LTTP: The West Wing (should I keep watching after Season 4?)

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Sculli,

Whether or not you watch season 5-7, you should at least watch the back half of 7. Every character gets an ending and they're worth watching.
 
S5 was garbage, didn't bother save for it bringing one of my favorite moments*. S6 was much better than S5, but still not as good as S1-4, though it's important for the Santos campaign setup & run, which is S7. S7 was good, but I think the last couple of eps. for that season were the best thing ever.

*
I loved CJ meeting Big Bird. Such a surreal moment but only wish that Sam was there to comment about it...
 
I don't want spoilers or specifics, but a simple yes or no. Does Sam make a return? Because I'm really feeling his absence now and shitty Leo ain't helping.
 
I power housed season 1 i loved that cliff hanger, i am in the middle of season 2 i don't like the southern republican girl character they got. Does season 2 get better?
 
Balphon said:
Yeah, at some point I felt they could have replaced him with a mop wearing glasses and I wouldn't have noticed.
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Will Bailey was such a useless character... Sam was and still is my favorite WW character, hands down.

It was odd seeing Josh Molina on Scandal when I was flipping through the channels on Sunday. I was like 'Why is Will Bailey here? I know this isn't West Wing...'
 
I always thought Will was a fine replacement for Sam as characters go. His interactions with Toby, particularly towards the introduction of the character, are good. They could've done a lot lot worse.

He's one of us.
 
I never really liked Will, but he joined the cast right around where the writing started to turn south, so he was really just a product of what the show was at that point.

Mandy on the other hand...
 
Finished Season 5. Yeah, that felt rather off.

My biggest problem was how Leo just turned into this massive prick out of nowhere. He became super unlikeable in this season.
 
Scullibundo said:
Finished Season 5. Yeah, that felt rather off.

My biggest problem was how Leo just turned into this massive prick out of nowhere. He became super unlikeable in this season.
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Yep. I get that he disagreed with everyone else...but like that? All that on and on and on in the second half of the season?

Don't you worry though, they'll assassinate another character far worse in the final season.
 
5-7 aren't as strong as the first 4, but you should watch it at least once. It closes the story of each character quite well... except for Toby.
 
Hazmat said:
I never really liked Will, but he joined the cast right around where the writing started to turn south, so he was really just a product of what the show was at that point.

Mandy on the other hand...
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Jesus christ I hated her character. She is the worst thing about the first season. She's supposed to be this big hot shot cut throat girl, then she ends up sitting down and shutting up when the grown folks are talking. Glad she was just erased from existence like marty mcfly. The show definitely needed to have far more Ainsley though. <3 Ainsley.

Blastoise said:
I stopped watching as soon as they kicked Sam Seaborn out. Eff that shit, he was my second favorite character.
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I'm pretty sure robe lowe left to do his own tv series that failed. So blame him.
 
skylenorman said:
5-7 aren't as strong as the first 4, but you should watch it at least once. It closes the story of each character quite well... except for Toby.
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and Leo? He doesn't even make it to the end. That's why Bartlet opening the framed napkin on the plane at the end was so tear jerking. Also, ya personally things were going well for everyone, but if the show would have continued, it would have been about stopping WWIII.
Toby was never that likable in the way expressed his views, and in a show that kept getting more unrealistic from season 5 on, the he continued dealing with things in ways that stayed true to his character.
 
Well the first two episodes of Season 6 have so far been worse than anything that was in the lacklustre Season 5. Really feeling that drop now.

And
just when Leo manages to peak in being an insufferable nuisance, they off him. Great job, guys.

Will trudge through the rest.
 
Scullibundo said:
Well the first two episodes of Season 6 have so far been worse than anything that was in the lacklustre Season 5. Really feeling that drop now.

And
just when Leo manages to peak in being an insufferable nuisance, they off him. Great job, guys.

Will trudge through the rest.
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It picks up halfway when Josh finds his own guy.
 
Scullibundo said:
Well the first two episodes of Season 6 have so far been worse than anything that was in the lacklustre Season 5. Really feeling that drop now.

And
just when Leo manages to peak in being an insufferable nuisance, they off him. Great job, guys.

Will trudge through the rest.
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FYI, John Spencer didn't get "offed" he died in real life.
 
Now that I finished the show I don't get the post S4 complaints. S5 is still very sold television and 6 and 7 were really great.

Also thank God they got rid of Mandy.
 
Season 5 is pretty rough, but early season 6 is my personal low point for the show. It's all worth watching, but the quality really takes a nosedive after Sorkin left.
 
Yeah I'm in the middle of S6 and it isn't great. S5 was bad, but early S6 was fucking woeful.

I can't believe they made me hate Leo.

And I still can't get over the fact that they replaced Sam Seaborne with that boring wet mop that is Will Bailey.
 
Just finished season 4, came into this thread to see if I should continue, see a nice huge spoiler from joedrum there...yeah...great.



