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The West Wing - Season 1 Episodes 1-11

Warner Bros./Warner Home Video . R4 . COLOR . 460 mins . PG . PAL

  Feature
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For many who find it prudent to take an interest in goings-on beyond their personal doorsteps, politics is a most interesting topic. While important to every nation, perhaps the world’s fascination with the mechanics of those of the United States comes down to one simple fact – as self-appointed leaders of the “free world”, our arses are often affected by what’s decided in that building in Washington known rather nondescriptly as the White House.

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The PUSA.

It seems that penning the screenplay for The American President planted a seed in Aaron Sorkin’s noggin; after all, despite a televisual history littered with drama after drama after drama, none had really dared tackle the everyday workings of what is, seemingly by default, the world’s political epicentre. Cue The West Wing, although rather than being pitched as one big “the President does this, the President does that” type affair, the intention was to concentrate on the lives of those behind the man (or woman – we can still hope) in power – those denizens of the West Wing of the White House responsible for seeing through those decisions which ultimately affect so many. Perhaps unfortunately, at least for this original intention, the casting of Martin Sheen as the PUSA ended up too good a choice. Meant to appear but rarely, he was so popular with audiences that he became a regular and much more major player than at first intended.

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C.J.

Still, this isn’t to say that those we were supposed to fall for weren't extremely well cast – well, perhaps with one exception. Much hoo-hah was made of Rob Lowe being drafted in as Deputy Communications Director Sam Seaborne, perhaps overshadowing those lesser known character actors of great ability such as Allison Janney (Press Secretary C.J. Cregg – and not to be biased or anything, but any six-foot tall redhead utterly rocks in our books), Richard Schiff (Chief Communications Director Toby Ziegler), John Spencer (Chief of Staff Leo McGarry) and Bradley Whitford (Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman). Moira Kelly also appeared in the first season as ultra-grating political advisor Madeline Hampton, but mercifully and without any fanfare disappeared when season two came around. Ah, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves…

This first half of the first season naturally sees much setting up, and much to get us acquainted with the characters we’re supposed to get involved with. Combining an appealing and often acerbic wit with regular bouts of startling gravity, things soon find a sure footing, and the show’s popularity (well, discounting the fact that our Channel 9 are a bunch of moronic chowderheads who seemingly couldn’t get past the fact that Eddie McGuire wasn’t involved, thus sentencing the show to a late night graveyard) was cemented with audiences, industry and critics alike.

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Leo.

Rather than going into episodic minutia, here’s a simple outline of just some of the events which inhabit the first 11 episodes as featured within this three-disc box set; The West Wing is anything but uneventful… Bicycle accidents, inadvertent rendezvous’ with prostitutes, Cuban refugees, misplaced religious comments, problems with the Vice President, wheelings and dealings with reporters, international incidents, inducting a new Personal Aide to the President, problems at home, dealing with crackpots, finagling with Congressional members, risks to the President's daughter, state dinners, hostage dramas, hurricanes, strikes, environmental issues, electing a new Supreme Court judge, drug scandals, alcohol problems, more international incidents, subpoenas and bizarre British diplomats.

Those familiar with the programme will know what’s going on from the above, hopefully those who have thus far missed it may be inspired enough to check out what is most definitely one of – if not the greatest – dramas to have appeared on television in recent years.

  Video
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Josh.
Despite being shot on film rather than video, sadly this transfer won’t be winning any congressional medals of honour for filmic gloriousness in a hurry. Made back in 1999, the slowness to catch on to the world of 16:9 by the Americans is in full evidence, as all we get is a 4:3 transfer (later series’ should at least come to us in widescreen splendour).

Overall it’s a transfer which just squeals averageness; there’s nothing particularly wrong with it, but a slight lack of clarity and a general dullness to the colour palette just don’t quite do things justice. Still, there’s little in the way of obvious glitchy things, so overall it’s functional without being brilliant.

  Audio
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Toby.
The laissez faire attitude of the video transfer pretty much carries over to the sonic offering. A Dolby Digital 2.0 mix with surround encoding, there’s nothing to get all drooly about here, with functionality and nothing more being the order of the day. For the most part dialogue is delivered clearly, cleanly and in synch with mouth movements, although with the rapid-fire nature of some of the characters’ speech some may have a hard time keeping up at certain points - praise be then for subtitles. Despite the surrounds being involved in proceedings, there’s little to give away such a fact, although as The West Wing relies so much on dialogue and little else this is hardly surprising or, indeed, cause for disappointment.

The music score comes from the intriguingly monikered W.G. ‘Snuffy’ Walden, and has a certain vibe of pomp and circumstance befitting of such a drama, mostly due to its reliance on big, brassy band compositions.

  Extras
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Sam and 'friend'...
Those craving a look behind the scenes of The West Wing will most likely be gravely disappointed at what’s on offer in the extras department. A selection of quite fluffy cast and crew interviews offer little of great note, although at least the majority of the main cast – Allison Janney, Moira Kelly, Rob Lowe, Richard Schiff, Martin Sheen John Spencer, Brad Whitford – get to pipe up, along with series creator Aaron Sorkin and regular director Thomas Schlamme. These chats vary in length from just over two minutes to around four and a half, and as most were recorded either before the first series’ airing, or soon after, have little to offer other than vague curiosity value.

Other than that the Presidential cupboard’s kind of bare, there’s a rather brief and misleading TV spot and a boring old web link for those with a DVD-ROM who are too lazy to manually type a few letters into an Internet browser.

Sure, we got this series on DVD before the United States did, but at least theirs eventually arrived with a selection of commentaries, documentaries, outtakes, deleted scenes and other assorted goodies. Ultimately it would have been preferable if we’d have had to have waited longer and been treated to these bits and pieces too.

  Overall  
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Sure, it’s all about America, and yes, it’s a drama series, not real life. But anybody who can’t see the relevance to any political situation in the events depicted in The West Wing quite frankly has their head firmly implanted up their rectum, and should perhaps seek to round out their world view a tad. With unflinchingly inspiring writing that manages to engage, disarm and captivate, this is one of the most important and appealing drama series’ ever created, and despite an average DVD treatment, it’s desirable enough on episodic content alone.

And to think, it’s only finding its feet here – just wait ‘til it really gets going…


  • LINK: http://www.dvd.net.au/review.cgi?review_id=3276
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      And I quote...
    "...despite an average DVD treatment, this is desirable enough on episodic content alone. "
    - Amy Flower
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Pioneer DV-466-K
    • TV:
          Loewe Xelos 5381ZW 81cm 100Hz
    • Receiver:
          Onkyo TX-DS494
    • Speakers:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse RBS662
    • Centre Speaker:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse ECC442
    • Surrounds:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse ECR042
    • Subwoofer:
          DTX Digital 4.8
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard RCA
    • Video Cables:
          Standard Component RCA
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