Creator – Aaron Sorkin. Series ran 1999 – 2006.
I know it was my decision to make this a 500 word review but I could literally write 500,000 words on TWW (acronym king strikes again) as it is my favourite show of all time.
This might not sit well with some of you who will instantly start yelling things like “The Wire or The Sopranos” and I agree, I am currently re-watching “The Wire” at the moment and I truly love it, but for my money TWW takes first place every time.
TWW is basically about the President of the USA, his immediate staff and the day to day running of The Whitehouse, not the sort of thing that would capture my imagination over, for instance, a Mafia boss and his friends and family, but it is not so much the story as the way it is told by those who live it.
The cast is made up of solid actors and not necessarily star names with the exception of Rob Lowe (Star?....Starish!) and Martin Sheen (definitely a star) however for my money it is Bradley Whitford who is the star playing deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman. He is definitely the comic relief and plays it well despite his character being haunted by tragedy.
Other support comes from Richard Schiff, Alison Janney, Janel Maloney, John Spencer (who sadly died during filming of the last season), Dule Hill and former Grease star Stockard Channing as The First Lady, Rob Lowe left during the 4th season and moved on to “better things!”
The writing and dialogue are what make TWW what it is, Aaron Sorkin’s ability to write a conversation that you wish you were part of is a very clever attribute and TWW’s best trait.
The scenarios that happen during the run involve a number of countries that don’t exist so as not to upset any real countries, any form of terrorism comes from Qumar, a kingdom near Saudi Arabia, also there is a plotline in season 2 involving genocide in Equatorial Kundu, mirroring the real life genocide in Rwanda in 1994.
There is also storylines involving fatal shootings, bombings both home and abroad, kidnapping, scandal and an unexplained disappearance of a main character between seasons 1 and 2 (Google mandyville!)
Sorkin left after season 4 following a contractual dispute and the writing was taken over by John Wells and a couple of the producing team, thus season 5 was poor by TWW’s high standard, but by seasons 6 and 7 it had re-emerged as a different show, but one equally as enjoyable as the first 4 seasons.
Like I said, I could write more than 500 words but will conclude with this, TWW is clever, funny, touching, informative and according to the real Whitehouse, very accurate.
I have watched all 7 seasons in its entirety more than 10 times and in fact, after writing this review I think I might go and watch it again!
Marcus Mitchell – September 2010.
