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HTF REVIEW: The West Wing - The Complete First Season (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED). (1 Viewer)

EricW

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just finished the set and all i can say is WOW :) i'm a big fan of Sports Night on DVD but i never got around to ever watching this series on tv. hope the following seasons come out soon.

1. why are there anamorphic menus when the show itself is 4:3?

2. i'm not crazy about the subtitles being "generalizations" of the dialogue, especially when the dialogue is so front and center in this show. i can CC the tv but that takes like 6 button pushes.

3. i know many people don't like the current season of WW, but how are the 2nd and 3rd season considered?
 

Dane Marvin

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3. i know many people don't like the current season of WW, but how are the 2nd and 3rd season considered?
They're actually on season 5, so you might want to ask how season 4 is too. The second season is incredible. It's as good as -- and many times better than -- the first season.

Season 3 was inferior to the first two but still included many moments that made it deserving of its third straight Emmy win for Best Drama and also included the finest John Spencer performance I've ever seen.

Season 4 was about the same as 3. Many great moments and every episode more intriguing than any other drama on TV. Matthew Perry had an excellent episode arc that garnered him an Emmy nomination.

Season 5, the first without Sorkin/Schlamme is a mixed bag. I'd say half the episodes have been great, a little less than half are average, and one or two not so good. But even the bad episodes have good moments, and even under different writing, the cast continues to standout. Still one of the best on TV.

Also, I agree with you on the subtitles. Just awful. I use them if I didn't hear what a certain character was saying at a certain time. With these subtitles, I STILL won't know exactly what they said. The hearing-impaired folk out there must be wondering why the dialogue in the show gets so many accolades. I did catch a season 3 episode on Bravo with CC on and the captions were spot on match. Hopefully, these are used in future seasons on DVD.
 

DanielCo

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Season 4 was about the same as 3. Many great moments and every episode more intriguing than any other drama on TV. Matthew Perry had an excellent episode arc that garnered him an Emmy nomination.
With all due respect (that's never a good start, right?), Season 4 featured story lines that got more bizarre and forced each week (culminating in the ridiculous casting of John Goodman as Speaker of the House). The fact that this season won the Emmy for best drama says more about the sad state of that award than anything else. The public agreed as ratings dropped so low that the show was pulled from sweeps periods in favor of Law and Order.

I would say that this season is getting back on terra firma. Trying to steady its course after last year's excesses (insert Aaron Sorkin substance abuse query here). I have high hopes for the future, but it is apparent that it has seen better days.
 

David Von Pein

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I, too, have often wondered (with furrowed-up brow) WHY so many times the Subtitles/Captions are often just an "approximation" or, as Eric W. said, "generalizations" of the actual words being spoken on a particular program (not just with The West Wing; but many other movies & shows as well)?

I'm of the opinion that "Subtitles" should be verbatim representations of the dialogue being uttered. Don't you agree?

Is this done just due to "laziness"...or space restrictions on screen (meaning it's easier to "compress" a long-winded line of dialogue into a para-phrased statement, rather than show on screen each and every word being uttered)?

Not that I utilize Caption/Subtitles very often at all ... but, when needed, I think they should be an exact duplication of the script. (Just IMO. :))
 

Dan Rudolph

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Is this done just due to "laziness"...or space restrictions on screen (meaning it's easier to "compress" a long-winded line of dialogue into a para-phrased statement, rather than show on screen each and every word being uttered)?
It's done because most people can hear faster than they can read while watching tv.
 

Josh Steinberg

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From the second season onward, the show got a bit darker - both in how it was actually shot, and also in tone. Whereas a lot of the first season episodes had little moral themes that could be wrapped up with nice little bows at the end of the episode, the later seasons did that less and less, also giving up some of the optimism and simplicity of the earlier episodes.

I thought the second season was brilliant, the last episode of that season ("Two Cathedrals") being perhaps one of the best episodes of any TV show ever. The two-part season premiere was also extremely well done.

The third season was good, and occasionally brilliant. As pointed out, John Spencer gave an amazing performance in an episode relating to his character's past. All in all, the season didn't end with quite the bang it seemed they were going for, but in retrospect, as I watch the reruns on Bravo, I'm noticing a lot of things I missed the first time around that make these very fine episodes.

And despite what anyone says, I really enjoyed the fourth season. The two-part season premiere had some great character moments that have stayed with me, and I think there's a lot of great drama in it. It seems that for this season, Sorkin ditched a little more political reality than usual, but when he did, I felt it was always in the interest of telling a more compelling story. There are so many well done character stories in this season, and I for one thought the last two episodes were brilliant. Yes, more dramatic than realistic, but it is fiction afterall. The only thing I can really say is that after watching those episodes a few times, they still resonate and provoke the same emotional responses they did the first time, and to me, that's great drama. I think as Sorkin was deciding to leave the show that he made a point of giving everyone in the cast at least one out of the ordinary, wonderful moment. It's the big moments that stand out immediately, but upon repeated viewing, there are a lot of beautiful smaller moments. This could be said for almost all of Sorkin's work on the show.

The fifth season has been a mixed bag for me. There have been some real stinkers, and not much of an effort has been made to establish a continuing story line. I feel that they've passed up on a lot of storylines started last season that would have made for great episodes, that were either totally forgotten or quickly brushed away. For someone like me who's a big fan, I noticed a definite shift in the show - for less devoted viewers, I'm told it's not so obvious. Though it's still entertaining, to me it feels more predictable, more obvious, more "must see TV" and "very special episode" - which has made the show more marketable and brought in more viewers. (I can understand that some viewers may have had a hard time getting into the show in previous years because of complicated, continuing storylines that made it difficult to watch casually. So far this season, for the most part, it seems as though it would be much easier to miss episodes and not have that matter, or to tune in for the first time and not feel totally lost.)
 

Dane Marvin

Screenwriter
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Also, the irony of the subtitles being way off is that later in the first season, recurring character Joey Lucas is introduced. She is a hearing-impaired (and quite sexy) pollster played by Oscar winner Marlee Matlin.

Matlin's Ms. Lucas is one of the few hearing-impaired role models on television -- and yet, if you're hearing-impaired and are a big fan of this show -- what you'll be getting from the purchase of this DVD is a butchered version of the program. Meh.
 

EricW

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Jan 1, 2001
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anybody know when we can expect season 2? will it be after ER season 2 or are these things independent? (warner certainly is quickly unloading Friends)
 

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