I'm in the middle of what is probably my 30th "Sleep Show Marathon" with TWW and I think I can say confidently that it's the best network drama of all time and top 5 overall drama of all time.

The first 4 seasons are about as good as TV can get and even though a good portion of season 5 and 6 were a little meh, the 7th season was pretty close to the quality of the first 4.

I'm genuinely shocked that someone came up with about 90 episode (just this show) of such great material. Dialogue, story lines, character arcs, whatever, there was very few weak parts of this show (Mandy excluded).

Just an amazing, amazing show.

happy with this thread. younger Mary Louise Parker too pretty great. I like the "sleep show" thing. I've definitely done that with this. Watched every episode at least 2 dozen times just having them on as I'm dozing off with my TV on a sleep timer.

Absolutely love Donna and Amy Gardner. And Ainsley is in my top 5 favorite TV women of all time.

Actually, Ainsley's introduction in the show was incredible. That entire episode still floors me to this day. Some of my favorite moments are the introductions and flashback type of stuff. Such great character development in those.

I think there's notable drop in the show after the 2nd season. That's when Sorkin decided he had to be nice to republicans, but did it in a really clumsy way. The show was about snarky democrats who sometimes were dicks to people with whom they disagreed, and when it tried to dance around that POV, it wasn't great.

Love the first season, Bartlett's entry in the first ep is just a classic moment for me.

Haven't watched much since it went off the air, and I kinda suspect it ages really badly.

ginger, get the popcorn!

Leo McGarry: You have an interesting conversational style, do you know that?

love that line too.

+1

"Sam's getting his ass kicked by a girl"

NSFWish

Best show ever. And it ages quite well.

I watched the entire series for the first time recently, and didn't feel like it was worn (save for maybe Mandy's outfits and BMW in season one).

My post re: West Wing in the TV Rec thread:

I watched The West Wing in its entirety last year, and really, REALLY enjoyed it. The formula can get kind of tiring ("we have to play the politics game" ---> "No we don't, Bartlette for America, we are idealists and won't back down" ---> (two episodes down the line) "we have to play the politics game") but the dialogue makes up for it.

When the dialogue was on I never found the stories formulaic or tiring ... basically the first 3 or 4 seasons

The episode 'Two Cathedrals' was about as good as tv gets. Easily top 3 show of all time imo.

I cant wait for 'More As the Story Develops' to start on HBO

To a certain extent it ages incredibly well. I still find myself surprised by the way a line from the show relates to things that are still going on in the world.

I think I've mentioned this before, but I was super excited for this show then the first few episodes were so over the top liberal that I couldn't take it. I'm a democrat and generally voted that way, but I hate extremes of either view.

After the first season I had a friend who I trust tell me to watch the reruns in the summer (lol there were reruns in the summer). I was completely hooked after that and still will go on runs of watching the whole series often during the summer when the DVR has nothing else on it.

Season 7 was the best of the three non Sorkin seasons, but I always think it would have been awesome if Santos lost and they brought in the entire republican group and kept the show going. I know it would be impossible with the writers leanings, but I would have loved to watch that show.

By the way I suck @ gifs & google, but Janel Moloney was in Brotherhood as Tommy Caffee's mistress if you want some real quality NSFW.

i'm somewhere around season 4. haven't watched in like a year cause they just replaced sam seaborn with a guy who is not as cool as sam seaborn. i really liked rob lowe's character. i will probably finish out the series soon enough.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3g50Q8nuMQ west wing reunion

I'll be honest that I love Sorkin's work, but I am 5-6 episodes into the 5th season (Gary Cole as VP, Josh getting "demoted," etc.) and the writing and pacing is phenomenal imo.

Show is amazing. I can't think of really any other dramas off the top of my head that have the same rewatchability.

Something weird I noticed when I first marathoned this show: The theme song fits great with the main titles in the first season. Very slow and smooth.

But by the time it got around to the 7th season, there were so many people in cast, the main titles went by fast as hell and it looked really funny to me. I don't know if anyone else noticed that, but it used to crack me up.

Awesome vid. Thanks for that. Will isn't as cool as Sam Seaborn, but he's pretty great until he gets hooked up with the VP. He's great in season 7 too. Will is another one with a great introduction. "...there are worse things in the world then no longer being alive" was just WHAAAATT!!!

It's still a great show in season 5 and 6, but there was a joyousness missing from those 2 seasons. Every plot was somber and the funny wasn't very good. They had a few great episodes in there. The one with Glenn Close is just as good as anything from the first 4. But that season also had "Access" which is one of the worst episodes of a show ever.

yeah never seen that vid before, ty. the girls look great. not so sure on josh's moustache though.

Cause of The Good Guys show, I'm hoping.

Sorkin has a pilot in production with HBO right now.

One timeeeeeee.

I can't wait.

Hopefully, with the fact that Sorkin uses a lot of similar actors, maybe we'll get to see some of the boobies I've been wanting to see. AINSLEY AND NATALIE ONE TIME!!!!

Never have seen The West Wing, I don't think I have ever watched a political type drama before. As a big fan of both Sports Night and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip - is missing out on The West Wing because I don't like politics stuff, doing myself a great disservice?

Very very much so. The West Wing is better then both of those shows. Not just because there are so many more episodes, but the quality is high throughout. I'm one of 2 people who think this, but Studio 60 at it's best (only 2 times) was better then TWW at it's best, but S60 had a few clunker plots and TWW didn't really have any in the first 4 seasons.

I have no interest whatsoever in politics and I was so out of the loop that the Democratic National Convention was in town a couple of years ago and I saw Hilary Clinton and Barak Obama posters all over the place, I had no idea who Barak was. Everything I know about politics, and that isn't much, I got from this show.

Thanks for the informed response DC11GTR, if West Wing isn't on Netflix, I will go buy first season at the store tomorrow. I'll you guys know what I think.

Thanks for the information.

I have a low tolerance for repeat shows of just about anything. But marathoned this over the Christmas holidays and feel I am nearly ready for a re watch. And while I agree that the quality did drop substantially after season 4, if they were still making it I would likely still be watching if it was nothing more then then (my least favorite parts).

I think what kept my interest going was how little knowledge I had in regards to how the political machine works, and felt after researching, that i was being sold a fairly accurate depiction of it all along with the entertainment.

Just started watching for the first time, and on episode 6. The show ages surprisingly well. So far all of the storylines would be plausible for any show set in the last 30 years. By not seeing any current events topics yet, it's really helped it to stay relevant.