Alack! Alas! Beat my breast! Mourn the day! My favourite TV show is no more. Last night was a desolate time for me. No more West Wing!!
Everything comes to an end. Remember Something in the air and Sea Change? This is the time to confess a dark secret. When Something in the air finished I fed my hunger for Australian soap by watching Neighbours, and for some time found it good. At the beginning of this year, however, I told John that I wouldn’t be watching it any more, because it was becoming a bit silly. I succeeded in not watching it until I left my job. Lately I have found myself involuntarily sitting in front of the TV at 6:30, telling myself that This is why I stopped watching. It really is sick. And that is true no matter what generation you are, because the word sick, as you have probably noticed has different meanings for the wise and the willing.
Hey! How about that! The Wise and the Willing! A soap about generational mutual incomprehension. And please, let me say it now. I AM kidding. Just incase anyone thought otherwise. On the other hand, it could work if the title was clearly ironic. So would it be comedy? It could be, but not necessarily. I better stop before I get serious.
But getting back to West Wing, for those who haven’t watched it or even heard of it, it was about the American Presidency in particular, and the political system in general. Not necessarily a promising subject. The other show that tried to do the presidency (I think it might have been called The Commander in Chief) was “commercial” – if you get what I mean. I use that word to illustrate something about West Wing: it was on a commercial channel in Australia, and then went to the ABC – where it always should have been.
It’s drama as distinct from entertainment. Yes, I hear someone saying, but you couldn’t follow what they said because they speak at machine gun pace. Well, yes, but it’s not the only show whose language requires effort. Shakespeare, for example takes some getting used to. But when you stop listening to the words and allow what is being communicated take hold of your consciousness, you get it. It’s like seeing the forest rather than the trees. And by the way, if you want to see what I mean, get the Baz Luhrmann version of Romeo and Juliet and have a look. A look? Shouldn’t I have said listen? Well you do both of course: the looking carries the narrative and the listening becomes the experience of the sublime.
The reason I am pointing out how to deal with the most common complaint about The West Wing is that it will become available in the video shops and will be worth a look/listen. The other problem you might have is that the material will surely be “dated”. Well, no, actually. The programs is a drama, not a documentary. Yes it uses events similar to those going on around us in the real world, but it never about those events. It’s about the issues that underlie the events, just like the Homer is not about battles over beautiful women and heroic sea journeys in search of golden fleeces, but an effort to ask and try to answer: Who are and what makes us tick?
Struth! That's what you did on Saturday night - D&Ming the world? Well now you can get a life mate.
I just thought I'd get that comment in before anyone else did.
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