The West Wing

[JHyde]

I have been re-watching season 1 and it is better than I give it credit for. I still think it was very patchy though and I didn't like the pilot. I think I also wasn't crazy about the first season because the President is insufferably smug quite a lot of the time - his character wasn't quite worked out.

Then again, it's quite incredible when you consider that Sorkin was pulling double duty in 1999/2000, writing almost all episodes of a half hour comedy (in its second year)*and* an hour long drama (in its first). Plus he and his wife had a kid that year too.

No wonder he bailed after a point. Then again, Sorkin isn't really someone you'd want to work for, as a writer/researcher, I don't think.

I have a few favourites from season 1 though - 'He Shall, From Time to Time' and 'Celestial Navigation' are amongst the show's best writing.

I adored the CJ/Toby dynamic - I know I've written about it previously on this thread. It is the same reason I love the Ros/Lucas dynamic on Spooks. Men and women can have wonderful, fulfilling and hilarious interaction without it being anything more than great chemistry and I consider some of my friendships and working relationships to be a much lesser version of CJ/Toby. Not quite as witty and without Allison's legs.

I'd be interested to hear what the new people think about the show after season 4. I stand by my assertion that there were still sparklingly good episodes in those last 3 seasons. Debora Cahn was a fantastic writer who now works for Grey's Anatomy - I basically followed her across networks. She wrote the excellent second last episode of the show 'Institutional Memory' as well as 'the Supremes' which won an award in season 5.