Mon, November 7, 2005
The West Wing Live Debate
NBC's live presidential debate episode of The West Wing did little to rise above its half-baked sweeps stunt concept. As with most live telecasts of the last few years, Ellen DeGeneres was the best part.
I have to hand it to the actors, of course. Alda and Smits were out there without a net for the better part of an hour, and they only slipped up a few times. (You'll notice, when it came time to do a live episode, only the newbies were offered forth. Nobody who started on the show earlier than last season appeared in the episode – so those who had to carry the densest dialogue of any current TV show into the live arena are those with the least experience. Hardly fair.)
Like they have with the rest of the campaign, the show's producers used the debate format to skewer the ridiculous timid formalities that characterize real-life politics in our era. Just as both candidates are more frank and outspoken than any American candidate would be (at least, any candidate with a better chance of being elected than Kucinich), both were entirely willing to shake off the debate rules and time limits to have a "real" debate in a way no presidential candidate would in real life. Which was refreshing, and allowed the actors to talk over each other just like they would in any other West Wing episode. But, although the debate was livelier (and liver) than any of the debates we watched last fall, it was ultimately just as boring.
The debate on the issues raised a lot of interesting points, but there was almost no character drama at all. And the staging was so dull! You really need Schlamme in these situations. The show either needed to be more realistic (no crowd reaction shots) or more interesting (fewer "talking head" monologues, more backstage footage). The choice of using Forrest Sawyer and the NBC News logo was a bad one – it just trivializes the network's actual news division for no real gain in verisimilitude. West Wing viewers will happily accept a Qumar, but they can't handle a GNN?
Most of all, though, what bothered me was that nobody really ran away with the debate. At first, Santos seemed to leap ahead as he adjusted to the rule-free format, but then Vinick stepped up and started sparring. As a result, the episode – like most this season – was more about political wonking and less about moving the story forward. They're going to keep the race a dead heat until election night so there's a big surprise when the results come in. This began with the absolutely moronic "flash-forward" scene in the season opener, where we got to see the new president's pant cuff but not his face, and everything they do to perpetuate that approach just makes me hate the show more.
Meanwhile, Family Guy was freakin' awesome.
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Joe Mulder — Mon, 11/7/05 9:51am
Holy crap, wasn't it? They're back, baby!
I liked – no, loved – the live debate episode. Like I said, maybe it's just because they botched the Bartlett reelection arc so badly last time, but, I thought it was a kick-ass idea that was executed exactly as well as it should have been. I was wondering whether they'd have the balls to just to an episode that looked as if it were a live presidential debate, and they did!
I thought Santos came off better, by the way, and I'm not surprised; it seems like he's been trailing substantially in the polls, so he needs a post-debate "bump" to pull to within the margin of error. I was mildly disappointed that they didn't address abortion in the debate (since that's been a big part of the campaign, it seems), but, in real life you wouldn't be able to address everything in an hour debate anyway.
So there.
"Mike" — Mon, 11/7/05 10:53am
I agree with Joe, I thought the episode was excellent. While most of the candidates explanations about their own proposals and the consequences of the other's proposals lacked in realism in lots of ways, I was glued to the screen.
I, for one, was glad that no one ran away with the debate. First of all, they've already done that with Bartlet kicking the hell out of James Brolin in the last election and second, as Joe says, Santos needed a good debate to get a bump. Additionally, I don't think that either character would have a really bad night out there; the arc has built them both up to be smart guys who are independent thinkers. Even in real life, candidates rarely put up a huge stinker in a debate anyway - the mistakes that get pointed out are usually about sighing, invading another's space, etc and rarely about an ass-kicking.
I think they did a good job with both of them making a few gaffes (Santos saying "Hey, give everyone Medicare" and Vinick not being able to answer some questions and facing Santos' rescuing of the word "liberal") that can come back to haunt the candidates in future episodes.
I would have liked less crowd shots; in its place could have been 'backstage' shots with Josh, Tim Allen's TV wife and the like doing the "yes" or making the "Peyton Manning face" depending on the answer.
Joe Mulder — Mon, 11/7/05 1:01pm
I have a feeling that the East Coast feed will be the one that goes on the Season 8 (or however many they're up to) DVD, though. At one point out west here, we had (roughly; I don't remember it verbatim) this exchange.
ALDA: ...trying to scare everybody with global warming.
SMITS: Theories!?!
ALDA: (shits pants, realizes he forgot to say "global warming theories" on live TV) Uh... yeah. Yes, that's right. Global warming theories...
SMITS: (shits pants, realizes Alda didn't say "theories" the first time).
SMITS AND ALDA PROCEED TO BICKER ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING UNTIL FORREST SAWYER STOPS THEM.
It was interesting, because the next twenty seconds (which is forever when you're doing live TV, I'd imagine) felt really tight, like both guys were terrified that the wheels were going to come off.
But I'm not sure how many people noticed that (noticeable though it was), and like I said, loved the episode.
Bee Boy — Mon, 11/7/05 2:02pm
Yeah, that was definitely among the few moments I noticed where they wandered astray, and certainly the most jarring. Smits probably could've steered it back on course more elegantly. ("It's not just scare tactics, there's real science..." or "Republicans often refer to global warming as a theory [internal aside: "not often enough" – stares daggers at Alda], but there's real science...") Still, I can't fault those two. They didn't sign on for this shit. They've only just graduated out of "guest starring" roles on television's most challenging show (pace-of-dialogue-wise), and suddenly they're the ones who have to carry a live debate for almost an hour. They were pretty remarkable, considering.
What they should've done, instead of memorizing all that dialogue, was sit down with the show writers and come up with elaborate positions and talking points, get to know everything their characters think about the issues, and then just improvise the whole thing. That would've been a blast!
Still, I wish at least a few moments had anything to do with the story this season, instead of just an hour of hippie West Wing writers airing their views on how much better politics could be in this country, and government too, for that matter. (Not that I don't agree with the writers on most points, but Jeebus – publish a pamphlet or something. This show is about Josh and Donna, not Medicare!)
Also interesting: I'm wondering if there were lights or other signals off-camera for the extras in the audience, since really they were the only people who could get the show back on schedule if the Smits/Alda Festival of Pants-Shitting ran long (or short). Stretch the applause break, or hurry through it. That's the way to iron out little ten-second kinks in the timing. Maybe they did this, or maybe they just figured, "we'll run one more promo for Medium in 3D if it ends early, one fewer if it runs long."
Brandon — Tue, 1/3/06 11:36pm
Finally got to watch it just before Christmas, and I have to say, I liked it. The setup was a little ham-handed; it was their damn debate, why wouldn't they have just ditched the format before they ever got on-stage? And the audience interruptions were annoying. But those were minor, piffling malfunctions - Smits and Alda were great.
And Vinnick won my fictional vote with his performance. I thought he (or, really, the "hippie West Wing writers") made some really interesting points, with fresh arguments/angles I hadn't heard before.
Brandon — Mon, 1/23/06 3:31am
This just in, The West Wing is calling it quits at the end of the season due to declining ratings. So, so much for who's going to win and be in charge of the next administration. Seems like a waste of a lot of dramatic buildup. They'll reveal the winner by season's end, and that'll be that.
Bee Boy — Mon, 1/23/06 3:32pm
A waste indeed. It's too bad they didn't resolve the election more quickly – ratings might have been better if things weren't up in the air for the entire season so far. (Not that having a "wedding" episode helped. That abomination is still languishing on TiVo, unwatched and – reportedly – unwatchable.)