Tonight's TV: The West Wing - The Complete Series (1999-2006) - A Warner Bros. Blu-ray Review

The classic TV series THE WEST WING (1999-2006) celebrated its 2024 silver anniversary with a Blu-ray release of the complete series late last year.

This Warner Bros. set is absolutely beautiful, and I must note right off the top that it's also space-friendly. Whereas the seven seasons of DVD boxes take up 8.5 inches on my shelves, the compact Blu-ray set only takes 2.75 inches, while retaining all the original featurettes and commentary tracks which came with the DVDs. This alone might be worth a Blu-ray upgrade for some people!

Our family first got to know the series about White House life under Democrat President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet (Martin Sheen) via DVD beginning late in its original run. A couple of my adult kids who especially love the show are going to draw straws for our family's DVD sets! They've watched the show so often they can quote much of the dialogue.

The new Blu-ray set contains 28 discs -- four per each of the seven seasons -- in two plastic cases which are contained in a larger cardboard sleeve. The first case includes a glossy folded program listing the disc contents. Photos of the inner cases and front of the program are included in this review.

It's been a great pleasure to revisit the series in recent weeks for the first time in many years. While I well remembered the show's characters, broad outlines, and key moments, each episode is so packed with its famous "walk and talk" dialogue and interesting bits of business that it's almost like watching it for the first time. I've also wondered how much of each episode sailed past me on the first viewing simply because there's so much in the frame to watch at any given moment.

While I'd forgotten many small details, I did find a certain pleasure in looking back at characters such as Josh (Bradley Whitford) and Donna (Janel Moloney) early on, knowing where their characters were ultimately heading.

Rewatching the series, I have some thoughts on what makes the series work for viewers of all political persuasions:

1) First and foremost, the show's overall excellence of execution. I noticed some dialogue in the early episodes was a bit obviously trying to fill in characters' background exposition, but overall it's engagingly written and, more than that, often funny. There's a bit of Season 3 dialogue about C.J. (Allison Janney) "crossing a line" with the President which still makes me laugh out loud.

2) Well-rounded, imperfect characters who aren't always the best representatives of their own party and political beliefs. The President hides a serious medical condition from voters; Toby and Josh, in particular, are way too superior about the righteousness of their beliefs (Josh insisting to Donna "You won't spend your money right" grates); and they don't always make responsible personal choices. Sure, Sam didn't mean to sleep with a call girl in the first episode, inviting a potential national scandal, but if he hadn't gone to bed with a total stranger he wouldn't have ended up in that situation to begin with.

3) This is key: It transcends politics to be the ultimate office drama. It's the busiest and most impactful of offices, to be sure, but it's watching the various personalities navigate situations and relationships which makes it so fascinating, not the politics.

That said, the show has some flaws, and an example of that is seen in the pilot, where Christians are turned into cartoon characters fended off by the "high-minded" President and staff. We've seen too much of that stereotype over the years and the show falls right into it, even while simultaneously trying to avoid it by having the President be a practicing Catholic who is personally pro-life but politically pro-choice.

On the up side, conservative Associate White House Counsel Ainsley Hayes (Emily Procter, seen here) is absolutely charming and does her part to provide the show with a bit of political balance. And scenes with Josh and Donna arguing taxes remain some of the show's most memorable moments years later.

Along with Ainsley and Donna, other favorite characters are Claudia Jean (C.J.) Cregg (Allison Janney), the whip-smart press secretary who reels off sassy one-liners like Eve Arden; Leo McGarry (John Spencer), completely believable as the old Washington hand who's the chief of staff (though he screams "MARGARET!" at his long-suffering secretary, played by NiCole Robinson, way too often); and General Fitzwallace (John Amos), the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I've always had a soft spot for Amos, who passed away last summer, since he gave a talk about ROOTS at my high school decades ago.

Recurring and guest characters are a "who's who" of well-known names including Tim Matheson, Amy Adams, Kate Burton, Jimmy Smits, Laura Dern, Glenn Close, Marlee Matlin, and even Kevin Tighe from EMERGENCY! -- and that's just for starters. You never know who will turn up episode to episode.

On this revisit, years after my last viewing, I also enjoyed what I like to call the "so near and yet so far" aspect of the show: It doesn't seem that long ago, but when the show began in 1999 the characters all used pagers and then picked up landlines to make calls; no social media; and, in this era of many offices being "paperless," it's hard not to notice that there's soooooooo much paper everywhere!

On this visit I'm still partway through rewatching the entire seven-season series in chronological order, but for those who might like to skip around sampling episodes, Variety published a list of the 25 best episodes last fall. It's a pretty good list, in my view, and not surprisingly, the well-remembered "Two Cathedrals" from Season 2 came in first place on Variety's list.

The Warner Bros. Blu-ray prints look and sound great, and I recommend this set for series fans and newcomers alike. It provides countless hours of top-notch entertainment in one fine package.

Thanks to Allied Vaughn and Warner Bros. for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray set. THE WEST WING may be purchased from Movie Zyng, Amazon, and other online retailers.

Tweet