(Insert Impeachment Pun Here)
After seven years, four of them amazing, "The West Wing" will end its run on NBC this May. And I, for one, think it's about time.
Aaron Sorkin, the show's creator, and director Thomas Schlamme left after the fourth season ended, and quality took a nose dive. The ratings soon followed suit. With Sorkin gone, the show lost the heart that so brilliantly placed head and shoulders above other network programming its first few years. Executive producer John Wells took the reins solo, and before long, "The West Wing" began to look like Wells' other show, the long-in-the-tooth "ER." The warm lighting and formal framing have given way to shadows, sharp angles, and camera work that's supposed to be edgy or original but is really just distracting. The stories have devolved, too: The sense of hope, of minor triumph in the face of major adversity, is gone, and all that's left is a herd of disappointed characters looking lost in the world they used to rule.
So long, "West Wing." Now, bring on Sorkin's new project: "Studio 7 on the Sunset Strip."
