The West Wing

TV Somewhere along the line, The West Wing (season seven of which has begun playing on More4) became its own spin-off show. I mean it's set in the same universe and sometimes Josh Lyman from the old show pops up to talk about everyone staying on message and looking pained when his candidate makes another mistake but really this isn't the show I was watching last season (or last week for me) let alone six years ago.

I mean I can understand the problem the show had. Given that a president only has eight years in office and they began a year in, if the show was to have any sustainability at some stage another President was going to be in the White House, and the audience was going to need to empathise with whoever that man might be. Also, there's possibly only so much that can happen in the Oval Office and the corridors leading to it. But really it's getting very confusing.

For the unitiated, rather than watching the campaign from the White House lawn and skipping large chunks as happened when Bartlett was re-elected, the programme is following the Democratic candidate Santos (played by Jimmy Smits), and the Republican Vinick (Alan Alda) on the trail with odd episodes here and there still devoted to shenanigans in the White House. The problem is the two versions of the show don't match, mix, meld. It's like watching (film reference coming) The American President one week and The Candidate another week followed by Tanner '88. Or if you want to really stretch the comparison, Deep Space Nine with the odd episode of Voyager now and then.

Even more strangely (or bravely) some episodes, like tonight's, are from Vinick's point of view. The show's had some criticism in the past for not being too moderate in their characterisation of the Republican. They tend to be portrayed as the nasty men who come along and ruin the plans of the Democrats. Vinick is a fairly moderate Republican, the idea being that he's more incidious because his policies attract both sides of the spectrum It's a smart idea. The problem is because he's a relatively new character and all you're emotional investment is elsewhere you spend much of the episode not caring (and it's worse if you're a democrat I suspect). Often something bad would happen to him and this would be the ad break cliffhanger -- and you're thinking 'But that good for Santos ... so why should I care if something bad happens to Vinick?'

It's not a problem with Alda's performance. Or in many respects the writing. And Janeane Garofalo (who plays an advisor on the Santos campaign) is still gorgeous (I fell for her in The Truth About Cats and Dogs and before that TV Nation and she's still amazing). It's just that it feels like a completely different show. It breaks the imaginary contract that the programme makers have with the audience that they'll be delivering a certain formula each week. In essentially dumping the format the show began with that contract is broken and the viewer is in the position of watching some programme every other week which doesn't relate to anything much which has happened in the previous six years. Basically the show's called The West Wing -- but tonight there wasn't even a phone call from there.

With this being the last series I'm hoping for something controversial. I want Vinick to win. Dramatically it's a more exciting conclusion. It ties up Bartlett's legacy and it allows the programme makers to describe what happens when an administration with one political leaning has to give way to another, one set of staff giving way to another. It should happen before the end of the series and the last few episodes should be about the characters we've watched for the past seven years coping with the job and political wilderness.

Indeed dramatically this whole season (and granted I'm only on episode three but you read things) might have been more gratifying if the lense had stayed firmly within the corridors of power watching a campaign in which the Republican are winning and seeing the clock tick away to the moment when their idiology gives way to another and knowing there was nothing they could do about it.

Perhaps next week will be better. But I miss Donna. And Will. I miss CJ being the press secretary. I miss those episodes which were about some obscure bit of constitutionalise which didn't make much sense but were dramatised with passion. When Toby's in his office it still feels like The West Wing but astronauts dying in space stations being saved by military space shuttles really doesn't.

Is Commander In Chief any good?