Want to begin to watch The West Wing..worth it?
 

I need another TV show to watch to eat up my commuting time and was thinking about the west wing. I started watching it towards the end of the series but never watched the beginning. Is it worth it? I hear the first few seasons are good, then Sorkin left, and it's hit or miss...thoughts??

The first three seasons and much of the fourth are incredible, the seventh is lots of fun, and even when it's not great it's still pretty good. If you like Sorkin's style or American politics, you'll probably like it.

das

Echoing what the resident primate said, give it a look. I hopped on the bandwagon when Bravo started airing them a few years back, and often found myself watching 10 of them consecutively every Saturday.

I have watched this series exclusively on DVD-can't wait for S7 BTW....

I have always wound up finishing each season within a few days. It's an excellent show.

And since I've seen many of the sets getting blown out around $20, it's a no-brainer.

Unless your a staunch hard-liner Republican, I think you'll like it.

Yes it's worth it.

Definitely the first 3 seasons. The 4th season was okay, although very strong at the end. The rest? Pretty meh, although the last season was decent.

yep definitely. Can't wait to pick up the complete series DVD thats out on Nov. 7. And Kristin Chenoweth :drool:

yes it is really really good, very well written, great cast.
win win for you my friend

Fixed!

Yes. As others have said, seasons 5+6 are a bit wobbily, but it never gets embarrasingly bad. And it picks up for the final year and ends on a (relatively) strong note.

I haven't had a marathon run of the show in its entirety yet... just watched them as they aired. I'm looking forward to the uber-DVD set next month to get started. :)

Sounds like I'll be starting up my dvd subscription again. I haven't watched Sports Night and want to and I watched the last season of Wing and currently enjoy Studio 60.

Thanks everyone!

I'm bumping this thread http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...kster/bump.gif because I just finished watching all 7 seasons - had picked up the Big Box o' DVDs set awhile ago after watching Studio 60 and instantly loving Sorkin's writing. Never watched West Wing when it was on, and blew through all 7 seasons pretty quick because it was just that damn good! I can't recommend this enough. Now that I'm done I feel an emptiness.. I guess I can always watch it again. :p

If you haven't done so already, do yourself a favor and pick up Sports Night -- Sorkin's first show. In many ways, it's better than West Wing.

Note that there's a 10th Anniversary DVD set being released at the end of September, so you may want to hold off until then.

Thanks for the tip!

Definitely check out Sports Night. It's the best thing he's ever done and he brought a lot of it with him to the West Wing

I get the love for Sports Night, but I think the highs of the first few seasons of TWW top it. Either way, you can't go wrong watching these shows. I'm about to rewatch TWW myself. I can't believe it's not on in syndication anywhere in my market.

I'll make another recommendation for Sports Night. I definitely think it was a better show than West Wing, which I often felt to be too preachy, even when I agreed with the politics.

Have to agree with boredsilly, I thought Sports Night was good but those first few seasons of West Wing, some of the best TV i've ever seen.

Hey I'm a republican and I loved west wing. Sports night in ways was better, but with less content you have to give it up to west wing

Wow, this bump is getting me all reminiscent for one of my favorite (I'd say THE favorite, if it weren't for The Wire) shows of all time.

Matter of fact... I can practically <i>smell</i> "Two Cathedrals" just itching to be viewed tonight...



-Doc

Absolutely, 100% YES. Unless you're Republican. :)

Watched it twice in the last year (DVD). Even the off seasons (4, 5 & 6) are really good and got better with repeat viewings.

In one of the DVD extras, Tommy Schlomme was saying that he'd have Democrats coming up to he and Sorkin saying, "I love your show and I love your politics," while Republicans would come up and say, "I hate your politics, but I love your show."


Not for nothin' (and I'm just about left of the Kaiser), but for every bone-headed, Mary Marsh, dumb-as-a-rock, zenophobic, crazy-christian neocon on the show, there is easily twice that number of intelligent, passionate, well-written Repubs. It's written from the point of view of a (fairly liberal) Democratic administration, but it's certainly not a left-wing propoganda machine that makes all Republicans look like gun-toating, whimpering Man-children or anything (That's what the actual government is for :D ).




-Doc

I just watched the "Two Cathedrals" episode yesterday (I've been rewatching the whole series, in sequence) and was amazed again at how well it was put together. I'm in awe of the excellence of this show, at least for its first few seasons. After that it drops from being a TV show embarrassingly better than almost anything else ever (a few series come close, but nothing tops it for overall quality, in my opinion) to being merely better than 90% of anything else ever.

Agreed, although I'd throw season 3 and the first half of season 4 in there as well.


-Doc