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With the ghost of creator Aaron Sorkin fully expunged from the spotlit soundstage maze representing that most busy portion of the White House, the sixth season of The West Wing is less a return to form than it is a remaking of the things that were best about the show in the first place. There's C.J. and Josh throwing high-speed dialogue at each other; there's the tension and personality arc as characters are back in step with their original realization; there's the overarching story that runs throughout the 22 episodes along with the self-contained mini-dramas within each one; there are the new people who bind themselves to plots that are alternately tidy and messy, just like real life. The taking-stock the show's creative minds clearly did after a roundly drubbed season five had a lot of help from the necessity of thinking ahead to a new crop of faces and places as the Bartlett administration starts winding down its second term. Some of the plot points may be a little hard to swallow: Would C.J. really deserve to take over the Chief of Staff position? Would Josh really walk away from his dream job to pursue the seeming nightmare of running a presidential campaign for not-a-chance-in-hell Rep. Santos (Jimmy Smits)? Thankfully the answer turns out to be yes in these fully crafted episodes, even as they still sometimes ring with the people-don't-really-talk-that-way banter that makes up most of the conversation in the Oval Office or hallways of the elaborate set.
Jimmy Smits isn't the only welcome new regular face in season six. Alan Alda grandly returns to the medium that made him with effortless authority playing Republican senator and front-running aspirant to the West Wing's throne, Arnold Vinick. From his modest introduction, to the nuances of personality that slip through over the course of the season, Vinick is definitely one of the people we want to see more of. Adding her own personal flair and tweaking the subtleties of the scripts is Lily Tomlin as President Jed's protective secretary. Gary Cole plays smarmy and vapid with elan as the Vice President who believes he's heir apparent, and disgraced ex-VP Tim Matheson returns from the political graveyard, unbelievably believing he has a chance to win his party's nomination. The politics are still integral to the drama, with fiery President Martin Sheen refusing to go gentle into that good night of professional or personal shadows. The late, great John Spencer also brings poignancy to his last days as ex-Chief of Staff Leo McGarry, scenes made all the more touching by the actor's death in 2005. As with its best early seasons, The West Wing again proves that strong writing, top-flite production design, and authoritative acting always covers flashes of skepticism and makes great TV.--Ted Fry
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By C. S. Sauvé
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
What the!? We've gone from having half-hearted Close Captioning that doesn't closely/completely reflect what is said to what appears on the screen to having ONLY French and Spanish CC... Thanks so much, West Wing...
My first set for Season 6 shipped without the booklet inside, but Amazon allowed me to return it and the replacement had the booklet included. Sadly, that booklet is of horrible quality: Not only did they remove the at a glance first page of the previous Seasons, they also decided not to keep each DVD on its own page, so there were a few times that I was surprised to be on the final episode because the page still had another one listed on the page. (The Disk # titles are there, but of the same colour as the regular devides and so not easy to see if you're doing a multi-day marathon.)
The only bonus feature (past the commentaries) is a blurb on C.J. Cregg's growth during the first 6 Seasons. The other Seasons have deleted scenes on top of cast interviews.
Also, the "flag burning" episode is pure preaching politics to the listeners, which is a bad, bad way to go for the show. One of the writers actually admits to writing his own politics into the first episode of the final disk.
The DVDs are single-sided, but have a weird double, stacked structure where you need to remove one disk to get at the one beneath it (take out Disk 1 to watch Disk 2, then remove it again to put the disk away again...) which is annoying.
The State of the Union episode is where it is glaringly obvious that the new writers aren't comfortable with speeches like Aaron Sorkin was. In fact, they appared so scared of it that they made a whole other plot for campaigns that only involve main characters (at least until they build up interest in the new arrivals) because they were taken away from President Bartlet in the first place. Not that that's horrible exactly, but they never continued the show into the new administration. (What a waste...)
My first set for Season 6 shipped without the booklet inside, but Amazon allowed me to return it and the replacement had the booklet included. Sadly, that booklet is of horrible quality: Not only did they remove the at a glance first page of the previous Seasons, they also decided not to keep each DVD on its own page, so there were a few times that I was surprised to be on the final episode because the page still had another one listed on the page. (The Disk # titles are there, but of the same colour as the regular devides and so not easy to see if you're doing a multi-day marathon.)
The only bonus feature (past the commentaries) is a blurb on C.J. Cregg's growth during the first 6 Seasons. The other Seasons have deleted scenes on top of cast interviews.
Also, the "flag burning" episode is pure preaching politics to the listeners, which is a bad, bad way to go for the show. One of the writers actually admits to writing his own politics into the first episode of the final disk.
The DVDs are single-sided, but have a weird double, stacked structure where you need to remove one disk to get at the one beneath it (take out Disk 1 to watch Disk 2, then remove it again to put the disk away again...) which is annoying.
The State of the Union episode is where it is glaringly obvious that the new writers aren't comfortable with speeches like Aaron Sorkin was. In fact, they appared so scared of it that they made a whole other plot for campaigns that only involve main characters (at least until they build up interest in the new arrivals) because they were taken away from President Bartlet in the first place. Not that that's horrible exactly, but they never continued the show into the new administration. (What a waste...)
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Seriously? After 5 seasons of quality production, Warner's cheaped out and made this unwatchable by those who rely on Closed Captions (and mushy sons doesn't assit thei case). Fail.
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4.4 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
The West Wing ,for a sixth time!
After the first four interesting and engrossing seasons the 5th was disappointing but this 6th season has improved quite a lot. Read more
Published on April 20 2011 by Jillly Bean
4.0 out of 5 stars
Alan Alda and Jimmy Smits want lame duck Martin Sheen's job on "The...
The difference in the style if not the substance of "The West Wing" in the wake of Aaron Sorkin's depature crystalized for me in the final episode of the series when I realized... Read more
Published on Jun 12 2006 by Lawrance M. Bernabo
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