The West Wing has been axed – the last episode will air on May 14th 2006 I can't believe this – admittedly it went through a bit of a dull patch a couple of years ago, but it's been uniformly good ever since, and the whole Santos campaign has been astonishingly good stuff! What the fuck!?
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Nonnymoussays:
Ratings.
That, and unapologetically left wing bias to the point of utter distortion of genuine conservatism (though that's nothing new). They should have called it "The Left Wing."
But mostly, NBC can't make money on it anymore. And they had a terrible season last fall, and need to axe a lot of stuff and mix up their schedule. So they're dumping it. C'est la vie.
Phinniassays:
Well, the ratings dropped significantly when competing against the the offerings from CBS, ABC, and FOX on Sunday nights. Rather than move it back, it was convenient to end a show for which it was becoming increasingly difficult to write a solid script. They've had seven years to cover every political issue on the map. Throw in the death of a character, and you have a chance to let it go out on top rather than die slowly.
Consider that Will and Grace is being canned as well; it ran out of steam long ago. You can have a vast rightwing conspiracy theory as they were both progressive/DNC oriented shows, but it seems more likely that NBC was really hurt by the ratings collapse.
Wait to see what they come up with before you judge them too harshly. I'd be pleasantly surprised if they chose things other than a "thrilling' police/law/medical/reality shows and cheesy sitcoms.
Just to clarify, the conspiracy part was humor. I do not mean to imply that is what you believe. Sorry; it was a poor choice of words.
Tom Psays:
Hmmm – I think the Santos campaign's been pretty disappointing. If I see him making another moist-eyed speech about healing the world through the power of vagueness, I think I might start downloading Commander In Chief in protest.
They stopped bringing the funny. (Except Annabeth. Annabeth rules.)
Dansays:
Yeah – boo hoo. I'd rather watch the planned Friends specials than this piffle. It has the same 'do no wrong' moral bunkum at the end.
Scott Matthewmansays:
There have been so many articles about this in the last few days, basically all saying that with such a bunch of comedians in the current administration, it's hard to garner much enthusiasm for either drama or comedy within a fictional version.
Personally, I've found a renewed enthusiasm at the moment during Season 6 on More4, as the programme finds it own rhythm after the loss of Sorkin — although they have yet to explain how they're in a re-election year just two years after the last one. But I can see how, with Bartlet's retirement, it's a fitting point at which to end the series. It's hard to imagine how a new adminsitration could still be "West Wing" enough to maintain interest from old viewers, as well as being original enough to attract new ones, and avoid covering the same ground as the series did in its first year (where the administration was only a year in to its administration).
I'm sure it'll go out on a high rather than sputtering to a halt, which is no less than it deserves.
In the meantime, I'm enjoying "Sports Night" — Aaron Sorkin's pervious comedy-drama, currently going out on ABC1. Unfortunately, it also has Joshua Malina being all nasal and annoying, but on the upside it has Felicity "only beliveable desperate housewife" Huffman and Peter "hotter than any of the gay men on Six Feet Under" Krause…