« WGA noms: 'West Wing,' 'Sex' double-hitters | Main | Mayor gets role as extra in local West Wing episode »
December 15, 2004
The West Wing
By Debi Enker
The Age
December 16, 2004
And so order has been restored. In a fashion. As much as it can be amid the hurly-burly of the White House. President Jed Bartlet (Martin Sheen) is back where he belongs, in the Oval Office, consulting with his faithful chief of staff, Leo McGarry (John Spencer), holding court with his sharp-witted and devoted staff: communications director Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff) and his deputy, Will Bailey (Joshua Malina); press secretary C.J. Cregg (Allison Janney); and deputy chief of staff Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford).
Gone is his temporary replacement, blunt Republican heavyweight Glenallen Walken (John Goodman), a leader whose bomb-first, ask-questions-later approach showed the shell-shocked Bartlet team just how swiftly things could move in the seat of power. Now the hunt is on for a new Vice-President and all sorts of politicking is under way. It's back to business for the fast-talking types who zoom through the corridors of power.
It's also time for fans of The West Wing, those of us who have patiently persisted despite Nine's best efforts to dissuade us, to assess the post-Sorkin era. The network has delayed screening this fifth season, and, since Aaron Sorkin left the show, it's the first one not to have his fingerprints all over it. Tales of the writer-producer's working methods have become something of an industry legend. He wrote most of the first four seasons himself: about 88 hours of television over four years.
He apparently wrote most of them in a terrific spurts of creative activity inspired by pressing - and even expired - deadlines. Reports suggest he wrote in frenzied gusts, sometimes in 24-hour non-stop jags as his scripts were due. There were stories of the frustrated cast members standing around idly for days, when they could have been rehearsing their dialogue-heavy parts, and then having to digest the huge hunks of words in a quick gulp, as the cameras started rolling.
It sounded like a production nightmare, but the results were brilliant. Sorkin wrote literate, fiercely intelligent, densely worded scripts that delighted in teasing out the complexities of loaded situations. His words and ideas tumbled out fast and he refused to condescend to his audience. You had to keep up, or you had to sit there and be patient, hoping it would become clear. This is not the normal way for television, which so often treats its audience like kindergarten kids, talking to us slowly and loudly, and repeating itself to ensure we never feel lost or challenged. People who love West Wing relish its uncompromising style.
But clearly someone in a suit somewhere decided that this was no way to run a multimillion-dollar, Emmy Award-winning drama, that tolerance of brilliance and artistic temperament could only stretch so far, and that the angst that Sorkin was generating wasn't worth it. So writer-producer John Wells (China Beach, ER, Third Watch), who's no slouch, was brought in to steer the troubled West Wing ship into its next, hopefully calmer, phase.
Sorkin helpfully left a lot of juicy loose threads dangling when he exited. The Bartlet administration's role in the assassination of a government minister from the troublesome Middle Eastern state of Qumar was about to be exposed; the President's youngest daughter, Zoey (Elisabeth Moss), had been kidnapped; our team in the White House, having weathered a Vice-Presidential sex scandal, was starting a new term and hoping that their leader would stay healthy despite his multiple sclerosis. In addition, beyond the walls of this fictional administration, the world had changed. The Clinton era that had witnessed the birth of the show was long gone.
This week sees the third episode of the post-Sorkin era, and the signs are promising. Notable is the shift that has Republicans taking a more prominent role, and not all of them are depicted as rednecks or nakedly power-craving Machiavellian monsters. We are also seeing some dubious Democrats.
Skilled directors who are series regulars, such as Alex Graves and Christopher Misiano, have helmed typically impressive episodes, and accomplished writers, such as Wells and Carol Flint (ER, China Beach), have seized Sorkin's baton and run with it. There's been no sudden slump in the quality of the dialogue or weird changes to the core characters.
The test will be what's done with these characters: in the knotty situations they face at work and the compromises that must be made. It will also come in the nature of their developing relationships as Sorkin wasn't too hot on romance. A number of relationships that started with zing were left to peter out over the years. So it looks like there might be some renewed energy in the Josh and Amy (Mary-Louise Parker) thing, while the President must sort out some seemingly insoluble problems with his wife.
But at this early stage, it can be said with some relief, so far, so good.
The West Wing screens on Tuesdays at 10.30pm on Channel Nine
Posted by Jo at December 15, 2004 07:58 PM