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April 06, 2005
`West Wing' gets its second wind in finale
By Maureen Ryan
Chicago Tribune
There used to be a show on Wednesday nights with Martin Sheen . . . what was it called? "The Western Front" or something?
Ah, yes, "The West Wing" (8 p.m. Wednesday, WMAQ-Ch. 5). Forgive the confusion, but so much has changed on the show; even Sheen sometimes seems like a guest star on the political drama these days.
As President Josiah Bartlet, Sheen does still make regular appearances, but the truth is, Bartlet -- and Sheen -- are lame ducks and everybody knows it. This season, which ends Wednesday so that the new series "Revelations" can unfold in "Wing's" time slot, "The West Wing" has become much more of a Jimmy Smits and Alan Alda vehicle than a Sheen machine. And that's a good thing.
As political candidates vying to take over after Bartlet's second term ends, Alda and Smits have given the series a much-needed energy boost. Smits, in particular, was a wise casting choice; to carry such a multifaceted, and, at times, weighty show, you need an actor with both chops and charisma, and Smits, as Democrat Matthew Santos, has plenty of both.
Online polls say "Wing" viewers are more in favor of a Santos presidency next season than one headed by Alda's character, Sen. Arnold Vinick. That might be because Santos is not only charismatic, but a dyed-in-the-wool liberal in the mold that "Wing" watchers have come to expect. Vinick is a somewhat improbably liberal Republican -- he voted to raise the minimum wage and he's in favor of taking religion out of the national political discourse -- but Alda, like Vinick, is a likably crafty operator. Don't count the senator out.
"The West Wing" still has its share of faults: It tends to underutilize perfectly decent actors (Gary Cole, Dule Hill and Kristin Chenowith spring to mind); some plots are just mind-numbing ("The White House has termites"); and the show, like its characters, can tend to be glib, long-winded and awfully self-important.
But still, it's one of the few prime-time network dramas to take on the Big Issue with both heart and intelligence. For that reason alone, it's a good thing that NBC renewed the once-flagging drama for at least one more year.
Posted by Jo at April 6, 2005 03:13 PM