The West Wing - The Complete First Season
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Actor: Allison Janney, Jason Ensler, Martin Sheen, Moira Kelly, Stockard ChanningBrand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 956 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-11-18
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
DVD Reviews of The West Wing - The Complete First Season
DVD Review: item in perfect condition!
Summary: 5 Stars
I am a WW devotee, and to have my Season 1 with scratches was making me nuts. This arrived in a timely fashion, as promised, and perfectly packaged, as promised, without a hint of damage to the discs. DVD Review: Look Behind the Writing and See Weak Stories
Summary: 3 Stars
Season one of The West Wing opens part way through the first year of the Bartlet Administration. President Jed Bartlet (Martin Sheen) is a first term Democrat from New England, and he has a strong staff helping him. That is, when they aren't caught up in personal issues. For instance, Deputy Communications Director Sam Seaborn's (Rob Lowe) new friend happens to be a prostitute. Chief of Staff Leo McGarry (John Spencer) is having problems in his marriage. And Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) is upset that they have hired former girlfriend Mandy Hampton (Moira Kelly) as a political consultant. Never mind the fact that she is the best in the business.
But along with the personal drama, there are also plenty of politics as The White House seeks to get various bills through Congress, or even a Supreme Court Nominee. Fortunately, CJ Cregg (Allison Janney) is on hand to properly deal with the press during all the ups and downs of the first year.
I know this show was popular when it aired, but I never even tried to get into it. In fact, I only watched this season because my best friend passed it on to me. The pilot confirmed my worst fears as conservative Christians come out of that looking like complete hypocrites. But I pressed on. Even from there, the show was a mixed bag.
I must admit, I have grown to love these characters, especially President Bartlet. The one exception is Mandy, who is just too sanctimonious for her own good. On the other hand, the conversations that Josh has with his assistant, Donna Moss (Janel Moloney), are often the highlights of the episodes for me. While the show does present a liberal agenda very favorably, it does begin to have a more balanced portrayal of conservatives as it goes along.
However, the storytelling is very weak. This is most noticeable in the first few episodes. We are just dumped into a story and not really told who any of the players are. I had to look them all up myself. Multiple episodes are completely predictable, and not just because of a formula but because of cliches used too many times before elsewhere. Several of the episodes are more a chance to preach to us then entertain us. And some of the best potential storylines of the season are abbreviated for no reason I could find.
And, of course, the show is always praised for its writing. Yes, it is fast paced, but I also found it too smug. And the walk and talks? Seriously, I was about ready to tell the characters to stand still several times.
Despite the weaknesses, I must admit, I need to know what happened next. I am looking for ways to continue the series cheaply.
I didn't find this season to be as wonderful as everyone else, but there is still some entertainment value here. I'm probably alone in this assessment, but you might want to catch some reruns before you buy this set.
DVD Review: West Wing Season 1
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a fantastic series with great writers and actors. I loved it while it was on TV and am happy with the purchase so I can watch these shows over again.DVD Review: After Two Comes One
Summary: 5 Stars
I found the Complete Second Season of West Wing for my daughter for Christmas. Any West Wing season was on her wish list. So I got her this first season for her January birthday. She was very happy. You knew she really followed West Wing when she named her dog after one of the characters!DVD Review: Moral idealism for Grown ups
Summary: 5 Stars
Don't we all want the heads of our countries and states to have idealism, intelligence, ethics? Don't we want our leaders to care genuinely about their people and to surround themselves with visionaries who are also pragmatists so that great ideas are actually realized? Most of all, don't we want to be able to have faith in the people who have the power to get done the things for which government is responsible and know that our faith will not go unrewarded?
The West Wing's characters portray all of the above qualities, and more! Really great writing and fabulous acting combine to create characters that are as real as the people playing them, right out of the starting gate. Like characters in your favourite novels, you don't want the season to end; but alas all good things, eventually, do.... (Thank goodness for season number two.)
To the reviewer who wrote: "The West Wing is a such an overt propaganda for the Hollywood liberal agenda that some probably wish Martin Sheen was actually president. Lamentable and idiotic show..." eat your heart out, baby. Idealism just took over the real White House in a landslide defeat for cynicism.
Description of The West Wing - The Complete First Season
Go behind the scenes and experience the inner workings of the White House in this innovative drama series with humorous overtones from Emmy winner John Wells, Emmy nominee Aaron Sorkin and Emmy winner Thomas Schlamme. Winner of 24 Emmy Awards and 3 Golden Globe Awards!DVD Features:
Deleted Scenes
Documentaries
Gag Reel
Other
Conventional wisdom prior to season one of The West Wing was that the only successful television shows were half hour sitcoms and hour long police, legal, or medical dramas. Building on surplus ideas from his film The American President and the walk-and-talk style of comedy and drama from his critically acclaimed television show Sports Night, Aaron Sorkin bucked the trend and created his masterpiece, one of the most memorable American political depictions to reach the big or small screen. Season one introduces viewers to a Nobel Prize-winning economist and unabashed intellectual president Jed Bartlet (Martin Sheen) and his key staff members, a newly elected Democratic administration trying to find its footing amidst the corridors of the White House's west wing. To the credit of its cast and their brilliant ensemble acting, The West Wing manages to immediately conjure nearly a dozen distinct and memorable characters. Perhaps the greatest star of all is Sorkin's rapid-fire dialogue, especially as delivered by Press Secretary C.J. Craig (Alison Janney), Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford), Deputy Communications Director Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe), and Chief of Staff Leo McGarry (John Spencer). They carry on conversations while stalking purposefully and unhaltingly down corridors, around corners, and through doorways, and all of it unfurls with the choreographic precision of a classical ballet and the pace of an Olympic ping-pong rally.
What emerges is more than a collective liberal dream of an impassioned administration battling back ultra-conservative bogeymen ranging from the religious right to bigots to gun-toting militants. Wonderful episodes like "The Pilot" and "In Excelsis Deo" portray a government led by heroic, intelligent, and decent men and women. Whether or not one regards that as a political fantasy, it's a remarkably refreshing and appealing vision of politics and its practitioners, one that the public embraced with consistently strong television ratings. In a country whose citizens are used to viewing their elected leaders with mistrust and cynicism, that might be The West Wing's greatest accomplishment. --Eugene Wei
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