The West Wing: Season 1 [DVD] [2002]

First of all what an amazing show, I got recommended by others to watch it and I'm glad I did. DVD quality looks surprisingly really good on this show. Included is a guide on every episode with description and high quality photos which I thought was a really cool extra. On two of the discs special features includes trailers, behind the scenes and interviews which are all fun to watch. The casing is great quality with pictures and will be treasured in my disc collection

These are the first 22 episodes of the greatest multi-season drama ever screened on television. Nothing less.The first six episodes alone are worth the price. No TV show in my lifetime has started as confidently, and with this much wit, intelligence and humanity. You will realise, by the time Josh gives up his nuclear attack escape card in episode 5, that this isn't just a heavyweight political drama. It is about beautifully-drawn characters and their relationship to each other.The quality of the writing, by creator Aaron Sorkin, is simply stunning throughout. It is matched by probably the greatest cast assembled for any television show. Then-unknowns like Richard Schiff and Allison Janney deservedly won Emmys for their roles. The show won a record 9 Emmys for this first season.There are many outstanding episodes; even the weakest one would get three stars. Special mention should be made of the Emmy-winning Christmas episode, "In Excelsis Deo", which could make a hardened cynic cry. Episodes 12 through to 15 display a show at the very top of its game, covering a presidential illness, the chief of staff's alcoholism, excruciating moral dilemmas over gay rights and the death penalty, and finally a superb comic episode with a powerful statement to make about race relations.Other major plot lines include a staff member's liaison with a call girl, an inter-racial relationship and the adminsitration's inability to govern effectively. It all builds up to a thrilling climax, which will make you buy season 2 as soon as it's all over.And do you know what? Season 2 is even better...

Television rally does not get much better than this. In a time when we are lucky enough to have a whole host of excellent TV dramas available to us, the West Wing neverthless stands out. What makes it so good?The characterisation is strong and convincing. Unsurprisingly, all the people surrounding the president are extremely bright, very forceful and have egos the size of the Empire State Building. The show manages to convince us that they also have the drive to work the long hours required and to advise, and even contradict the president on matters they believe in. What makes them bearable is their humanity, by which I mean their attachment to certain basic principles and, to an extent, the flaws in their character also. Heading up the team is Leo, the Chief of Staff, an old soldier whose marriage is heading for the rocks ever more swiftly as he devotes himself more and more to the service of the president. There is Sam (arguably the least successul of the main characters) whose intellectual brilliance does not prevent him from being hugely naive in certain respects. Josh and Mandy make a great double act, helped by the fact that they used to be partners, and a certain amount of unresolved sexual tension remains. Toby is a towering success as a character - a very strong sense of personal morality coupled with doubts about his personal self-worth. And CJ is a feisty, intelligent but lovable character who holds all the other together. One of the show's finest achievements is to show how this bunch of over achievers do not overwhelm the President, who, while taking their counsel, always remains resolutely his own man, deserving all their respect.Over and above the characterisation and the acting (also excellent), however, it is the skillful and sensitive writing that makes this show stand out for me. The writers clearly set their stall out as Democrats with Democrat values running through the show like a stick of Brighton rock. They also show the machinations of the White House - one of the most telling lines is "You should never let people see how two things are made - laws and sausages".All in all, an excellent series that I thoroughly recommend.