The West Wing season 7 is a curious beast in many ways. Rather than centering the activities in the West Wing, (with the notable exceptions of the investigations into a security leak over a secret military space shuttle and the wedding of Barlett's daughter) the show moves on the road to a pair of candidates who appear to form policies on the fly. This takes the show into some odd directions and involves the appearance of a wealth of new characters almost exclusively cast with recognisable faces, which can be a little distracting as the writers too often seem to rely on our connection with the actors rather than their characters. Alda in particular is a strange choice for the role as it appears Hawkeye has merely decamped from M*A*S*H and somehow walked into a Republican candidacy by accident. Though this has an interesting humanising effect on the normal Republican caricatures it can sometimes seem jarringly bizarre. Janine Garofalo may not be out of place but her role is even more reliant on our knowledge of her standard on-screen persona. The same could be said for Oliver Platt, Ron Silver, Lily Tomlin, Teri Polo, ER's John Aylward, Jon Bon Jovi(!). They are great actors (well maybe not Mr Jovi) and they don't do a bad job in characters which often reappear for a long sequence of episodes but both their profile and the dizzying volume of new characters introduced right up to the closing episode make this a slightly incoherent final series.
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The West Wing dvd set
The West Wing dvd
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The West Wing dvd set
The West Wing dvd