The West Wing was a prime time drama that aired from 1999-2006. It was the ongoing story of a Democratic President over two terms. I don't watch much television, but it's one of my favorite shows ever. I've watched the entire 7 seasons at least twice.
Whether or not the show captured what politics is really like or not, or whether that's what the actual West Wing of the White House is like has been debated in various articles. Regardless it's fascinating to watch.
One of the main reasons I enjoyed it so much was the educational aspect and the level of intelligent writing that came with that. Almost every episode, or series of episodes, touched on some real issue happening in the US or the world. Everything from flag-burning to terrorism to presidentical elections.
What I found fascinating was the presentation of the ideas. Often it seemed like the dialogue was centered around trying to give many points of view, not necessarily just a point of view from the mainline Democratic Party. There were arguments and counter-arguments and then counters to those even. Stats, numbers, stories were all brought to bear in these discussions. I don't know if the stats actually used on the show were real, but many seemed like they could have been.
In the end, many issues were never fully resolved and if they were it was almost anti-climatic in a way, the debates was the real story. That what was so beautiful to me was the story was about the issue, not the resolution.
If you ever get a chance to watch The West Wing, I'd highly recommend it. While watching from the first episode to the last is thrilling and shows the evolving nature of the characters and issue, each episode is almost a story unto itself and worthwhile watching.
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