The West Wing Rewatch

[CM-BlueButterfly]

Comment below to share if you watch the occasional episode, think you'll watch just one episode and then end up watching another and another and another or if it always has to be a rewatch of the entire series. Do you rewatch in order or at random?

[Sarah 103]

We watch "Shibboleth" around Thanksgiving and "Noel" around Christmastime every year. 

[Bastet]

I have seasons one through four on DVD.  I don't tend to watch individual episodes, just re-watches of those seasons because once I start I keep going, so they're not that frequent.

[General Days]

This whole forum is a great idea. Thanks, @CM-BlueButterfly.

My husband and I are in season 5 of a rewatch, right now. (We started at the beginning.) It's a nice antidote to real world politics.

Edited to add: if you have Max (i.e. HBO Max), it's streaming on there, for anyone interested in watching again.

Edited September 23, 2024 by General Days

[Calvada]

I have all the DVDs but haven't watched this for about three years.  However, having just read "What's Next" by Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack, I'm leaning towards a rewatch.  The last time, I watched every episode in Season 1 through 4, and then just a selection of episodes in the other seasons.  

[Skooma]

1 hour ago, Calvada said:

I have all the DVDs but haven't watched this for about three years.  However, having just read "What's Next" by Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack, I'm leaning towards a rewatch.  The last time, I watched every episode in Season 1 through 4, and then just a selection of episodes in the other seasons.  

Yeah I'd stop almost completely after Season 4 too.  I guess there might have been some decent episodes the last 3 years of the show but I don't really remember any.  And the last season was like an endless sad funeral for me.

[Fool to cry]

I like rewatching the guest appearances.

Edited September 24, 2024 by Fool to cry

[Sarah 103]

On 9/24/2024 at 12:56 AM, Skooma said:

Yeah I'd stop almost completely after Season 4 too.  I guess there might have been some decent episodes the last 3 years of the show but I don't really remember any.  And the last season was like an endless sad funeral for me.

Post Sorkin years episodes worth watching for those who never watched anything after Sorkin left:

"The Supremes" (if you like bedroom farce)

"Eppur Si Muove" 

"2162 Votes"

"The Debate"

"Election Night" (two part episode)

[GHScorpiosRule]

I’m loving this rewatch, despite what’s happened in the real world. Bartlet is portrayed as a flawed person and not perfect, as are all the characters. But I’ve never liked Donna-found her irritating and obnoxious as heck. And no amount of rewatches has changed that. Mandy is another one.

I’m up to season two now. And while I agree that Sorkin sucks at writing women, his seasons are the best and my favorite. It just became a different show after he left.

Edited September 29, 2024 by GHScorpiosRule

[Fool to cry]

On 9/29/2024 at 10:22 AM, GHScorpiosRule said:

I’m up to season two now. And while I agree that Sorkin sucks at writing women, his seasons are the best and my favorite. It just became a different show after he left.

Yeah but it wasn't a bad show IMO. Yes we miss the throwback screwball comedy rat a tat dialogue and the Paddy Chayefsky inspired speeches Sorkin wrote but it was still a very good political drama.  

[Sarah 103]

Here's my big picture/overall opinion of the post-Sorkin years. The 5th season is a mess with only a few episodes worth watching.  It felt like the creative team wasn't really sure what to do with the series or how do to the series in general.

The 6th and 7th seasons are a vast improvement over the 5th season, but not as good as the Sorkin years. I think part of the reason the 6th and 7th seasons are better than the 5th is that the structure of the primaries in season 6 and the general election in 7 helped tremendously.