actors make great presidents.
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west wingairs Wednesdays at 8pm on NBC.
Aaron Sorkin, the creator of another tuber fave "Sports Night," conceived this season's newest and freshest drama, "West Wing." Sorkin continues to be a brilliant television writer, and it didn't hurt that he roped in household movie stars Martin Sheen and Rob Lowe for the duration of the series (NOT just the pilot, yippee!).
Let's face it. Nothing was going to bring "ER" down, not departing cast members, not escalating costs, until something came to take its place. "West Wing" may be just that show, capturing the essence of "ER" in a new locale with new plot lines to develop. Kudos to NBC for recognizing the eventual downfall of "ER" and grabbing the next big show.
"West Wing" centers around the oval office, and the key personnel in a fictional administration. I emphasize fictional. Only in the mind of a writer could a president be so eloquent, fair, even-handed, powerful, and infallible as Sorkin portrays him. The politics of the show are all over the place, even though the administration in question is Democrat and the pilot takes a hefty swipe at Right Wing Conservatism. Hopefully this political balance will continue, and I mean political balance in the sense of wrongs on both sides, not political correctness. You'll always offend someone, so just make sure you offend everyone equally and you'll do alright.
The biggest reason "West Wing" is such a watchable hour of drama as opposed to, say, "Once and Again," is that the humor is funny and the situations are just tense and complicated enough to be over the average viewer's head. This makes the viewer feel smart and in the know. It's the same reason Tom Clancy novels continue to sell even with preposterous plots. The plots just sound real.
The plots for "West Wing" I feel might be just as preposterous, but Sorkin is too deft a writer to fail pulling it off, so I don't worry about that. What I worry about is two things:
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(1) The temptation will be too great to grab real-life political situations and stick them in the show, a la "Primary Colors." This show has too much potential to compromise its characters by making them thin veils for real-life scandalitos;
(2) The public will tire of a rosy president who's always right. Sure, it's the way we'd like things to be, but I found myself thinking every time Martin Sheen opened his mouth, "Wouldn't it be nice if REAL presidents talked like that?" But they don't, and they never will, as Americans know damn well by now. This isn't cynicism, it's an acknowledgement that presidents are human. Hopefully "West Wing" will eventually give its fictional president a more human side as well.
Make this show a part of your weekly habits, friends, because it'll be around the water cooler for many seasons to come.
Date: September 25, 1999
Copyright © 1999 by Chris J. Magyar
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