COVID - TV

 

It’s been a strange year. The semi-quarantine we are living in began almost like a game.  Sometimes, it reminded me of camping.

People stayed at home.  They played board games, ate ALL meals together and watched a lot of TV.  It was a new adventure and almost fun.  Families brought out favorite recipes they had forgotten. Zoom, which was mostly unknown by most Americans, suddenly became ubiquitious.  Every one was Zooming for family gatherings, playing bidge, religious servies and business.

And everyone was walking.  Dogs have never been happier as their masters took them outside 3-4 times a day. And they were with them all day long, as well.  Heaven! Also, stores were running out of flowers and topsoil as folks spent hours laboring in their gardens. 

But soon the fun of it all began to fade.  Cooking became a chore again. Lovely quiet evenings at home reading, soon lost its charm.

The one thing, however, that satisfied our thirst for entertainment was our old friend the television.  Yes, TV has been American’s favorite pastime (sorry, baseball) for several decades, but during Covid, it became a much larger part of our life. 

TV, of course, is a different animal than it used to be. I bought a 50-inch set several years ago and thought that it was way too big for my room.  Now people are buying 80–90-inch screens, complete with impressive surround sound speaker systems.  Who cared if the movie houses were closed, we had our own theaters right at home. 

To make TV even more addictive, there were now endless choices of shows and streaming services.  For a monthly fee (another fee for every service, of course) you can see anything you’ve ever dreamed of seeing. In the past year, we happily paid for several streaming platforms because our entertainment budget had nowhere else to go. It became easy to rationalize the expenditure.

There’s a hitch, however. The “new TV” requires a lot more from the viewer.  There are no schedules to follow and new shows pop up seemingly without warning.  The choices are almost endless: original movies, documentaries, Hollywood movies, 4–6-episode series, multi-season series. And then there’s international TV stations, cartoons, classic TV and You Tube.  Did I forget anything?

 TV watching can be confusing and forces the viewer to be constantly checking out reviews, comments on the web and interviewing friends for ideas of the best shows to watch. You don’t want to be left out and miss some good stuff.

 One show I latched onto last fall was the old TV hit, The West Wing (HBO Max).  When the series was first broadcast (1999 – 2006) I was an avid viewer, but now on the second time through, I am seeing more depth and quality than I ever saw before.

It also shows me how much television and the world has changed since that time.  Each season, for instance, presents an amazing 22 episodes.  That’s a huge amount of content for one season. Each show lavishly produced and intricately directed.  The budget was $2.7 million per show. I have been watching West Wing for months now, and I am only in the fourth season (that’s over 60 shows, if you’re counting).

 For those who are unfamiliar with the show (you youngins!), West Wing is set in the west wing of the White House with a Democratic President and his senior staff. The pace is like quicksilver as the team discuss, argue and joke about international crises, politics, passing bills through congress, hiring new staff members and more. The entire show is unapologetically idealistic.

 This was the show that introduced the world to Aaron Sorkin, who has since become one of the most heralded screen and play writers we have.  Here is where he created his quick witted dialogue and the technique of following characters down a hallway, walking briskly and bantering about policy and private lives.  This “walk and talk” style has now become Sorkin’s trademark, although it was actually developed by the show’s director Thomas Schlamme.

 The genesis of show comes out of the movie, American President, a political rom-com starring Michael Douglas and Annette Benning.

 Some featured actors (Martin Sheen, Lily Tomlin, Stockard Channing, Rob Lowe) already were well-established stars by the time West Wing came along. But many others got their start in the show and went on to impressive careers. Bradley Whiteford, Allison Janney, Richard Schiff all did well after the show ended. TV Guide pronounced the cast to be the Best Drama cast of all time.

 Other famous actors played key character in one or two episodes: Alan Alda, Adam Arkin, Jimmy Smits, Kristin Chenowith, Oliver Platt, Ron Silver and others.

 One reason West Wing is so appealing today, is that it displays how the world of politics and public discourse has changed over the years.  It’s a pleasure to see these characters communicate with each other.  They spar, they joke, they argue – but there is always a great sense of respect between all of them.

 Surprise - there is even respect between the White House Press Corp and the Press Secretary.

 The acting is stunning across the board, however Allison Janney as the Press Secretary maybe the best.  She shows a broad array of emotions and she throws herself into each one of them. She’s funny, goofy, emotional, tough, angry and more.  And she’s the tallest person in the cast.

 The characters are (here comes the idealism again) always concerned with the greater good of the task they are doing. During heated discussions voices are raised and tempers flare, but no one gets hurt or takes it personally.  They understand that the stakes are high and these are passionate people who care deeply.

 Amazingly, we see powerful people argue about ideas and sometimes loose the argument. Imagine that! They don’t hold grudges or get angry. They simply leave the room and say “Thank you Mr. President.”  Most of their private lives are not shown in the show, instead the key staff members work endless hours and some even sleep in their offices.  The White House is their life.

 Although the show is definitely about Democrats, Republicans are not trampled and denigrated.  Political foes, yes, but respected public servants, nonetheless.

 West Wing’s stories concentrate on matters of state, governance and politics.  The talk can be pretty dense at times. Sometimes they dip their toes into melodramatic and soap opera story lines, but it doesn’t last long. The series opened with Rob Lowe, the chief speech writer, having a romantic involvement with a high-class prostitute who was also a law student.  That plot line only lasted one or two episodes.

 The President’s aide (Dule Hill), a black man, was having an affair with the Chief Executive’s college age daughter. Again, that fragment didn’t last long. East Lansing’s Tim Busfield appeared as a hot-tempered journalist who is interested in the Chief Press Secretary.  Although Busfield comes in and out of scripts, that plot line is dropped.

 All the aides refer to the President (Martin Sheen) as Mr. President and every time they leave him, they say “Thank you, Mr. President”. Respect, always. Aaron Sorkin has been called an institutionalist and clearly this series, if nothing else, pays homage to the institutions of the US government.

 Also, some people refer to West Wing as “Pornography for Liberals.” They aren’t far wrong. 

 The blazing idealism is first introduced by the stunning Emmy Award winning theme music written by W. G. Snuffy Walden. Those 14 bars using soaring horns and strings set the stage for a show about government that loves its history and dreams about the values.

 Don’t fall into the trap, however, of thinking that The West Wing was the way things were back then.  Washington hacks claim that there is far more cynicism, backstabbing and anger than is shown in this award-winning show.  But still, we can watch it and hope that things could actually, maybe, be that way some time in the future.

What are your Covid TV thoughts?