The West Wing: Season One (2000)

Creator: Aaron Sorkin

 Spending my summer interning on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC seemed like a good time to start watching this loved and popular Aaron Sorkin show about the minutiae of daily life in the west wing of the White House. There are a handful of main characters, all of whom work for the President of the United States. In true Sorkin fashion the characters are definitely idealistic, but the show recognizes that the world they occupy is not a world of idealists. I was most impressed with the fact that the show is not afraid to display the characters struggling to get things done the right way. It's the ultimate conflict between compromise and principles (Sorkin's new show The Newsroom mostly fails at this, but more on that in another post). Throughout the season the main arc seems to be this battle between playing it safe to stay alive and taking risks by doing the right thing. It's a conflict that's been present for as long as politics has existed and Barack Obama is proof that it's definitely still a huge issue today.

One of my best ways the show displayed this conflict was the personal issues of the staffers. Sam Seaborn loved a call girl, and even though there's nothing wrong with that, it's still going to be a problem because of how it might be viewed by the press. Another great thing the show did is make sure the personal stories and personal relationships of the characters were focused on the effect they had on the job they were doing. This is a show about the job these people are doing first, and the people who have the job second. We see the negative effects the time and energy the important job has on the personal lives of the characters (though I wish we would have seen more of this). While the conflicts in the job is shown very well, I do think the characters are a little too-good-to-be-true. This is most evident when it comes to President Bartlett. There are a few moments where he does things that make him out to be some Gandhi-like figure. There is a scene early in the season in which the President lets his emotions get the best of him and almost orders an attack on hundreds of innocent civilians, and I would have liked to see more of that side of the President. But I will say one thing, all of the characters on this show are incredibly likable, and because you enjoy spending time with these people it makes it so much easier to watch the show. You'll know what I'm talking about when the season-ending cliffhanger occurs and you find your heart beating a million times an hour.

Grade: B+

Parks and Recreation: Season Four (2012)

Showrunner: Michael Schur

 I'm not exaggerating at all when I say that currently Parks and Recreation is the best political show on television, and by the end of its run if it continues at this level, it will be known as one of the great television shows about politics ever. This season saw Leslie Knope running for a city council position. The city council race allowed the writers to do very important things at the same time. First it enabled them to comment on political campaign and elections in general using Pawnee as a microcosm of American politics, something they do frequently and effectively. We saw unrealistic campaign promises, an uneducated electorate, the importance of photo opportunities, and much more.

The second thing the city council race did was enable the audience to learn so much more about Knope. We know her as an optimistic, idealistic, and ambitious politician who actually believes in her job and genuinely wants to make an impact in the world, but in the election we see her struggle much more than we've seen in the past. Impressively, even throughout the struggles she continues to be idealistic. Rarely do we see this type of idealistic politician character on TV actually work without coming off as naive and annoying. But the characters on this show, and especially Knope, are all charming people who want to do good, and because they are in a parks and recreation department of a small town they can do so. I can't imagine a more perfect setting for a genuinely idealistic political show. The higher up you go in the political arena, the harder it is to get what you want done, and so in a comparatively low stakes setting like in Parks and Recreation, idealism works because individuals and small groups have the power to make big impacts on a small city by doing something as small as fixing water fountains. This show is not just as good as The Office when it was at its best, but probably even better. It's not just hilarious and smart, but it can also be deeply emotional sometimes, and that emotion is honestly the most impressive quality it has.

Grade: A-

The Office: Season Eight (2012)

Showrunner: Paul Lieberstein

 I think by now it's pretty much a universally accepted idea that the Michael Scott send-off episode, "Goodbye Michael," from last season should have been the series finale of this show. The first post-Michael season has been so unambitious and left a mild taste in my mouth. I didn't hate it, because I have a connection with these characters and can always watch them, but nor did I come close to loving it. This is because there was nothing to love. The writers of this show know how to write jokes and the actors know how to deliver them consistently, but the writers have no idea how (or have no desire) to write compelling story lines for these fabulous characters.

I think the failure of this season to have any real stakes is mostly just laziness on the part of the writers. They've been at it for eight seasons, and lot of them were on their way out (like Mindy Kaling and Paul Lieberstein). So it feels like the writers are just doing the motions instead of actually flexing their creative and artistic muscles. One example is the Andy and Erin relationship. The writers tried to recycle the Pam and Jim relationship because that worked out well for them, and so the natural inclination for a business is to repeat successful strategies. It feels like the writers are making sure they save their best material for their next jobs. So the writers are getting lazy, and the actors are moving on. I guess the death of The Office is now official.

Grade: C-

Community: Season Three (2012)

Showrunner: Dan Harmon

 There's a lot of talk about how Community is so experimental and how that prevents it from gaining anything more than a niche audience, but it's really not all that experimental. It may be experimental with its form sometimes, but the characters and their relationships are pretty populist and fairly easy to digest. There may be a few times when the show has done something unexpected with the character relationships, but most often the show is pretty optimistic and "feel-good" when it comes to how the group interacts. But at the same time, the experimental form and frequent references to pop culture (including references to past episodes of the show itself) are what make this show so special and inventive.

I wouldn't say this show is particularly meaningful in anyway, even if it does try sometimes, but what it does best is take advantage of the form. This season we saw musicals, characters as video games, a horror story anthology, and more. But easily the best of the season was "Remedial Chaos Theory," an episode which presents multiple alternate realities and shows us how the group would work without certain characters. It's a brilliant episode and the fact that they fit all of that in 22 minutes is incredibly impressive. The episode represents the best of what Community can do. While this season has its fair share of great episodes, it also has many forgettable episodes and lacks a satisfying season-long arc, something I always look for in a worthwhile TV show. As fun and unique as this show is, there is actually room for improvement, and this season highlighted some of that.

Grade: B+

Filmcap: The week of May 15-22

I went to Sasquatch which messed up my posting schedule even more. I'll slowly get back to a more regular rhythm though. This week's post sees the end of two television seasons for two very similar comedies that I do end up comparing a bit. There is also one very good 2011 movie (from Wales) and one great American movie that will probably be one of the few poetic and beautiful movies you will see from a Texan director. Watch out for the next post, which will include my favorite movie of the year so far. 

Filmcap: The week of May 8-15

There seems to be much fewer things in the summer on this blog, but that's not much of a surprise for me. Family life, work life, and the addition of many more extracurricular activities in a much more urban area will have that effect. This week I saw the finales of two television series', the only connecting strand between the two being Kevin Corrigan (who has a minor role on both of them). The only film this week is an American classic I had never seen, and it did not disappoint.