Farewell to West Wing, for the time being
The final episode of West Wing’s sixth season just aired. Considering that season seven has barely started in the states, it’ll be a while before the show graces finnish screens again.
The show went downhill after Aaron Sorkin’s departure, and the fifth season was at times almost painful to watch. However, while the stories decreased in credibility and the script violated truths about the lead characters, the show never actually jumped the shark.
The sixth season, with the new presidential race (with Bartlet out of the loop) brought new intensity to the proceedings. The various campaigns split up the quite stiff roles of the characters, and brought new themes forward. And having Jimmy Smits (ex-LA Law/NYPD Blue/whatever) as the most charismatic candidate didn’t hurt either. Against him and Alan Alda’s courteous republican the others simply faded or came off as cogs in the big political machine.
A nice comeback for a good series, and the ongoing season has the big election as its focus. That ought to be good enough entertainment, even without resorting to gimmicks such as doing some episodes live.
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