I spent an hour this evening having my blood slowly boiled by another of ‘The West Wing’, (Yes, they do show it over in the UK on Channel 4)
When the series first appeared, last year, I thought it was rather promising. Yes, I realise that the premise was a Democrat President but, nonetheless, it was blessed with a good cast, a sharp script and the kind of slick production values we have come to expect from these high-profile American TV dramas. Of course, I had to put up with left bias but it was, for the most part, tut-worthy rather than infuriating. But it is rapidly becoming infuriating. Tonight it almost jumped off the scale.
The whole series seems to be nothing more now than a barely-disguised vehicle for left-wing propoganda and American ‘liberal’ neurosis. The threadbare plotlines are nothing more than emotive appeals on behalf of some chic left-wing canard such as gun-control, the environment, affirmative action and ‘hate’ groups. The President is, apparently, obsessed with these subjects and little else. The rarely-seen (and never heard) Republicans are always portrayed as knuckle-dragging racists who only want to get into power so that they hang homosexuals from lamposts.
The once-sparkling dialogue has debauched into a painfully contrived polemic and the attempt to disguise it as a dialogue makes it all the more embarrassing:
“C.J. we should be going after these hate groups now”
“No, Josh, its an election year. Our priority has to be to save the Alaskan Spotted Beaver”
It really does get that bad. The characters do everything short of making a direct appeal to the camera and, in some ways, it would actually better if they did. The whole thing smacks of an increasingly ham-fisted exercise in getting messages across rather than entertain. If anyone has not seen ‘The West Wing’ yet then I recommend you do so, if only to learn how not to do TV drama.
Still there is one good thing: the actress who plays the character of ‘C.J.’ – Hubba hubba
