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The West Wing 1x01 - "Pilot"
Jan. 11th, 2010 06:09 pmThere’s something kind of intimidating about TV shows on DVD, isn’t there? I’ve got a lot of seasons of things lying around that I haven’t watched yet – it feels like starting them would be more of a commitment than watching a movie or finding an episode of something being broadcast.
Anyway I’ve been lent the complete run of The West Wing, and with temperatures too hot to even consider leaving the house, I thought I’d start watching them. Initial thoughts: Ehh. I’m going to give the show a chance – plenty of decent shows have shaky pilots, but there’s not a lot here that’s really drawing me in. To a degree, it feels like some sort of hybrid of Boston Legal and The Hollowmen*, but played deathly straight.
And the characters strike me as a bit… cold. What do they stand for? Admittedly, I get the impression that the pilot is meant to be a bit directionless, with the ending of the President announcing “Break’s over” – but then, that’s sort of an odd direction for the pilot of a new show, yes? It’s an odd episode in general – not much happens, but I didn’t feel I got much of a grip on the characters either.
As I said, I will watch at least the first disc of episodes to see if anything starts to stand out, but first impressions haven’t been great.
Minor notes:
- The president so far feels to me like an AU-Jimmy Carter, with the links to conservative Christianity and the crashing a bike thing calls to mind to me the ‘killer rabbit’ incident. Was there a Carter in the series’ reality? I’m assuming there wasn’t a Clinton, but how far back is the point of divergence?
- Kind of amusing in a meta-way to have a right-wing Christian leader complain about how they're portrayed with contempt in the context of a scene that seems to go out of its way to portray right-wing Christan groups with... well, contempt. Come on - even I know what the First Commandment is - you think a religious leader is going to make a mistake that stupid?
* Australian comedy series about the Prime Minister’s policy advisers. Well worth watching, and very funny, if possibly a little inaccessible for non-Australians.
Anyway I’ve been lent the complete run of The West Wing, and with temperatures too hot to even consider leaving the house, I thought I’d start watching them. Initial thoughts: Ehh. I’m going to give the show a chance – plenty of decent shows have shaky pilots, but there’s not a lot here that’s really drawing me in. To a degree, it feels like some sort of hybrid of Boston Legal and The Hollowmen*, but played deathly straight.
And the characters strike me as a bit… cold. What do they stand for? Admittedly, I get the impression that the pilot is meant to be a bit directionless, with the ending of the President announcing “Break’s over” – but then, that’s sort of an odd direction for the pilot of a new show, yes? It’s an odd episode in general – not much happens, but I didn’t feel I got much of a grip on the characters either.
As I said, I will watch at least the first disc of episodes to see if anything starts to stand out, but first impressions haven’t been great.
Minor notes:
- The president so far feels to me like an AU-Jimmy Carter, with the links to conservative Christianity and the crashing a bike thing calls to mind to me the ‘killer rabbit’ incident. Was there a Carter in the series’ reality? I’m assuming there wasn’t a Clinton, but how far back is the point of divergence?
- Kind of amusing in a meta-way to have a right-wing Christian leader complain about how they're portrayed with contempt in the context of a scene that seems to go out of its way to portray right-wing Christan groups with... well, contempt. Come on - even I know what the First Commandment is - you think a religious leader is going to make a mistake that stupid?
* Australian comedy series about the Prime Minister’s policy advisers. Well worth watching, and very funny, if possibly a little inaccessible for non-Australians.