In any case, Season 4 ended with a major cliff hangar. Is it possible to watch the first two episodes of season 5, and then skip forward to some episode in 6 in order to avoid the crap? If so, what episode should I land on?
 
AMUSIX said:
Just finished season 4, came into this thread to see if I should continue, see a nice huge spoiler from joedrum there...yeah...great.



In any case, Season 4 ended with a major cliff hangar. Is it possible to watch the first two episodes of season 5, and then skip forward to some episode in 6 in order to avoid the crap? If so, what episode should I land on?
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Just watch it.
 
I should mention I just watched the first episode since the end of Season 4 (I'm mid-way through Season 6) that I genuinely enjoyed. Bout time.
 
Finished Season 6. It was okay. Still a far, far cry from the Sorkin era. A lot of the characters become super-unlikable.

And damn if I'm still not super fucking disappointed that
the man being campaigned for President isn't Sam Seaborne. Throughout this whole season I kept thinking back to that episode where Bartlett has that talk with Sam at his desk. That 'one day it will be you' talk.

And again, I fucking hate hate hate Will Bailey. What the fuck.
 
Finished the series.

Should have stopped at the end of Season 4.

I can't believe how badly Toby was short-changed in the last episode or just how short-changed Bartlett was in the last 2 seasons.

Leo was never Leo after Sorkin left. And Sam's brief cameo returns were in name only. That wasn't the Sam I know.

Show was incredible in those first four seasons though.
 
Scullibundo said:
Finished the series.

Should have stopped at the end of Season 4.

I can't believe how badly Toby was short-changed in the last episode or just how short-changed Bartlett was in the last 2 seasons.

Leo was never Leo after Sorkin left. And Sam's brief cameo returns were in name only. That wasn't the Sam I know.

Show was incredible in those first four seasons though.
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last season was much more interesting than 5, but yeah the last two were nothing on the first 4.
 
I've only ever watched up to the ending of Season 4. Really enjoyed it, but knew at the time that Sorkin was gone from 5 onwards and the knowledge that he got fired, coupled with the fact that he was so key to the success of the show just meant I couldn't imagine it without his involvement. When I saw John Wells had penned the opener for Season 5 I was out.

Caught sight of the odd moment on TV in the years after, and the debate episode made me sit up and watch, at least for that alone. But from what I saw of the rest, it was like a bad tribute act.
 
Scullibundo said:
Finished the series.

Should have stopped at the end of Season 4.

I can't believe how badly Toby was short-changed in the last episode or just how short-changed Bartlett was in the last 2 seasons.

Leo was never Leo after Sorkin left. And Sam's brief cameo returns were in name only. That wasn't the Sam I know.

Show was incredible in those first four seasons though.
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You got emotional at the end of STiD but don't like S6 or S7 of TWW.

SMH.
 
SmashN'Grab said:
I've only ever watched up to the ending of Season 4. Really enjoyed it, but knew at the time that Sorkin was gone from 5 onwards and the knowledge that he got fired, coupled with the fact that he was so key to the success of the show just meant I couldn't imagine it without his involvement. When I saw John Wells had penned the opener for Season 5 I was out.

Caught sight of the odd moment on TV in the years after, and the debate episode made me sit up and watch, at least for that alone. But from what I saw of the rest, it was like a bad tribute act.
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Point of clarification, he and Tommy Schlamme left over difficulties working with WB. Supposedly (rumors I've read) they were frustrated that WB kept putting cost-cutting measures on the show despite it being very profitable and eventually they got fed up and left.

The other side of the story is that Sorkin was perpetually late turning in scripts which drove up the cost of episodes.

Source
 
Dax01 said:
You got emotional at the end of STiD but don't like S6 or S7 of TWW.

SMH.
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When you feel like a lot of the characters you're seeing come to an end haven't been themselves for the past couple of years, it's hard to get emotional.

The fact that the show had me actively disliking Leo for the final 3 seasons is amazing, considering I loved him in the first 4.

And yes, the show lost all its idealism. I no longer felt it was FOR something, outside of documenting a presidential campaign. It had lost its moral core.
 
Scullibundo said:
When you feel like a lot of the characters you're seeing come to an end haven't been themselves for the past couple of years, it's hard to get emotional.

The fact that the show had me actively disliking Leo for the final 3 seasons is amazing, considering I loved him in the first 4.

And yes, the show lost all its idealism. I no longer felt it was FOR something, outside of documenting a presidential campaign. It had lost its moral core.
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Disagree. Santos and Vinick represent the best qualities of their respective ideologies. TWW was about an idealized White House and it continued that moral core with an idealized presidential campaign. We'd be lucky having two candidates running like that.
 
Hi, my name is Megasoum and I am an adict....


So I'm going through the show....again, not even a year after my first watch (according to this thread history lol).

Starting Two Cathedrals right now.... SO GOOODDDDD.
 
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