolerable compromise and say, "No, by God, this is important."

And what's more, art need not exist a reflection of real life. Art can be idealistic and fantastical and bold and aspirational and life-affirming in means that rarely find purchase amidst the harsh realities of modern politics. But too much or too far and it starts to wear in the same way cynicism can, peculiarly if y'all don't share the same formulation of the utopia that the creative person is trying to construct.

It also starts to wear when a show continually has its characters aim loftier, only for them to seem to nearly and merely will their achievements into existence. A grand flake of oratory, a powerful gesture, a moment of personal strength, and all of a sudden, the gummed upward works of politics start to role with unprecedented ease. Information technology tin can grow cloying. Even my wife, who is an unabashed fan of the series, admits that the early seasons' solution to more than a handful of intractable beltway problems is "just liberal harder." Washington D.C. is a city of contentious, often agonizingly boring changes, and few victories there, legislative or otherwise, come so easily.

Similar Roddenberry'south vision for Star Trek, Sorkin had a vision for The Westward Wing as a shining city on a hill. The evidence was a symbol for what politics and true leadership could be, not necessarily what they were at the fourth dimension or have become now. And that'south a valid choice. Just for someone cynical most politics, especially someone who does not share wholeheartedly, or at to the lowest degree not every bit stridently, in Sorkin'due south worldview, that depiction does not just ring simulated; it becomes dull and facile. Which is why I come back once more and once more to one particular line in Season 5 that stands for the whole. In a hard moment, Leo McGarry says to the President, "This isn't Never-Neverland, sir. Assertive is not plenty."

In Season five of The Westward Wing, the Bartlet Administration and its heroes face up real challenges to their position and their agenda and have to make some difficult choices. Those challenges come from inside, from without, and from across the alley in meaningful, plausible ways. Some of those bug stick, and some of them are overcome, merely that journey–the story of the sacrifices and stumbles and stress required to attain those proficient outcomes, and the humility shown in the moments where the characters genuinely question whether they have it all wrong–makes those eventual triumphs worth more than whatever hollow victory over an unseen, easily dispatched foe. Flavor 5 of The West Wing explores those kinds of challenges with a depth and a commitment unmatched in the series'south prior four seasons, and that makes information technology non merely a worthy successor to Sorkin's work, merely a space where the show was immune to evolve and flourish from the background laid before it, and get something more.

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[[1]]Ronald D. Moore, a writer for both Side by side Generation and Deep Space 9, went on to create the reimagined Battlestar Galactica, one of my favorite and most frustrating serial, that dealt part and parcel with the challenges of leadership and governance with a groovy heart to how individuals and conflicting personalities affect how those principles are brought to acquit.[[ane]][[2]]Unlike, if I'thou being pointed, a undercover service member swain being killed past a convenience store robber right after he'due south admitted his affections.[[two]]
[[3]]Fifty-fifty Amy gets pushed back for charging forward on principle and damning the consequences.[[3]]
[[4]]That said, Parks and Recreation has had to bargain with, at a minimum, the perception of a lack of forward momentum in some of its subsequently seasons, and information technology reintroduced a more straight conflict between its leads in the show'south final season.[[4]]
[[5]]While my wife was a fan of Donna from the beginning, she did greatly appreciate the character's evolution over the grade of the series.[[five]]
[[six]]Although I did have the compulsion to yell, "Look out, Leo! It's Brianna Barksdale!"[[half-dozen]]
[[7]]In my eye, Tomlin is and forever shall be, first and foremost, Miss Frizzle.[[vii]]
[[8]]The other new character introduced in Season v who bears mention is Josh's intern, Ryan Pierce. The grapheme was largely superfluous beyond creating an abrasive presence in nearly of the episodes he appeared in, and for providing Josh with an "I learned information technology from watching you!" moment toward the end of the flavor. [[eight]]
[[9]]Though I'll admit, as nice as information technology was to see Josh use his political gamesmanship to turn the tide, that upkeep boxing storyline had as much of a "just stand firm on what you lot believe in and the rest will work itself out" ending as anything in the Sorkin years.[[nine]]
[[ten]]That meeting with the House Republicans did give Josh a chip too heavy-handed of an "I'yard a monster!" moment.[[x]]
[[11]]Too frequently, in that location is a cracking divide when it comes to these types of decisions in drama. Either a grapheme is a pure moral absolutist, ruled by iron-bound principles that make whatever weighing of harms and benefits a craven depravity, or they're a pure heartless commonsensical, standing as an unabashed pragmatist who makes the tough calls and waves away any suffering as acceptable losses. Too rarely is at that place a character who accepts that, overall, a selection may be the correct one, but however recognizes the hardships and homo sacrifices of those who are forced to pay the costs.[[11]]
[[12]]And again, if that show isn't the back half of The West Wing, so there'due south a fair argument that it's Parks and Recreation. And while The Wire is a securely cynical testify, it often presents well-significant individuals doing their best in a cleaved organisation.[[12]]
[[13]]I realize these storylines were inspired by Reagan and FDR, but their presentation in The Due west Fly felt more bogus and tailored to meet the needs of a weekly idiot box bear witness that required "large events" to garner attention and ratings and less organic to the kinds of challenges an administration would typically confront.[[13]]

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Source: http://www.theandrewblog.net/2015/03/03/in-defense-of-the-west-wings-season-5/

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