The West Wing

"I am the Lord your God. Thou shalt worship no other God before me."

How about that for a memorable opening line? This is the first time we see President Jebediah "Jed" Bartlett on The West Wing - - imposing, erudite, every bit the president. Of course, we also found out that he had, earlier in the week, ridden his bicycle into a tree, and was now walking with a cane. This was the spirit of the show - tackling the big issues, showing public service at its finest, while undercutting the characters and plots with a whimsical sense of humor. When Aaron Sorkin ran the show, the dialogue absolutely popped, with characters rushing headlong down the building's endless corridors, trading policy talk and witticisms at a breathtaking rate. If you looked away for a second, you missed something important. Zone out for a bit, and you have no idea what's going on. Sometimes even when you pay attention and understand what is generally happening, you still don't know what they're talking about. Even then, you get the feeling that it's something tremendously important, and the characters are doing everything they can to fix it. Even the dullest of political subjects seemed exhilarating.

Alas, I never actually watched the show while it was on the air. I caught on late, and decided to catch myself up by watching all of the seasons on DVD before actually watching a new episode, because I would just be lost, or I would have missed something really worthwhile. So at this point, I have seen the first 6 seasons, and am eagerly looking forward to next Tuesday, when the 7th and final season comes out on DVD. I am told that the final season was terrible; perhaps it will be. But I have to know how it ends. I want to see every moment of it, because every moment on this show is the potential for greatness. Seasons 5 and 6 (the post-Sorkin era) have also been widely-panned for lacking that kinetic spark of Sorkin's dialogue, and for having become too dramatized and soapish. While I agree that these seasons didn't match the overall quality of the first four, and generally had more episodes that weren't top-notch, they still packed quite a punch, and were still better shows than 95% of everything on the air. I had lowered expectations going in for both of them, and came away pleasantly surprised. So I'm more than willing to see Season 7 through to the potentially bitter end.

To me, The West Wing was truly something special. For someone who has always loved politics, this is the pinnacle of what politics could be to me. This is what public service should be about - - people who really care about making the lives of others better, and who aren't out for personal gain. People who believe in American democracy, people who strive to achieve the ideal, even knowing they will probably fall far short. Here we had a president who was a brilliant mind, regardless of his politics. Here we had real patriots who exercised power for the purpose of creating progress. For anyone wondering why I jump from cult shows about killing demons like Buffy to sharp political dramas like the West Wing, there's the connection - - power. Whether physical, supernatural, or political, the possession, usage, and limits of power have always fascinated me.

But the West Wing did more than just deliver a political fix; it actually changed my political views. I started watching in the spring of 2004; in the fall of 2003, I was still a Republican. I had never given much thought to particular issues, but my grandfather, a 20-yr veteran of the Wisconsin state legislature, was a dyed-in-the-wool conservative, and he helped cultivate my interest in politics. But between taking a Modern American History class that fall and watching this show, my views changed in a hurry. The history class made me take a more critical look at the post-WWII era and the issues it spawned; the West Wing made me reexamine my personal feelings about those issues. For example, in senior year of high school I wrote a paper stating my stance on the death penalty. I didn't really have one at the time, and ended up supporting the death penalty because I took a look at an ACLU list of reasons why to abolish it, and found myself countering every point they made. But after watching the episode "Take This Sabbath Day" in the first season, I had to reexamine that, and pretty quickly resolved that I couldn't endorse state-sponsored killing. I hadn't been brainwashed by the show's blatantly liberal bias (which it surely had), I just found myself agreeing with a more compelling argument. That was neither the first nor the last time the West Wing would change my mind.

I know that real politics is not even remotely like this show. I know that the people involved are self-interested, even those who honestly attempt to serve the public. I know not everyone involved is as smart or persuasive, as elegant or as wise as these characters. I know I'm sure as hell not. And the demands of reality have pretty much convinced me I'll never actually become a politician, nor even attempt to. But the glimmer of hope I have, not just of becoming one, but of why I'd want to become one - - this show is what kept that glimmer alive, and will continue to. And though I'll probably never end up a politician, I still hope to become a public servant in some form or another. To me, this show will forever set the standard.

Next in the series: Firefly