Okay i watched it yesterday for the first time, I wasnt too impressed. It was a decent show, but not "the best on tv" like a lot of people claim. The few shows I've seen of the practice are a lot better than this. They are a lot more captivating.

Is the President supposed to be a democrat or republican?

It is pretty obvious that he is a Democrat (and a very liberal one at that), although I could see how last night's repeat could be confusing as to what party he represents.

I can't believe you find the Practice better. I used to watch The Practice the 1st season and a half it was on, but then the plots were getting so outlandish. How many different tragedies (shootings, bombs, serial killers, etc) and pitfalls can befall a 5 person law firm?

I've only seen a couple of episodes of the practice and no tragedies have happened yet.

It was pretty obvious the people were debating against the republicans on the tv show after the speech but in the beginning it also said he was trying to get the democratic leadership to agree with him, so that through me off. My roommate asked me if I was watching the "Left Wing" so I gues it has the reputation of being pretty liberal.

Yeah I probably disagree with 3/4 of what he "advocates" (I'm a Libertarian), but I really like the show despite that.

Venusian,
Even though the group occupying the White House are obviously democrat, the great thing about this show is that Sorkin (the writer) will show both sides of an argument. He even has a Republican lawyer working for them.

If you watch most of the episodes you see this quality very quickly. Most of the "Left Wing" hype is from that faction of society that loves to take down anything we put up on pedestals. Yes, there have been a couple of episodes that I hated - where Sorkin let his personal politics get in the way of writing the show, but overall that is not the mark of this series.

As for making a judgement after one episode.... uh... I'm not sure how to respond to that. Then you go on to say that the show you're comparing it to, The Practice, is something that you've only seen "a couple of times."

This is not a blast - but IMHO you should really watch something more than once before you come on and say it's not as good as people are claiming. Especially when the people saying it have watched most (if not all) of the episodes.

One of the great things about The West Wing is it's large arcs. It is not a serial (soap) but there are arcs that fall over 2, 3 or sometimes 4 episodes. If you aren't on the train from the beginning, you won't have any investment in what's going on.

Spend this summer watching both The Practice and WW. After you've seen about 7 or 8 episodes of each, then see if your current opinion still stands.

I know i'll have to watch more to fully appreciate the show, since the story didn't end yesterday.

I just noticed that a lot of people say the West wing and the practice are two of the best shows on tv. having seen only a couple practices and only one west wing, i was comparing the two based on what I'd seen and the practice won out so far.

Reiterating what others have said, I have watched "The Practice" from day one, and for a while it was probably the best show on. After a while, though, it got a little too outlandish, and while I still watch it and enjoy it, it's nowhere near what it was before.

On the other hand, "The West Wing" started strong and gets better each week. I don't think "The West Wing" at its best is as good as "The Practice" at its best, but "The Practice" hasn't been its best for a couple of years now. For the current seasons, "The West Wing" is a better show (my opinion, of course). I'm not sure if this season's "The West Wing" would hold up so well during other years, but for some reason most of the great shows had slightly off seasons this year, and it was the one show that consistently delivered intelligent programming. Next season, we'll see if it can keep it up or if some of the other contenders return to their prior glory.

das

Well the practice is made by the same people as Boston Pulblic, right? that show is also great but some of those story lines have also gotten a little too outlandish.

I agree. I did watch BP this year and noticed that the plots are escalating on the "out of hand" scale (it probably has already "jumped the shark"). I will continue to watch it next year, but I can see myself abandoning it if the plots continue to get more outlandish (although I do like the imprisoned mother plotline).

The good thing about "Boston Public" is that while the stories are outlandish, the humor is strong enough to keep me watching even if it's becoming a glorified soap opera. I don't take it very seriously, and consequently, I'm not too disappointed when they do something over the top.

das

Yeah, I'd have to agree that they've done a great job handling the politics on the show. Eventhough the politics of the show's characters are obviously centered along the lines of typical Hollywood style liberalism, there's enough intelligent debate to keep it from being annoying in an overwhelming way. More importantly, though, the characters are written as decent and sincere people working within a system that forces them to be political. That way, they can be admired and respected for their integrity despite any disagreements one may have with their politics.

If I have any complaints about the show, it's mainly that there's been several story threads that were started but then mostly abandoned. I'm thinking of the Rob Lowe character's meet cute intro to the Chief of Staff's daughter, the triangle thing with Josh and his secretary and Marlee Matlin, and the disappearance of John Laroquette's character among other things. Though, the latter was explained in the show as being due to a revolving door situation in the white house counsel's office, I was a bit surprised that they brought in Oliver Platt since they seemed to have invested quite a bit more in Laroquette's character than a one time guest shot would usually dictate. I suppose there could have been some behind-the-scenes issues going on there.

BTW, I remember way back during last year's Democratic national convention, they were talking about doing some shooting in Staples Center right after the convention was over. Did they actually end up using any of that footage? I don't recall seeing it.

the politics on this show make me but it's a pretty good show