Live Blogs (I'm) Not a Fanboy watches The West Wing

tibieryo2011-01-31 22:01:15

Given that these liveblogs are akin to the wild west as the pioneers moved in along the Oregon trail, I thought I'd take some time to introduce myself and my relation to this series. So, hi, my name is Tibieryo, and I run a blog called (I'm) Not a Fanboy. The title is half-ironic, half-sincere—while I always judge new media based on its own merits and not who made it, I also fall in love with certain creators and their work. I remember the first time I saw Charlie Wilson's War in theaters. I knew the movie itself was good, but that dialogue.

Aaron Sorkin is nearly a god among screenwriters. His dialogue reads like pornography for anyone with a fetish for big speeches, whipcrack insults and plain awesometacity. However, I still had no idea who he was after I saw Charlie Wilson's War. I just thought it was a really well-written and funny movie. It was during promotion for The Social Network that I noticed his name on the credits for Charlie Wilson and a fan was born. So is it really any surprise that during the seven seasons it was on the air, I never watched an episode of The West Wing until now? I didn't know who its creator was, I didn't know he was the showrunner—I lived my life in West Wing ignorance until this past weekend. I downloade borrowed all the DVDs from a friend of mine, and watched the first episode on a whim.

After realizing this series is utterly fantastic, I wondered "Hey! Why don't I liveblog this?" Then I realized that seven seasons of television might not fly on my blog. So where would people tolerate an overlong recap of a series that ran for seven years? I'm sorry, but at the same time, you're welcome. At the end of this liveblog, if I stick to my minimum number of words per post (500), I should have 77 000 words by the time this is over. Trivia: on my blog, I publish after hitting a hundred 1000 word posts, for about a hundred thousand words a volume. If I finish this project and publish it, it will be a 3/4 size mini-volume. Unless I start hitting 750 words per episode recap/post, at which point it might hit a hundred thousand. A full size volume about one television series.

I should mention here that I have not seen an episode of this series before. I have not read its wiki page. I have not read its tropes page, beyond figuring out that it has something to do with strong idealism. I'm liveblogging this series 100% blind, with the exception of a few key facts. For instance, I know that Rob Lowe and Moira Kelly will depart the series before season five and that season five is nobody's favourite season. At the moment, I'm four episodes in. This is very exciting. I hope I have some unique experiences or insights for you, but I assume this series has been discussed to death.

Who cares? LET'S DO THIS

Comments

Eegah Since: Dec, 1969

Feb 1st 2011 at 5:23:07 PM

I liked this show a lot, though it did certainly stumble badly in season five (notably, this was when Sorkin left the show in the hands of [[ER John Wells]]). Though he certainly can write some great dialogue (A Few Good Men is also well worth checking out), my view of the show has soured a bit in the years since, as Sorkin revealed himself more and more to be an egotistical blowhard in person. Just look at the mess he made out of the initially promising Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip; it's really funny these days to remember that, at the time, EVERYONE was predicting it would wipe the floor with the similar-premised {{30 Rock}}.

Looking forward to this one, as the show's first few seasons at least have quite their share of great lines, CMO As, and CMO Fs.