Originally, the president was slated as little more than infrequent guest star on the NBC political drama The West Wing; instead, the show would revolve around what happened in all the rooms outside the Oval Office. Good thing creator Aaron Sorkin changed his mind. The West Wing ended up becoming one of the smartest political dramas ever made, thanks in no small part to Martin Sheen as the Nobel Prize-winning, Latin-speaking, arcane trivia-quoting President Bartlet.
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It's Always Sunny in PhiladelphiaA Beltway fantasy aimed at Bush-era liberals, the 1999 show was a balm against anti-intellectualism, the story of how the smartest kid in the class became President of the United States and fought back against what he called ".22 caliber mind[s] in a .357 magnum world." For four of its seven seasons, Sorkin scripted the political esprit d'escalier of every frustrated Democrat, positioning Bartlet (Martin Sheen) and company to smack down bigots, opportunists, and religious zealots with cutting dialogue and grandiose speeches. More escapist than realistic, it was unabashedly partisan, yet somehow more concerned with ideas than with political identities—a rare quality indeed in Washington D.C. If that doesn't sound satisfying, well, this may not be the show for you.
Number of Seasons: 7 (156 episodes)
Time Requirements: Three and a half months, if you can knock out 10-11 episodes a week.
Where to Get Your Fix: Netflix, Amazon Instant, iTunes
Best Character to Follow: Although President Bartlet is the obvious star of the series, keep your eye on press secretary C.J. Cregg (Allison Janney); her transformation from untested newcomer to political powerhouse is one of the show's greatest pleasures.
Seasons/Episodes You Can Skip:
Season 3: Episode 0, "Isaac and Ishmael" Filmed in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, this involved the staffers explaining Muslim extremism to a convenient group of schoolkids during a lockdown at the White House. Like a lot of media created after the tragedy, it feels hasty, outdated and forced. Useful only as a historical artifact, and again, a weird one.
Season 4: Episode 12, "The Long Goodbye" The only episode of The West Wing that wasn't written by Sorkin during his tenure, this episode about C.J. returning to her hometown is the first time you feel the unfortunate tonal inconsistency that would pepper the next several years of the show. But if you'd like to prepare yourself for the post-Sorkin experience to come, then hey—give it a shot.
Season 5: Episode 12, "Slow News Day" There are a lot of things wrong with the post-Sorkin era, but this episode is emblematic of at least one of them. In earlier episodes, we saw Bartlet attempt to solve massive problems in quixotic moments of ambition—and run up against complex political realities. Here, we get to see White House communications director Toby (Richard Schiff) fix Social Security in an hour. Slow clap, show. Slow clap.
Seasons 5 to 7 Let's get real: I can sit here and list episode after episode from the post-Sorkin era of the show, but you might be better off skipping them entirely. I think of the later episodes as the Star Trek: Voyager of the series; I wouldn't say that they're good, per se, but there sure are more of them.
Seasons/Episodes You Can't Skip:
Season 1: Episode 15, "Celestial Navigation" One of the earlier formal experiments on The West Wing, this episode plays with non-linear storytelling, using deputy chief of staff Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) as unreliable narrator and guest-starring Commander Adama (aka Edward James Olmos) as a Hispanic Supreme Court nominee who gets racially profiled by small town cops. It also features one of its funnier moments as Josh takes over one of C.J.'s press briefings and accidentally invents a secret plan to fight inflation through sheer sarcasm.
Season 1: Episode 19, "Let Bartlet Be Bartlet" There's a complicated reality at the heart of this show that doesn't always get mentioned: despite his powerful oratory (and the halo afforded by his starring status) Bartlet is an often mediocre president. This first season episode acknowledged and skewered the indecisiveness that often plagued him as staffers finally turned his approval-seeking run to middle into something more daring: "If we're gonna walk into walls," says chief of staff Leo McGarry (John Spencer) finally, "I want us running into them at full speed."
Season 1: Episode 21, "Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics" Can an episode that revolves entirely around polling numbers and statistics be interesting? When it's an episode of The West Wing it can.
Season 2: Episodes 1 and 2, "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen" For a series that tends to focus on back-room political mechanics, this two-part story about a shooting tragedy is perhaps its dramatic apex, casting a long, traumatic shadow that follows the characters for the rest of the season.
Season 2: Episode 10, "Noël" The West Wing dealt, often, not just with problems but with consequences, and this episode analyzing the emotional fallout of the shooting deals with the sort psychological complexity that was rare to see on television at the time—save Dr. Melfi on The Sopranos. It's pretty damn good, is what I mean.
Season 2: Episode 22, "Two Cathedrals" The second season finale, "Two Cathedrals" is a high point for The West Wing, as President Bartlet confronts the loss of a loved one and the impending reveal of a painful secret. His closing speech in the cathedral is perhaps the most impressive monologue of them all from a series (and writer) that loves its monologues.
Season 3: Episode 9, "Bartlet for America" It takes almost four seasons, but we finally get the origin story of the Bartlet presidency, from the first moment the idea was scribbled on a bar napkin to the formation of the Justice League that is the senior staff.
Season 4: Episode 6, "Game On" The fourth season answer to "Let Bartlet Be Bartlet," the central conflict is which man will show up for the presidential debate: Bartlet the showstopping orator or his waffling alter ego, "Uncle Fluffy." If you're a liberal who's ever watched a beloved candidate lose to a conservative, you may find this episode particularly cathartic. Indeed, it is written precisely for you.
Season 4: Episode 23, "Twenty Five" In the final episode of the Sorkin era, Bartlet does arguably the most patriotic thing imaginable during a national crisis, and one that echoes Sorkin himself: He steps aside.
Why You Should Binge:
Watching The West Wing more than ten years later, it's easy to see its flaws far more clearly: the smugness, the occasional myopia (not to mention the tendency to make female characters inexperienced audience stand-ins that need situations "explained" to them). But it remains a deeply optimistic and patriotic show, one that imagines the people running the country (and occasionally, even their opponents) as deeply thoughtful individuals motivated by noble values. At a time when partisan politics is even more invidious and confidence in politicians remains painfully low, The West Wing feels even potent, not as a glimpse into the real world of politics, but as the American fantasy we still want to believe in.
Best Scene—Bartlet's Soliloquy in "Two Cathedrals":
There's no single character that defines The West Wing (even Bartlet) but rather the spectacular interplay of the ensemble over time. If you're going to pick a singular moment, however, it's almost certainly going to be one of Sorkin's moments of grandiloquent oratory, and it doesn't get better on that count than Bartlet's thunderous soliloquy in "Two Cathedrals."
The Takeaway:
The biggest fantasy about politics might be the idea of it as a noble pursuit, but who cares: It's still a fantasy worth having.
If You Liked The West Wing You'll Love:
For more of Sorkin's sharp, staccato dialogue, check out Sports Night (I cannot in good conscience recommend The Newsroom). For a more irreverent look at politics, try the fantastically coarse Veep. For a darker, more merciless take, try House of Cards (U.S. or U.K.).
