Do you love the fast-paced dialogue of Gilmore Girls, but wish we got more information about Rory being a reporter on the campaign trail? Do you want to see Rob Lowe or Dule Hill in a suit and tie for 154 consecutive hours? Did you love the interpersonal drama of Succession? Well, do I have a show for you.
Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing is a delightful governmental drama set in the White House. The show ran from 1998-2006, and covered the Presidency of Josiah Bartlet, a fictional Democratic president, along with the personal and professional lives of his staff.
The show contains a star-studded cast. Alongside the previously mentioned Rob Lowe and Dule Hill, Martin Sheen and Allison Janney also are a part of the main cast, alongside many other notable faces in the rotating secondary cast.
The cast’s performances are stunning. Several of the characters go through many changes that are executed well and shed light on several important issues, like mental health and women in the workplace.
The show gives a nuanced look at the stress that comes with running the country and had several script advisors who had worked in those very offices giving all the information they could.
That’s not to say the show is perfect. The show has a lot of casual sexism, even for the early 2000s, and the politics might not be something you always agree with. The vast majority of the characters are quintessential D.C. elite, and many of them do things that would not fly in today’s political landscape. But those things do not preclude the real reason I think most people should watch the show.
Unlike many of the more recent political TV shows, like House of Cards or Veep, the characters in these jobs care about the country. They care about the people and country they serve.
It shows a group of people who want the best for America and are willing to fight for it. While the pro-America sentiments can be heavy-handed, as it is in many other programs, this one also attempts to show that those same people, who care so much, can also call it wrong.
The West Wing shows that, despite their humanity and fallibility, if the people in office truly care about the people they lead, the country will end up better than they found it.
Abigail Spencer can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @ABairdSpencer.