West Wing came around during a time in my life that I didn’t care about/for that format of show. Now, I love it. One of the best shows I’ve ever watched all the way through—almost zero complaints.
Their closing credits music 100% ruins the tone of some episode endings and that should have been sorted out before those episodes aired, but still a great series.
“Mr. President, they’ve got your daughter!” *tense looks on all faces with tears in the First Lady’s eyes - Fade to Black - Most upbeat and patriotic music you’ve ever heard blasts from your TV.
Beyond that, great series, and yes, the pilot episode stands alone as a solid work of art and is well worth a watch. Just be warned that it might draw you into watching 7 seasons of 20+ episodes and still leave you hungry for more.
It’s a great ep. Unfortunately, WW is kinda gauzy and overly idealistic and overly talkative (a virtue mostly) compared to where it ought to be.
And isn’t not quite fair to compare the broadcast WW to cable shows with fewer family-friendly rules and far better writing conditions for the writers rooms
I’d have to be a TV historian to know what the best ep or best first ep ever is.
And there’s the weirdness of comparing shows from diff decades, when audience expectations are different; and of comparing drama to comedy.
So I dunno.
Also my tv watching is way out of date. So WTF do I know?
@f00l@yakkoTDI speaking of that, yes HBO now MAX still has good and new stuff, but they deleted several shows completely. Just not available. Among them is Westworld. If you can still get discs or buy from another source you may still be able to watch. I have S1,S2 discs but I think there were 4 seasons. Another show I wanted to watch was Raised by Wolves also gone.
Plenty of episodes from Person of Interest could have been movies. (The crew filmed season finales like they were series finales.)
I could also mention old 80s cartoons that had quite the epic multi-part pilot (even Batman Beyond managed a primetime premiere).
But the West Wing was definitely a show that raised the bar for cramming hours of dialog into minutes. (Arrested Development did something similar with fast talking comedy.)
I think it was 2003 we were on a motorhome trip and had a sat dish to set up if staying for a few days. A channel had a West Wing marathon so watched a bunch in order (except for occasional sleeping). This was before mobile internet and streaming. I now have it both on disc and streaming but hesitant to watch again for reasons some may share.
C’Mon-- Battlestar Galactaca 2004’s reboot pilot was probably the best standalone.
Then again, “The Americans” had some fantastic moments too…
West Wing was a great show… Hard to believe that if Aaron Sorkin wrote a script of this last month’s actual events, it’d have been deemed too unbelievable for TV.
Every Aaron Sorkin show usually had a some pretty personal and amazing monologues (Studio 60, The Newsroom, etc) and Leo’s explanation of drugs and alcohol was some of the most amazing and difficult moments on TV.
yes
@jouest Ok perfect. End of thread.
@ChadP @jouest Employee bias. I’ve never seen it so I can’t comment. Will definitely be watching it this week, though!
West Wing came around during a time in my life that I didn’t care about/for that format of show. Now, I love it. One of the best shows I’ve ever watched all the way through—almost zero complaints.
Their closing credits music 100% ruins the tone of some episode endings and that should have been sorted out before those episodes aired, but still a great series.
“Mr. President, they’ve got your daughter!” *tense looks on all faces with tears in the First Lady’s eyes - Fade to Black - Most upbeat and patriotic music you’ve ever heard blasts from your TV.
Beyond that, great series, and yes, the pilot episode stands alone as a solid work of art and is well worth a watch. Just be warned that it might draw you into watching 7 seasons of 20+ episodes and still leave you hungry for more.
Prob not.
It’s a great ep. Unfortunately, WW is kinda gauzy and overly idealistic and overly talkative (a virtue mostly) compared to where it ought to be.
And isn’t not quite fair to compare the broadcast WW to cable shows with fewer family-friendly rules and far better writing conditions for the writers rooms
I’d have to be a TV historian to know what the best ep or best first ep ever is.
And there’s the weirdness of comparing shows from diff decades, when audience expectations are different; and of comparing drama to comedy.
So I dunno.
Also my tv watching is way out of date. So WTF do I know?
IMO the first episode of Mad Men is the best standalone episode of all time. Could have been a movie all by itself with a slight bit of rewrite.
@Pavlov To me it has a cliffhanger, so it doesn’t stand alone.
There is a TV show called The West Wing?
@yakkoTDI
No. That’s a myth.
There one called “The Wild Wild West”
And one called “Westworld”
And maybe some others.
That guy Sorkin is just an illusion.
/giphy “west wing” sorkin
@f00l @yakkoTDI speaking of that, yes HBO now MAX still has good and new stuff, but they deleted several shows completely. Just not available. Among them is Westworld. If you can still get discs or buy from another source you may still be able to watch. I have S1,S2 discs but I think there were 4 seasons. Another show I wanted to watch was Raised by Wolves also gone.
@pmarin @yakkoTDI
Were these HBO originals?
@f00l @pmarin @yakkoTDI
You can watch Raised By Wolves on PRIME
Hah. Hmm.
Jane the Virgin had a doozy of a pilot
Plenty of episodes from Person of Interest could have been movies. (The crew filmed season finales like they were series finales.)
I could also mention old 80s cartoons that had quite the epic multi-part pilot (even Batman Beyond managed a primetime premiere).
But the West Wing was definitely a show that raised the bar for cramming hours of dialog into minutes. (Arrested Development did something similar with fast talking comedy.)
I think it was 2003 we were on a motorhome trip and had a sat dish to set up if staying for a few days. A channel had a West Wing marathon so watched a bunch in order (except for occasional sleeping). This was before mobile internet and streaming. I now have it both on disc and streaming but hesitant to watch again for reasons some may share.
West Wing wax so good that I would have voted for Martin Sheen if he ran for president.
@somf69
That’s one of my probs with that show. The fictional political reality presented there was way too fairytale attractive.
C’Mon-- Battlestar Galactaca 2004’s reboot pilot was probably the best standalone.
Then again, “The Americans” had some fantastic moments too…
West Wing was a great show… Hard to believe that if Aaron Sorkin wrote a script of this last month’s actual events, it’d have been deemed too unbelievable for TV.
Every Aaron Sorkin show usually had a some pretty personal and amazing monologues (Studio 60, The Newsroom, etc) and Leo’s explanation of drugs and alcohol was some of the most amazing and difficult moments on TV.