Mon, October 25, 2004

The West Wing

(NBC, 9:00 Wednesdays)

The West Wing is back (NBC wasn't too scared to continue rolling out its new season against the baseball playoffs! Stupid CBS!) and it's making the case against the war in Iraq. Where was this episode a year and a half ago? Yet another unfortunate byproduct of the post-Sorkin era: the script turnaround is a lot slower. Used to be the stories would make it to air in as little time as it would take you to actually rip them from the actual headlines. Of course, Sorkin would also dress up the current events to at least seem like original stories: sometimes you had to think as much as half a second before you realized what point he was trying to make about real-life events. John Wells's season opening script includes such lines as "I don't want to use this incident as a pretext to invade unrelated countries just because we don't like them" and "this could have serious repercussions on American foreign policy for decades." Not to mention the whole deal with the intelligence which is meant to link Iran to the terrorist attack/cliffhanger being too sketchy to provide justification for pre-emptive war.

Not that I'm complaining. I agree. But it could be less heavy-handed.

The show continues the exhaustive framework it assumed when John Wells took the helm. Clearly at NBC's behest, the White House of The West Wing is portrayed in eternal crisis mode. As we return from the season cliffhanger, Donna Moss is still in critical condition following the attack on her convoy during a Congressional fact-finding trip to the Middle East. A number of Congressmen as well as Admiral Fitzwallace were killed in the attack, and the White House is trying to decide how to respond. Which is fine, I guess, for a season cliffhanger, but if the last two seasons are any guide, the chaos won't end there. Which is a shame, because in the old days the show was just as good – or better – when the characters were dealing with normal situations that didn't involve constant gunplay or violence or war.

Fortunately, at least in this episode, the show has returned to its former glory of showing President Bartlet playing his own game, separate from his advisors, his staff, anyone. As much as the network hates to embrace the show's quicker-paced, more intelligent stories, those are the ones that engaged us in the first place, and those are still the best ones to watch. I'm cautiously optimistic that this season premiere will lead to more like it.

As it is, the promos are hyping new supporting players Alan Alda and Jimmy Smits, plus the return of former Vice President Hoynes. Ought to be a lot of drama, although I'm confused that Alda is playing a Republican seeking a nomination for the presidency. To run against Gary Cole? Because Bartlet's already serving his second term. This just seems weird. Can they really change administrations on this show? And if so, why are they ramping up to it so early? (Although, seriously, how cool would it be if Alda won? Just overhaul the whole thing!)

The brightest section of the entire episode is definitely the story between Donna Moss and Josh Lyman. Janel Moloney and Bradley Whitford continue to deliver sublimely compelling performances – in one heartbreaking scene, they act only with their eyes, and all of her lines are unspoken, just written on paper. As much as the "new guard" has been able to screw up this show with crisis-of-the-week drama and schizophrenic story lines, the intricate work that was done in building the foundation of the Josh/Donna relationship from the very start is still there. The current team may yet ruin it and slap on some ridiculous ending, but at least for now it's damn effective.

The show continues its gradual slide towards irrelevance, but it's still one of the smartest dramas on television today, and contains some excellent characters. (Sadly, however, John Spencer – God bless him – is looking ancient this season. He's also looking a lot like Rumsfeld, which may have been an intentional choice given his role as the hawk this week. Still, unbecoming.) I'll continue to watch, because it's damn hard to give up on, but it would really serve The West Wing well to impress me a few times this year.

Premiering This Week

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