West Wing is really getting pretty good again. Now that they’ve more or less given up on the cheap melodrama (car bombs, heart attacks, kidnappings) and gotten back to policy arguments and partisan bickering, the show is starting to resemble the program that I found so interesting 5 years ago. Wow, 5 years ago. Anyway, I’m impressed with most of the developments of the last few episodes, with the caveat that I think the writers are trying too hard to emulate the cadence and tone of Aaron Sorkin’s old scripts. His dialogue is one of a kind, and imitating it just ends up hollow and awkward.
The leak plot is coming to a head just as a real life leak investigation does the same (although the justification for the real life leak is quite a bit more sinister than the reason behind Toby’s behavior); the campaign stuff is interesting (and of course is very important, since it tells us who we’ll be watching for the next 3 or 4 years (unless the show gets cancelled, which it probably will)); I just figured out that Santos’s wife is played by the estimable Teri Polo, whom some of us remember fondly as Rebecca from Sorkin’s short-lived masterpiece, Sports Night; Janeane Garofolo is doing a very good job as Josh’s latest shrew/possible love interest (Mandy, Amy, Joey Lucas).
I am excited about the live debate coming up in a couple of weeks, as gimmicky as it may be. And I am very much looking forward to the inevitable return of Donna Moss, who for some reason just refuses to reply to my love letters. And now that he lost his own show, might we be treated to the return of the Boy King, Sam Seaborn? I’m just saying, it’s not like Rob Lowe’s got a lot on his plate these days.
So that’s what I think–West Wing is definitely watchable once more.
As long as we’re talking about my television obsessions, I might as well just include this Boondocks comic, which really hit home for me.
The OC and Arrested Development (and Reunion, for that matter) should return to prime time next week, once baseball stops happening. Huzzah.
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