The President has left the building…

Phew… A while ago we finished The West Wing. Seven seasons worth of politics, drama, screwball comedy, quickfire dialogue. Is it up there with Six Feet Under or The Wire in my appreciation? Not quite, but I definitely felt sad when it was over – 150+ episodes is quite the commitment, both on the part of the audience and the series’ cast and crew, and The West Wing managed remarkably well to remain relevant throughout its run, with the exception of its lowest period after the departure of Aaron Sorkin.

I wonder what it was like for Americans to follow the series as it was first aired. As much as I liked it, it’s difficult to fully relate to The West Wing‘s patriotism, its belief in the ongoing project that is America. As a European of reasonably left-wing persuasion, and with a bi-national background to boot, I find nationalism of any ilk utterly alien, yet these characters I’ve enjoyed watching and have been rooting for – right down to Toby Ziegler, possibly the one closest to me in his political outlook on things – have a fierce pride of their nation and, more importantly, what it can be that I cannot help but find fascinating.

Apart from this almost anthropological interest in the series, though, I defy anyone to watch The West Wing and not enjoy the series’ regular cast. There were a few missteps along the way, often when it came to characters on the other side of the political spectrum – until the last two seasons, The West Wing struggled to portray realistic, credible Republicans who weren’t moustache-twirling villains or vague concessions to alternative political persuasions – but the central cast was pitch-perfect pretty much from day 1. And anyone who doesn’t enjoy Allison Janney’s CJ Cregg is no friend of mine, simple as that.

What’s next for us, series-wise? Well, we’ve got started on a rather shorter presidential show, John Adams, and it’s a joy to watch Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney (whom I used to dislike intensely, mainly due to her character in The Truman Show – she was pretty much my female David Morse), but since we’re close to the end of House M.D. season 7 (and not a moment too soon!), it’s probably time to get started on another long ‘un. Mad Men? Or should we mop up some mini-series or one-season wonders, such as I Claudius (which, in this day and age, probably should be rebooted as iClaudius) or The Prisoner? And then there’s The Killing and Five Days and, and, and… Too many series, not enough evenings and weekends. Early retirement due to too many things to watch sounds just fine to me!

Housing crisis

If it weren’t for that meddling Hugh Laurie… Seriously, I find few things in TV land as annoying as writerly laziness – and House, M.D. has become one of the laziest shows in that respect. We’re now almost at the end of season 7 in Switzerland, and when they’re not paying attention I’m sure I keep catching the series regulars avoid each others’ looks in embarrassment. Laurie still does a good (though no longer great) job, as does Robert Sean Leonard, but you have to feel sorry for the likes of Chase, Foreman, Taub and the other hapless sidekicks.

House has rarely been a terribly original show, and part of its appeal was its utterly formulaic structure. Once you’ve seen half a dozen of episodes, you know what expects you: weird symptoms manifest themselves, the team makes a first diagnosis and starts treatment, the patient gets worse, more treatment, more escalation, the apparent solution followed by a major crisis, then House – usually while talking to Wilson – has an epiphany based on some more or less feeble pun or metaphor emerging from the conversation he’s just had and solves the case. Patient saved, in 49 out of 50 cases, otherwise cue patient’s poignant death accompanied by some melancholy singer-songwriter droning on about love and loss and dead puppies.

It’s not that the show is samey; it’s that the bits where the show could at least be somewhat different from week to week, the soap opera/comedy bits, have become really, really inept. I’ve stopped counting the moments where House says something offensive, inappropriate or weird and we get reaction shots from the other characters that could be out of a cheapo ’80s sitcom. It doesn’t help that the episode “Bombshells”, which tries (though not all that successfully) to mix up the format, does a scene parodying sitcom clichés when the actual show in business-as-usual mode delivers lazy versions of those same clichés.

At this point, as much as it pains me to say it, I am seriously thinking that House, M.D. should’ve been put down like an old, sick dog. Let Laurie move on to something where he can make better use of his talents. I’m happy if Leonard tags along. But now, giving us Olivia Wilde to look at simply isn’t enough to keep things very interesting. Sorry, Gregory – I’m just not that into you anymore.

P.S.: Is it just me, or is this music video quite possibly one of the weirdest things to result from the series?