Our readership and "The West Wing"

So far: My parents, my sister-in-law, my high school friend Cinco, my work friend James Wright, stranger-just-a-friend-I-haven't-met Chumly Felix from Pennsylvania. These are the ones I know about.

"West Wing" fans among them: zero.

So, in that spirit, my latest review:

Not with a bang but a . . . not exactly a whimper, but what now?

I was a late convert to "The West Wing." I spent the first four seasons--the Sorkin seasons--catching the show every third or fourth episode and thinking, Well, that's nice. I saw the agenda (Clinton + Kennedy + Galbraith - any whiff of sexual scandal) and was put off; it seemed that the left wing had created a robot president for its own purposes. It was not until BRAVO, until way ast 9/11, that I began to realize the majesterial quality of the writing and acting, the way the show rewarded a viewer's attention.

It is with almost a sense of grief that I ponder over the last few episodes. The run-up to the election, the debate, the nuclear accident, Election Days I and II--all of these shows brought back the marvelous tension of November, 2004, and the sight of Michael Barone flipping through county-by-county polling data in Ohio. Since then? We've buried Leo, in an episode I suppose could go no other way. We've seen Josh melt down for the fiftieth time, and then go on vacation--for two episodes. Sam Seaborn has appeared, then disappeared, for the same two episodes--NBC or the production company didn't even think to shell out the bucks for a C.J.-Sam reunion this past Sunday. Could we just have had Sam in the bullpen, minding the store in Josh\'s absence? Would a thirty-second hello have killed anyone?

One must let a great TV show, like a Brett Favre, go out on its own terms. "St. Elsewhere" had its autism, "Newhart" its it's-all-been-a-dream sequence, "Cheers" its life-goes-on-tomorrow. Perhaps only "Hill Street Blues" hit precisely the right chord, with blameless Norm Buntz thrown off the force at the end of an otherwise (in the words of Joyce Davenport) "better than break-even day." "The West Wing" has decided to go the soft route, wrap a few details up, put C.J. with Danny, make Charlie C.J.'s assistant, put Josh with Donna, Sam with Josh, Vinick in Foggy Bottom, Santos's kids in public school and Bartlet back in New Hampshire. Fair enogh, but is there anything else? Who will be Vice President? Not Vinick, not C.J., so does anyone care?

One other note. NBC's decision not to film a "West Wing" retrospective (and instead simply replay the show's first episode) is shabbiness of high order. "The West Wing" is one of the best ten TV dramas in history--it deserves better.