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April 06, 2005
White House drama in need of term limits
By Robert Bianco
USA TODAY
And the winner is — oh, who cares?
Viewers weren't wild about watching President Bartlet run for office — and they liked him. Why stick around to see his successor get elected?
For those who do, NBC's The West Wing picks a Democratic presidential nominee tonight in a sixth-season finale that has the odd distinction of being both too early and too late. Early, because it's only the first week in April; late, because the show should have ended two years ago when it lost its creator, its soul and its purpose.
Granted, this season, which split focus between Alan Alda's Republican candidate and Jimmy Smits' Democrat, is an improvement on the last, which had no focus at all. But the show is still only a patch on what it was when the now-banished Aaron Sorkin created it, and the prospects ahead look even bleaker. Couple a new fictional administration with new real-life budget cuts, and you have to figure we're going to see much less of the original stars than we'd like.
Other long-running shows have gone through drastic cast changes and survived, sometimes even prospered. But The West Wing is different from most ensemble dramas in that it isn't built around a workplace or crime-solving procedures. It may be set in the White House, but it is the story of one group of occupants, all of whom are connected to the Bartlet administration. Without them, you have the West Wing but not The West Wing.
And this housecleaning is what NBC is trying to sell as a "creative revitalization"?
The truth is, under the guidance of ER producer John Wells, a show that was once TV's best drama has morphed into a second-rate White House version of ER. What made West Wing distinctive was not just Sorkin's gift for dialogue, it was also his vision. His show was a romance, a modern Three Musketeers hymn to the glory of civic service in which all the staffers were willing to sacrifice personal ambition for a common, greater good.
That vision is gone, and in its place is a perhaps more realistic but far less novel and involving story of a staff divided by internal and external politics. The show even made us endure a fight between Toby and Josh that has to rank as the last thing any fan ever wanted to see — unless that spot of dishonor is claimed by poor Leo's ludicrous weekend in Havana.
But the whole notion that people wanted to see West Wing elect a new president is simply beyond me. Viewers weren't wild about watching President Bartlet run for office — and they liked him. There was never any reason to think they'd be eager to watch his replacement be chosen.
None of this is to blame Smits or Alda, who have done their best to breathe life into roles that strain credibility. Nor is it to fault the remaining original cast members, who provide the only flashes of brilliance the show has left. But not every series is able to support an unlimited run.
West Wing began its life with an expiration date stamped on its electronic forehead: the end of the Bartlet administration. Creatively, it didn't even last that long.
For heaven's sake, NBC, stop trying to make it last longer.
Posted by Jo at April 6, 2005 03:51 PM