The West Wing

Okay, I know, I know, I'm like 15 years late for this party!  Why did I never watch The West Wing when it ran from 1999 - 2006?  It probably aired at 10:00 p.m., and that was half an hour past my bedtime in those days.  By the time I retired and could stay awake later, I'd already missed the first few seasons, so why bother?  (I think this was before Netflix.)

Anyway, I don't have cable TV anymore, but I do have Netflix.  I really don't miss TV at all, but when I climb into bed at night, I like to have a half hour or so of something to watch, something to help me unwind.  I've been through two seasons of The New Girl and all seven seasons of 30 Rock.  I watched the two seasons of House of Cards and loved it.  I needed something else, and The West Wing popped up.  Thirteen episodes in and I'm hooked.

I'm not really sure how astute I was on politics and the world stage at the turn of the millennium.  Given that I was teaching full time, raising three kids, and caring for a husband who was battling cancer, I probably didn't give a flying fig about what was going on in Washington, D.C.  But I have to tell you how uncanny it is that the issues that were presented in this fictional White House in 1999 are pretty much the same issues that are visited upon the real White House today.  Death penalty?  Gun control?  Drugs?  Unrest in the Middle East?  A Congress more intent on re-election than on solving problems?  It's still the same stuff, people, the same stuff.  And that could be pretty depressing.

But I'm not depressed.  I'm in love with this show!  I already feel like I know these characters personally.  Josh, Sam, C.J., Jed, Charlie, Toby, Leo, Donna . . . See?  I'm on a first-name basis with them!  (I will admit, I'm not crazy about Mandy.  There's one in every crowd.)

And here's a little something else about this show.  When a bat flying around my bedroom wakes me up between 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning, I flip on the lights and direct the bat outside.  And then of course, I cannot fall back to sleep.  Aha!  The West Wing!  I watch another episode until I am sleepy again.  Take that, you disruptive bats!