I've been doing some thinking recently, prompted partially by the research I did for my paper on
The Wire. When doing that research, I came across many articles written by people who regard the show as one of the best, or even the best, television series of all time. On multiple occasions, those writers mentioned other shows that have been considered for the same honor, and among those mentioned was
The West Wing. Now, I am a HUGE fan of
The West Wing, as well as a huge fan of
The Wire, and I consider both to be excellent series. However, when I was reading those articles, I began to agree with the ones that said that
The Wire is a better series than
The West Wing. After all,
The Wire portrays life in Baltimore in a gritty, realistic way, whereas
The West Wing portrays life in the White House in a way that is semi-realistic, but definitely idealized. Doesn't that make
The Wire better than
The West Wing? That is what I was thinking, but only until coming back home for break and re-watching some (random) episodes of
The West Wing. Now I am convinced that
The West Wing is better, and I definitely like it more. The change, however, is not really a change in my opinion of either series, but rather a change in the way in which I judge television (and other forms of entertainment). There are two main ways in which I find that
The West Wing is better: it is immensely more inspiring, and it is certainly funnier. I think that the inspiring part is something that is lacking in modern entertainment, with its depictions of people doing stupid and petty things, whether it is fictional or part of "reality" television. Entertainment today often plays into humans' enjoyment of seeing bad things happening to people. However, shows like
The West Wing show a side of human nature that fundamentally wants to help other people. In addition, those same people are intelligent and engage in witty dialogue. That dialogue contributes to the humor of the series, and humor is nice not only because there is a comparative dearth of good comedy on the screen, both big and small, but also because it is really hard to write. Comedy in general is harder to write than drama. (There is an excellent talk given by John Cleese when visiting a screenwriting class on the subject, available on his podcast in two parts,
here and
here.) And so one could consider the writing in
The West Wing to be better than that of
The Wire, but it is hard to compare and I really don't want to get into it. Of course, as I said,
The Wire is still an incredibly good series, and I might still talk about it in greater depth here at some point (probably after my copy of the series on DVD arrives and I can watch all the special features), but my love for it is not as deep as my love for
The West Wing, and there are many contributing factors to that.
Now, to give this a broader scope, many of the same reasons that I like
The West Wing are the reasons I like
It's A Wonderful Life, which I watch every year at Christmastime. I cannot think at the moment of a movie that can represent
The Wire in a similar comparison, but I'm sure one exists, and you might think of it (let me know if you do!).
The West Wing and
It's A Wonderful Life (among with other films, such as
12 Angry Men and
To Kill A Mockingbird) make me feel the same way: really good about humanity. They also make me cry, sometimes without even watching them.
I don't know how to wrap this all up, except to say: Go watch them! All of them! And then give me a call when you plan to watch them again. =)
Comments (1)
HEY!