I'm fascinated with the storyline of how the two Presidential campaigns are run, but whenever they cut to the Russia/China war over Kazakhstan, it sends me off to sleep. Not only does it sound like a bunch of mumbo-jumbo, but it just drags on and on.
Get back to the campaigns already!
Or just show us more of what Toby's up to - you can always count on him to be entertaining, even when he's being indicted.
I don't entirely disagree. I get that you need to have something for Jed, C.J., Will, Kate and the folks back at the White House to do, but like... I think it could have been something a little less dense and impenetrable than this. Maybe focus a bit on Bartlet's final months in office, his attempts to cement his legacy and maybe work a little more forcefully/altruistically now that he doesn't have to worry about ever getting elected again. But it seems like they wanted to reserve all domestic issues for Santos and Vinick, leaving Bartlet only with Foreign Policy, which was never the most interesting parts of the show.
share@Glozone Maybe focus a bit on Bartlet's final months in office, his attempts to cement his legacy...
That would've been terrific - show us what Bartlet does now that he doesn't have to worry about re-election. That way we get to see what he really cares about.
But instead we got endless yakking about an international conflict that I could barely understand.
An opportunity lost.
I wish they would have followed up on what Leo started in the 365 days segment when he talked about making the last days count. They made a big deal of it, and then, nothing. I would've loved to see what they did to fix some of the issues that they brought up.
share@sjmajors2001-278-697743 I forgot about that episode - it's s06e12 for those who don't know.
They came up with all these initiatives to pursue in their final year of office, and any of them would probably have been a better story than Kazakhstan. Yet as you say, we got nothing.
Me too!!! I was really hoping that this was the direction Season 6 would take. I'm on Season 6, Episode 16, Drought Conditions. I'm a little bored.
shareTook the words right out of my mouth!
Admittedly, I always enjoyed the international conflicts throughout the early seasons of TWW. But as you say, it would have been nice to bring closure on Bartlet's presidential tenure on resolving some the domestic/economic issues highlighted in Leo's "365 Days" episode.
The campaigns of S6 & S7, were excellent, and completely enthralling to the end; so much so that I hated it when they cut back to The White House and all the tedious goings-on with the Shuttle Leak and the Russia/China conflict.
But perhaps the writers introduced the international conflict in order to give Vinick the job of Secretary of State (as a compromise to the intended ending of having Vinick winning the presidency. But the death of John Spencer in the early part of S7 changed all that, and hence the Russia/China storyline)
“When is old news gonna be old news?”
― Arnold Vinick
Agreed, those episodes are just fillers with no budget
shareI know a long time has passed since you posted this, but do you happen to know what the rational was for the original plan of Vinick being president?
I read that it had something to do with surprising the audience and/or show how good of a candidate Vinick was even though he was a Republican or something like that.
(FYI I am not doing the blocking out thing like you did because 1. In three days it will be the 10th anniversary of the show being over, and 2. I don't know how to do it LOL)
No more games. No more chessboard of life. Now I think I'm just going to beat the $%#@ out of you!!!
I agree with the OP completely. I ripped seasons 6 and 7 from the DVDs and edited them myself to get rid of the whole Khazakstan-Russia-China subplot. I also got rid of all the Ellie's wedding stuff too for good measure (slowed everything down for me). the episodes are much better to re-watch now.
shareI've read in alot of articles that the idea that Vinick was meant to win the Presidency was a rumor, and that the intended idea was always to have Santos win, and that it wouldn't make alot of sense, and that John Spencers death leading up to that point was a tragic coincidence.
That being said i can see why so many people thought it was the case. it got a bit ridiculous what the show started doing to get Santos even with Vinick.
I guess I'm the only one who hated the campaigns in season 6-7. I skip those episodes when re-watching the series. I liked it better when all the core characters were together, bickering, bantering, and trying to make the country a better place. I liked the last 2 seasons (except the campaigns) but for me the show was at it's best in seasons 1-4.
shareI hated the campaign trail. The name of the show was "The West Wing" and I expected the show to take place there.
What even annoyed me more was making the last year of the Bartlet Administration disappear. It wasn't fair.
🎭All the world is a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed.
There's no denying the first 4 seasons were the zenith of the show in terms of popularity and writing. But as has been discussed ad infinitum, it all went badly wrong after Sorkin left, leaving S5 bereft of ideas, and all the lead players getting angry with each other.
So for me at least, I was quite pleased with S6 & 7 and the two campaign trails. It was the natural progression of the show now that Bartlet was close to completing his 2nd term in office. And quite frankly I was far more entertaining by Vinick & Santos than the silliness going on back at base camp. The campaign trails were a breath of fresh air, in all senses of the word. Not least to get out of those darkly lit offices in the west wing.
So I will always sit and <re> watch seasons 1-4 without question; 5 at a very steep push; 6 to focus on the party campaign and 7 for the presidential campaign. Everything else gets the FF treatment.
“When is old news gonna be old news?”
― Arnold Vinick (The West Wing)