"Bartlet for America"

August 15, 2007 2:29 AM

lthough Mr. Vice lent me the DVDs about a year ago, I've just now finished watching the seventh season of The West Wing. I have to say that I think it was pretty good, but nowhere near as good as the first four seasons.

I really missed some of the older characters, and I was happy to see Sam come back. It sucks that Zoey didn't really get to do much and we never found out what happened between her and Charlie, but it was good to see Charlie go off to law school--you know he's going to be a super badass. I was also sad that we didn't get to see more of Mallory--she was hot.

Unfortunately, the new characters just weren't as cool as the old characters. For example, although I love Joshua Malina from his work on Sports Night, it never seemed like they knew exactly what to do with Will Bailey. First, Sam's calling him "one of us," then he goes and joins up with the Vice President, then he gets C.J.'s old job, then he's doing the National Security chick, then they break up or something? I don't know, I just didn't connect with the character. As for Kate Harper, she really grew on me--I didn't like her at first, but I was a big fan by the end. Again, though, she wasn't as dynamic as previous characters. And pretty much all of Matt Santos's staff was disposable.

I also thought that the relationships--platonic and otherwise--were hit or miss. I really, really loved the relationship between Charlie and the President in early seasons (the scene where the President gives Charlie a carving knife made by Paul Revere is one of my favorite from the whole series), but it was largely absent in the final seasons. And the C.J.-Charlie relationship, what little there was, just wasn't satisfying. On the other hand, thank god that Josh and Donna finally got together--that was drawn out for way too fucking long. And I also liked the culmination of C.J. and Danny. But why build up the whole Will-Kate thing only to have it end in a complete fizzle? Lame.

Of course, it was really sad to see Leo go. I knew it was coming, but it was still really touching. Leo was the man. Although I have to agree that his sense of style was a little off--he often looked like the Joker.

Anyway, overall, I thought it was pretty good, but a real disappointment when compared to the first four seasons.

1 Comments

Vice said:

I pretty much agree with your assessment. The season had its moments, particularly the one with Leo feigning an inability to debate well. I really didn't care at all for the midget lady (whatshername) or for Will and Kate. The only time I cared about Kate in the show was when she was advising him about the Middle East crisis, and those episodes were really good. After that, bleh. And Santos was fine, but not Bartlet-fine. I liked Alan Alda's character almost as much, and was happy when they offered him Secretary of State.

And the debate episode, while cool in that it was live and really well done, was just not that entertaining. It was TOO realistic. Like, the Bartlet-Ritchie debate episode from Season 4 is one of my all-time favorites. This one was nowhere near as good. I don't watch the West Wing to see real politics, I watch to see idealized politics.

I loved the overall arc of CJ, from a green Press Secretary to the seasoned Chief of Staff, but with other characters - most notably Toby - it seeemed like they ran out of a place for them. I guess the focus has to shift from the old guard to the new guard, but...dammit, the old guard was better.

August 15, 2007 3:31 PM

Leave a comment

Name

Email Address

URL

Remember personal info?

Comments (You may use HTML tags for style)