Halfway Through Watching The West Wing

I missed watching the West Wing when it first aired. Watching Television on Thursday nights in college wasn’t high on my priority list. Current events and its availability on Netflix have caused me to go back and watch the political series.  The long campaign last year and the start of this year have made me a little demoralized in the idea of our government and politics in general. The idea of holding political office for the purpose of trying to work for the good of people is the ultimate noble ideal. The show highlights this aspect of governmental service. It shows the honor it is to serve in the White House and for an honorable man who is trying to do what he thinks is best for the United State of America.

I’m not saying anything new to anyone who watched the show when it was on television. The show, written and created by Aaron Sorkin, has his patented quick witted style and dialogue. I’m currently watching the fourth season which was his last on the show and I’m interested to see if I can notice a change for the fifth. There is very little in the show that I’m not enjoying. The only small parts which don’t interest me are the relationships between the staffers. The dating relationships don’t interest me. I’m watching the show for the politics and how the White House might potentially work.  When the show is at its best is when it is solving a crisis or working on trying to get a policy passed. Showing how hard it is to pass a law and the compromises they must make is true to politics. The same can be said of the foreign issues the President must face during his time in office. Each crisis or issue the team faces are hard and no easy decision usually presents itself, but the conviction of trying to do the right thing drives the compass of the show.

The idealized premise of the show is based in the nobility of those who work for President Bartlet. Right now with everything going on in the current White House, it’s nice to watch a show about the nobility of service. I don’t want to get into a political debate about what is happening currently, or about how things have been broken in Washington. This show while fictionalized gives me hope people who do work for the government can do it for a noble cause for helping. This may be naïve, but trying to make a difference to make the country a better place to live is the ultimate goal for politics. This gets lost in the mix much of the time, but I’m glad I can escape to a show to make me feel just a bit better about the country I live in. If I want to feel bad I can just turn on the news or watch House of Cards. I look forward to going through the rest of the show and probably will go back and watch it again, just to get the high of watching an idealized noble person serving in the White House.