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September 24, 2003
Once-powerful 'West Wing' falls from grace
By Robert Bianco
USA Today
The thrill is gone.
If you were one of the fans who thought Aaron Sorkin's departure from The West Wing would destroy the show, tonight's season premiere will prove you wrong — and right. Wrong because the show's new czar, ER's John Wells, has produced a workmanlike copy of an irreproducible original. And right because what was TV's best drama is now uninspired and uninspiring.
You can't put all the blame on Wells, of course, or even on NBC, tempting as that may be. Given Sorkin's erratic behavior, a change in the White House probably was inevitable.
Still, for viewers, that change borders on catastrophic. Yes, Sorkin had his problems with productivity and consistency. Too often last season, his plots either disappeared too quickly or lingered too long, and his tone became hectoring and out of step with public opinion.
But what Sorkin brought to the show, beyond his gifts for dialogue and surprise, was passion. His commitment to these characters and this setting rang through his work and made West Wing the first romance about civil service. He created an American Three Musketeers.
Unfortunately, there also is no denying he left the show's story in sorry shape. Absurdities from the cliffhanger abound: His daughter Zoey kidnapped, Bartlet temporarily out of office, and the Republican House speaker (guest star John Goodman) in as president.
Handed a loser plot, Wells should have had the sense to follow the lead of Frasier's new producers and dump it. Instead, we leave the show this week not much further along than when we started. NBC can talk about "balance" all it likes, but no one watching West Wing wants to see Bartlet — and star Martin Sheen — sidelined. Even if it's just for one more episode, that's one episode too many.
To pad out the hour, Wells has filled this badly remodeled West Wing with the same soap slop that has made ER virtually unwatchable. Bartlet's daughters, whom we've never met, now appear, just so they can add to the sudden marital strife between Bartlet and Abby. The pained silences, the sudden outbursts — it couldn't be duller.
But then, sitting through the hour is somewhat akin to watching high school basketball players try to prove they're just as fancy as the pros. It's hard to say what's worse: the painful stabs at Sorkinian banter or the dizzying attempts to take the show's visual style to an even busier level. The camera swings and swoops and circles until you're ready to grab the TV and steady it.
And poor Bartlet. In one scene we see him only in a window's reflection. In another, he's awash in red light, which puts him one-up on his chief of staff, who is bathed in blue.
I'll tell you who's blue: anyone who loved this series. Oh, it will no doubt run more efficiently. Scripts will get done on time, episodes will stay within their budget, and plots will be easier to follow. It might even end up being a fairly competent TV show.
But it won't be West Wing. And that is sad news, indeed.
Posted by Jo at September 24, 2003 12:04 AM