CORPORATE LINE: President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) continues his residency in the White House during this fifth season of the popular NBC show. The lives of his backroom staff and family fall under as much scrutiny as the man himself, offering a fascinating glimpse of what life as the president of the United States could be like. The season begins with Bartlet’s daughter, Zoey, still in the hands of kidnappers. As the rescue effort gathers pace, art imitates life as suicide bombers, the Israel-Palestine conflict, and the threat of terrorism loom large–all of which were pertinent issues in 2004 when this season was shot. Meanwhile, Bartlet’s staff struggles to keep the press under control, the funeral for a former president finds Bartlet distracted by the situation in Saudi Arabia, a documentary crew descends on the White House, and a contamination alert breaks out in the West Wing. In this absorbing piece of television, Martin Sheen and the supporting cast deserve credit for their realistic portrayal of life in the White House.
THE SHOW: The Fifth Season of The West Wing is sub par. The first few episodes started strong only to slowly and lose its intrigue. The kidnapping continues and Glenallen Walken (John Goodman) is running the country. This narrative is interesting and one of the few narratives that is interesting. Once this story ends the show loses its momentum.
Between narratives of a mediocre vice president selection and selection of Supreme Court judge you can feel the creativity slowly leak-out. It’s the usual Republican and Democrat argument back and forth with no new ground. The season gets exciting towards the end of the season—just in time for them to leave a cliffhanger that involves Donna going to the Middle East.
THE EXTRAS:
Commentary by John Wells and Alex Graves on episode “7A WF 83429” and another commentary by John Wells and Christopher Misiano on the episodes “The Dogs of War” and commentary by Alex Graves, Jessica Yu, and Debora Cahn on “The Supremes” episode. There are interesting points in the commentary—however the fact that they don’t have commentaries for all the episodes hurts.
“In POTUS We Trust” has cast members Martin Sheen, Stockard Channing, Dule Hill, Allison Janney, Richard Schiff, John Spencer, and Bradley Whitford.
There are featurettes entitled “Gaza: Anatomy of an Episode” and “Unaired scenes on three episodes.”
FRANKLY: The fifth season on The West Wing lost a lot of its heft. For four seasons the show was better than many dramas on television—the show seemed untouchable—until the fifth season showed chinks in the armor.
+ Charlie Craine
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