The Wonder of 'The West Wing'

“The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels tonight...The streets of heaven are too
crowded with angels, but every time we think we've measured out our capacity to
meet a challenge, we look up
and we're reminded that the capacity may be limitless. We will do what is hard, we will
achieve what is great. This is the time for American heroes and we reach for the
stars.”
(From '20 Hours in America- The West Wing- Series 4).

I watch too much television: much of pure escapism,some of it entertainment and too much of it mind-rotting rubbish. But I love The West Wing. I am entirely betrothed to the promise of a better America (and therefore world) it projects- I rarely go a week(although I now get my Brad Whitford/ Josh Lyman fix from Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip: and get a Chandler Bing fix at the same time, my Rob Lowe /Sam Seaborn fix from Brothers and Sisters) without indulging in the next episode on the box sets that reside beside my DVD player.

I'm a girl with a minor degree in Politics. I've spent an inspirational summer in Washington DC as a Congressional Intern- a less than minor cog in the very mighty machine. So a fictionalised account of life in political crazed Washington is an obvious choice for a “televisual” obsession. Many of my memorable and most inspirational lectures while at Queens came from a visiting American Professor- who actually engaged in a dialogue within the lecture context (something that was severely lacking from the rest of my university lecture experience).

It is too easy to be disengaged with Politics: on a Northern Irish scale to be political is too often paralleled to being sectarian; on a national scale we are somehow the country cousins who've had enough attention for a while so we should now sit back, shut up and let somebody else make a mess of it for a change; and on our what has been described as an "unholy alliance" with G W Bush- it is too, too easy to be critical of a incredibly flawed situation.

In America there is one key political choice: you are either a Democrat or a Republican (there are of course the core shaking Independents/ Undecideds), you're Blue or Red, Pro-Guns or Pro- Choice...It says much about me that I'm able to define myself politically by American standards but sit on an uncomfortable fence here at home.
What The West Wing offers is a politics to believe in. An America that is what it wants to be: a country that models democracy for a waiting world.

Yes, I love the characters: I love their wit and their relationships, their oh so human flaws; the will- they, won't they romance of Donna and Josh, the intellectual and moral badinage between President Bartlett and Toby Ziegler, that Rizzo from Grease (Stockhard Channing) dumped Kenickie and married the President of the United States instead. I want to be CJ Cregg. I want to be Amy Gardner; and as for Sam Seaborn he is EVERYTHING I want a man to be- but its more than this, much much more.

The writing is simply phenomenal-you could write a book of modern philosophy on the gems of quotes this programme offers. The characters are believable, empathetic, witty, warm, intelligent; with both a deep passion and understanding for a complex country and its citizens. There are people here, especially the women, who inspire me to want to be more aware and involved; who remind me that democracy is not a right but a privilege; and that it is in fact our duty to humanity to be an active member of your local, national and global society.

This is a show that faces America's problems, unearths the dark periods of its recent history and presents answers to what then only seems like unanswerable questions. Nowhere else have I encountered such a clarified explanation for the Middle East conflict (a subject The West Wing returns to time and time again: most memorably perhaps in 'Issac and Ishmael'- their acutely apt response to the atrocities of 9/11a deeper understanding of America's relationship with Cuba (in '90 Miles Away) or with the political aftermath of each of the twentieth century wars.

By the series end they have intervened in Darfur, created a lasting Middle East Peace Accord; promoted a liberal woman to Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and elected a Hispanic President; which somehow makes the promise of this or a woman President, in the next actual Presidential election, potentially all the more probable.

The America it projects and the show itself, is not perfect and I'm sure if i was an American my view would be entirely different. There are times when the writing doesn't quite meet the mark when it is too sugar coated or gun-ho even for me. Although the willingness to explore the flaws of its own political system really is key to the philosophy of the show as a whole; I simply don't believe that 'Downing Street' - a British “televisual” counterpart would inspire in anywhere near the same way. I entirely believe that 'Carson's Corridors- Inside Stormont' would lead only to further ridicule of our own sapling system.

Maybe the Atlantic Ocean is not quite enough distance to give credence to my opinion. My Dad, from whom my political consciousness stems, used to say that I looked at the world through very rose tinted glasses.I guess this amazing programme allows my tempered view to exist if only in the corner of my living room.