"This is ridiculous"

Were the first words uttered by Toby Ziegler, one of the charcters on The West Wing. Many of the show's detractors could hardly agree more.

TWW is ending its seven year run tonight. The President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet administration riding off into the sunset. I don't expect too many surprises in the finale. TV show finales tend to reminisce rather than break new ground. Except for the show's characters going off to new things.

As I said earlier, TWWon't has its detractors. Many of them from the right, President Bartlett while eccentric, is no Reagan Republican. I say what do you expect out of Hollywood? Tom Selleck as President? This is just fiction guys and gals, get over it. It's not even well written fiction half all the time.

I've watched the show since season 3 but not religiously. Through Bravo Channel I caught up with many of the older episodes. What I always noticed, maybe because I'm a trivia buff and Web fiction writer, is not the politics but the factual mistakes on the show and the lack of realism in how White House really works. We'll get to the later first.

During West Wing's run, I can count the times the Sec of State is seen on one hand. Did anyone ever notice how foreign policy seemed to be run out of the WH? As engaging as CJ is, should she be an advisor on foreign policy? Josh? Don't even get me started on Donna.....

Oh its fiction you remind me of what I said above. Just not terribly realistic fiction.

Remember the title of my post "This is ridiculous"? What I sometimes found myself incredulous at were the show's mistakes in fact. It was like TWW was in an alien universe. A few examples will suffice

1- The Vermont-Ontario border. Vermont borders Quebec.
2- North Korea is a rain forest in February.
3- Or Toby Ziegler's scene mentioned above. He mentions the plane is a 20 month old Lockhead Eagle 10-11. L 10-11's were almost all out of service by 1999(The year TWW first aired) in the US, and hadn't been made the mid 80's.

There are more but I'd bore you. Haven't the show's writers ever heard of Google? I know as a writer how easy it can be to check facts just by doing a web search. Were TWW's writers jus careless, lazy, or overworked? Or did they think anyone but a masochist in Florida would notice?

I still watched TWW, Errors and lack of realism not withstanding. Tonight I'll say goodbye.

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