Better than Ambien

So the retrospective of The West Wing got canned at the last minute (producers offering stars pocket change to appear in it might've been a factor), so instead they offered the series pilot immediately before the finale. Serious, serious mistake. It provides a perfect example of how a good show can go so very, very wrong.

In the pilot, nothing "happens," in the grand scheme of things. But it's a great, funny, detailed depiction of a damaged yet operable bunch of people in the seat of the nation's power. Of course, the finale is supposed to be a great big event of Importance. And yet, again, nothing really happens. There are two or three minor plot points that matter, but in one of them, the main affected character doesn't even appear. But that's not important. What's important is that the characters had perfect opportunities to be interesting, but seemed to decide not to be. Instead the viewer is treated to several moments of extremely lame humor (none of it deriving from the characters' personalities), moments of people looking stoic, endless stretches of people watching TV, nothing remotely amusing or entertaining or diverting. I've watched swaths of C-SPAN more riveting than this.

Showing the pilot before "Tomorrow" just showed what The West Wing could be, even when not on all cylinders (the pilot was still before the show found its stride), and as a consequence, how much of a disappointment the show became. Memo to Sorkin: stay clean and give Studio 60 your undivided attention lest you get distracted and let a perfectly fantastic show wither and die ("Sports Night" anyone? Yes, please). And I'm not going hop aboard that bandwagon just yet. I've been Fireflied before.

Oh, and if 7th Heaven does knock Veronica Mars off the CW schedule, I offer to proxy my rage for you furious yet pacifist Martians. Let my unrivaled capacity for wanton carnage be used for good less evil.