In today’s television column, John Doyle talks about the cancellation of The West Wing…and quite frankly, I think he’s totally wrong in his analysis of the show’s decline.
First of all, he says the following:
“The events of Sept. 11, 2001, put The West Wing in an awkward position. Nothing in its parallel universe could match the traumatic shift in the American culture. The show could no longer stand as a vague criticism of the Bush administration simply by presenting a more agreeable, sophisticated but fictional White House.”
Sheer and utter nonsense. Did Mr. Doyle actually WATCH Issac and Ishmael? That episode was a beautiful little morality play that simply offered viewpoints without being judgemental. Was it preachy? Of course it was…but it was also a calm, rational, warm shelter of humanity. It was a refuge from the angry, emotional, reactionary drum-beating of the real world…and it was necessary, in the face of such destruction and sadness and so many calls for vengeance. It was the only show brave enough to do such a thing, and it should be cherished.
He goes on, naturally…
“The first, post-Sept 11 episode of The West Wing was one of the most watched. As an attempt to deal with the terrorist attacks and the new American reality, it was awful — preachy, adolescent and filled with simple-minded homilies and uncomplicated answers to questions about terrorism. It was the show’s first significant failure and highlighted the serious difficulties of dramatizing American politics when the real ground had shifted massively. The fictional Democratic administration of Josiah Bartlet on TV looked less like a parallel world and more absurdly out of sync with the overpoweringly raw reality.”
Again, did he WATCH Issac and Ishmael? Has Mr. Doyle been watching the last two years of this glorious show? Watching as a moderate Republican candidate drives a stake through political realities? Watching as the Democrats tear themselves apart as they try to re-define themselves? Watching as a declining administration faces realities and limits on power that get in the way of being idealistic? The last two years of The West Wing have been a renaissance, because it reframes the questions that the real, raw America is struggling with…and shows that its television counterpart can struggle with the same issues, in a different context. Never has the parallel universe aspect of The West Wing been so successful in counter-point to reality.
“In the last two years…it stayed mainstream.”
Ok…that takes the biscuit. Watch Shutdown, and see the most amazingly profound and populist resolution to a budgetary crisis. Watch The Supremes and be amazed by the most beautiful summation of the greatness of the Supreme Court, and its role in both society AND history. Watch NSF Thurmont and witness that there are never easy answers to the Palestinian conflict: not only used as a brilliant surrogate for Iraq, but also eerily perscient of more recent problems in the region. In the last two years, The West Wing has never been more poignant, more topical, and more relevant.
Finally, the most gobshite statement John Doyle has ever made:
“Mind you, on another network on another day…a new U.S. President already exists in prime time. She’s played by Geena Davis and, on Commander-In-Chief, she’s as intriguing as Josiah Bartlet used to be, years ago.”
Oh spare me! Commander-In-Chief is pure soap, masquerading as political drama. Everything it has tried so far has already been done by The West Wing, only better (just compare their recent limp two-parter about a missing sub off the coast of North Korea to the sublime West Wing version, Gone Quiet). Commander-In-Chief is a show full of superb actors working with mediocre material: it veers between schmaltzy pap, teenage problems, and overly happy endings. The West Wing remains a pinnacle of television drama, with superb actors working with magnificent, poetic material. There are no easy answers, and many endings are ambiguous at best…and far, far from happy at worst. Just like the messy, complicated real world it parallels…
When my Civics students watch Issac and Ishmael, they sit in stunned, engrossed silence — held captive by a soulful episode, where they reflect the student audience in the story. John Doyle, take your lack-brained opinion and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine. You have no idea what you’re talking about.
