"The West Wing" Doing Better

I have some interesting and provocative news about the current television season to comment on, and I want to start with the fortunes of NBC's "The West Wing." Apparently the show has taken a dramatic turn in the ratings. . . for the better.

Viewership is up by over a million!

The recent addition of Jimmy Smits and Alan Alda as semi-regulars playing potential successors to President Bartlet seems to be only part of the reason. Writing in Entertainment Weekly, Mark Harris has found the sixth season to be sharper and crackling with more dramatic tension, and insists that the show has rediscovered its roots as a series about a principled administration ready to take on a fight with its political opponents. So even critics are coming back to the show.

Except Alan Sepinwall of the Newark, N.J. Star-Ledger. He still can't understand how any President would appoint his press secretary as his chief of staff (C.J. Cregg) when she's inexperienced with the duties of the job. Guess what - that's partly what the show has been exploring!

When last we left "The West Wing," President Bartlet had scored a major diplomatic coup with China after a relapse of his multiple sclerosis - only to have a sudden major MS attack on the way home. Leo McGarry, forced out as White House chief of staff by a heart attack and a disagreement with the President, still comes around to dispense wisdom when necessary. And Josh is hoping to get Jimmy Smits's character, a retiring Texas congressman, to run for President when he finds the other potential Democratic candidates disappointing. The show has gotten its electricity back, and those who never thought it had gotten all that bad anyway - both of us - have had their faith in the series rewarded.

I have more to comment on the 2004-05 TV season, of course, but it's Christmas Eve, and I don't want to go on and on and on and on. Not tonight, anyway. :-)