Friday, January 04, 2008

The West Wing Redux

For Christmas, I received a copy of The West Wing Season 3. I remember recalling thinking of season 3 as one of the weakest seasons of this fine show, a season where it lost much of its momentum, only to grab that momentum back in season 4--with a vengeance.

I don't know what I could have been thinking.

Perhaps my recollection was blurred over the years. Perhaps I was disheartened by the somewhat disturbing exit of Season 2. Perhaps.

The 3 readers of this blog may or may not recall that I posted an entry near the season finale of the show listing my favorite moments of the show in no particular order. I don't have the energy to include a link to this post right now. Maybe later.

But season 3 has 2 episodes that are going to gain permanent entries on that list. Ironically, they are back to back.

They come in episodes 18 and 19.

Near the end of 18, the President calls Donna into the Oval Office and participates in a personal call to a favorite teacher of hers who was retiring after 40+ years. He does this while bringing up facts about her that impressed him greatly.

And near the end of 19, the President greets a black man, accompanied by his doctor son, who wrote a letter to FDR when he was 9, a fact that is discovered by his personal aide. The man, the son, and the aide, then enjoy a photo op and an extended conversation about FDR.

I'm not ashamed to say both of these moments reduced me to tears.

I now have a complete collection of the entire West Wing. One of these days, I'm gonna sit down and watch every episode, from beginning to end. Maybe when I retire.

And the reason I'll do it is because of moments like I detailed above.

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