By Hannah Hecht–With the advent of video-streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Instant Video, many students are “discovering” movies and television shows that may have been too mature for them when they first came out. The rise of the Internet has caused resurgence with young people of shows like Doctor Who or Freaks and Geeks.
However, there is one late 90’s and early 2000’s drama that no college student should overlook: The West Wing.
Premiering on NBC in 1999, The West Wing concentrates on fictional U.S. President Josiah Bartlet (Martin Sheen) and his administration. The series, produced and created by Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network, The Newsroom, A Few Good Men), ran for seven seasons and won three Golden Globe and 26 Emmy awards, including four for Outstanding Drama Series. The show features an all-star cast, including Rob Lowe, John Spencer, Dulé Hill, Bradley Whitford, Allison Janney, Stockard Channing, and Richard Schiff.
The West Wing is a fast-paced show that invites watchers into the White House to watch U.S. democracy in action. The issues that the Bartlet administration deals with are real, and, for a show that premiered fifteen years ago, they are surprisingly relevant to today’s political climate. The characters are poignant, quick-witted, and lifelike, and the acting leads viewers to laugh, cry, and sympathize with the White House staffers.
I started watching the series this summer as a way to pass the time, but it came to mean a lot more to me than other television series. As I got further into the seasons, I found myself thinking more and more about political issues. I would find myself reading the newspaper online, hungry to learn about politics. And, more often then not, I’d see something that would remind me of “that time in The West Wing where the government shut down” or “the time when President Barlet had to respond to a natural disaster.”
And then, I’d wonder, “what would C.J. Cregg (the Bartlet White House Press Secretary) think about this?” or “how would Leo McGarry (Bartlet’s Chief of Staff) solve this problem?” Most importantly, I’d wonder, “what do I think about this?” and research further to see how our real president and Congress were responding.
As college students, we are at a point in our lives where we have the chance to reexamine our political beliefs and decide how we’re going to cast our ballots or whom we’d like to help campaign for in the next election. Obviously, a fictional television drama shouldn’t be the only way we learn about our government and the issues facing the country, but it’s not a bad place to start. Plus, you can only learn so much from Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.
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