The West Wing

[Ben Varkentine]

If there are any West Wing fans in the audience, I wanted to plug an article I've written for the Ink 19 site looking at a couple of books, one called "The American Presidency as Television Drama" and the other the second collection of scripts from the series.



I warn you it's pretty long--about eight "pages"--but I hope you'll like it. As a special added "bonus" for Kittens, there's a couple of places where--well, I don't draw a direct parallel between WW creator Aaron Sorkin and our Joss, but...you'll know a couple of places where I was thinking of him.



http://www.ink19.com



ETA: Just wanted to let you guys know that the website for which I write my reviews, Ink 19, is giving away a copy of the second West Wing script book. You can enter (and see the contest rules, etc) at the link above.



My "Return to the West Wing" essay is still up there, too--he said, casually. Incidentally, we were asked last week if it could be included in a forthcoming issue of Film and History, an academic journal, which is kind of cool.

Ben



"Never be discouraged from being an activist because people tell you that you'll not succeed. You have already succeeded if you're out there representing truth or justice or compassion or fairness or love."

-- Doris 'Granny D' Haddock

Edited by: Ben Varkentine at: 3/8/04 11:51 am

[sam7777]

I watched about half of last season and the one before and liked the show. However, I bailed on it this season when I heard that Aaron Sorkin wasn't going to be working on it. I also didn't care for the plot with the speaker of the house becoming president. That said, the show was great with witty dialogue, interesting plots and great actors.

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I still see dead lesbian cliches

[mollyig]

I only started watching this during the third season. I really like the fast pace and wit of it. As a valentine's treat (and because amazon.co.uk were doing a great deal on it!) we bought the first two seasons on dvd, and usually watch a couple of episodes a night.

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"Love is just like breathing when it's true" Indigo Girls

[sam7777]

Glenn Close will be doing a guest shot:

TV briefs: Close to preside on 'West Wing'

Quote:

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Five-time Oscar nominee Glenn Close will don a judge's robes for a guest appearance on "The West Wing" later this month.



Close will play a potential Supreme Court nominee in the episode, scheduled for March 24 (9 p.m., KING). The role will be a relatively rare episodic-TV appearance for Close, whose last work on a series was a voice cameo on "The Simpsons" earlier this season and a "Will & Grace" appearance in May 2002.



Close will play a federal judge whom President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) considers appointing to the high court after a sitting justice unexpectedly dies. Her left-of-center politics, however, make her a tough sell to replace the dead justice, a staunch conservative.

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I still see dead lesbian cliches

[Ben Varkentine]

Just wanted to say for any West Wing/Tara fans, there's some potentially interesting material on the new West Wing Third Season DVD set.



In the last episode that year, they finally introduced a new character played by Lilly Tomlin, who would be replacing Mrs. Landingham as the President's personal secretary. That character had died at the end of the second season. Also in that episode (at the end of S3), another character is shot and killed.



The reason I think this might be of interest to Kittens is because in the commentary, series writer/creator Aaron Sorkin talks briefly about why it took them so long to replace Mrs. Landingham: In essence, he didn't want to capriciously replace someone who had been important to the series, important to the characters, and important to him. His difficulty in doing so became the characters difficulty in doing so.



The echoes were obvious, at least to me. You don't just stick someone in at random. And that's the President's secretary, it's not someone's soul mate.



They also talk about the difference in reaction when you kill off a character in a TV series than when you do so in film or on the stage. I remember one or two people around here theorizing once that this was part of reason ME seemed so blindsided by reaction to Tara's death: They didn't realize how much people come to care about a character who's in their homes every week.



Anyway, I've nattered on enough. Just wanted to mention the paralel.

Ben



"One voice is easily ignored or silenced, but when other people add their voices to yours, you become a chorus not easily ignored."--Wil "Just A Geek" Wheaton