The West Wing: The Complete Series 1-7 [DVD] [2006]
![The West Wing: The Complete Series 1-7 [DVD] [2006]](https://k4s.uk/posts/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/51dSX-EmHGL.jpg)
The West Wing: The Complete Series 1-7 [DVD] [2006]
| Weight: | 0.28 g |
| Dimensions: | 20 x 14 x 12 cm; 0.28 Grams |
| Brand: | Warner Home Video |
| Model: | 5051892007504 |
| Colour: | Black |
| Batteries Included: | No |
| Manufacture: | Warner Home Video |
| Dimensions: | 20 x 14 x 12 cm; 0.28 Grams |
The West Wing is one of the greatest TV series – great writing, great acting. We used to have the another boxed set (lent to friend, lost!). The DVDs in this set are great but the packaging is poor. All the DVDs fall out all the time. Doesn’t change the quality of the programme, but a bit of a pain.
West wing is one of them gems that once you start watching the pilot you stay to the end of the entire series , i am not one for american politics or understand the whole concept of the white house but i now have a better idea , the whole cast are brilliant , fell in love with CJ and her odd humour but Martin Sheen really stood out in the whole series .
An incredibly well written series outlining the political life of a fictional President and his White House Staff. Compelling drama interesting and often quite funny too. We can’t know what life inside the centre of US executive power is really like except those who have worked there) but this series appears very realistic with some likeable characters. I find politics quite interesting but I am sure anyone would find this series enjoyable and fulfilling. I enjoyed watching the series on TV years ago and now experiencing this again on DVD brings back so many fun memories. Once you start watching it is very hard to pull yourself away! Thankfully there 7 series in total and some 144 hours of wonderful entertainment. Highly recommended 5 stars.
Yes, sometimes they start an episode with some complex American law or issue, but they always explain later on.
Yes, it looks a bit old now (particularly the very ample suits) but I think it’s still one of the best TV series of all times.
Yes, it does make feel like politics is noble, and politicians from all sides will be fair play… Surely not true in real life.
Not fond of hyperbole, but we’re in the middle of watching the episodes and seasons and they are amazingly good. The acting, the characterisation, is perfect. The storylines and situations are as relevant now as they were then. The writing, the dialogue, crackles with intelligence and wit, but also a great deal of human sympathy and understanding.
I just don’t understand how, after the phenomenal success of West Wing, everything it says and how it says it, did Trump manage to hoodwink so many.
The cast are excellent, the scripts are superb, the dialogue fast, taut, punchy.
I’m not sure I’ve seen a series like it before or since. It will make you laugh, cry, think, shout out in anger… and all that in a single episode. It clearly has a political leaning (Bartlett is a Democrat President) which may put some viewers off, but even when trying to argue a position it tends to do it while still giving both sides a voice.
This is just a clever show, and I’m thankful for all 7 seasons.
Note, I’m not an American, and I can’t speak for the accuracy of what goes on, but even if just 7 seasons about a fictional administration in a fictional country on a fictional world it would still be a great show, worthy of all the awards and accolades and praise it has received.
ead recommendations for this series time and again and by people I thought should know what they are recommending … and it sure doesn’t disappoint!
Marvellous writing and range of topics covered, from the everyday stuff or things that one at least encounters listening to the news to the more rarer scenarios (Twenty Five). Really looks as if the writers know what they are doing … looking at the list of people who worked on this series as consultants they should, too. And while the outcome of the decision-making not always finds my approval (or the process and background haggling sometimes sometimes disgusting or downright scary), the “right” points are alway raised (for example: when President Bartlett does not commute the death sentence of that guy sentenced under federal law despite the “right” issues being raised against capital punishment as such. While the Amnesty International member campaigning for the abolition of the death penalty worldwide for several decades part of me deplores the outcome (and thoroughly enjoyed the way Toby is brought to and argues for a commution) it _is_ a realistic outcome.
West Wing is the best series I ever watched. It is intelligent, funny, educative, and full of life. The characters are all described well and develop massively within the series according to their experiences. And this is not only true for the main characters but also in minor roles. Some of the minor roles appear very early in the show and appear from time to time till one of the last episodes giving the complete series a touch of reality.
Every episode three to five new plots open and some are closing. The plots are mainly based on political matters but also personal and private issues are picked up underlining the
The only “negative” thing I can say about the series is that they overdid it from time to time. At some episodes in the series I got the feeling that they had to many plot ideas and had to stuff them all in one presidency. Without giving away too much and only for the readers who already watched it: The tragic action with Zoe, for example. I think this is a bit too much after the tragic action with the president earlier on. But so what.
For all who just started with the series and think “it is good, but very good?” wait for season 2. In fact, the first season is the “worst” of the complete series. For all who think “good series but real life?” Watch the special season where former White House members comment on the series. And read newspapers.
Best,
Universaldiletta
Finally fulfilled a long time shopping ambition and bought the box set of one of my favourite series. Well worth both the wait and the price! The show is every bit as good as first time round; witty, clever, challenging script, characters you can really care about and wonderful performances throughout. The famous walk-and-talks are a joy, the high speed verbal sparring is a challenge and there’s not a dud episode in the entire run.
Just one problem (although it’s not one I’m taking so much as a star point off my rating for!): my hearing is deteriorating and I now need subtitles to get full value out of DVDs, but I can’t work out how to turn them on! It should be easy, as it is with pretty much every other DVD I own, but the obvious didn’t work, so I tried activating it with just about every button on the remote and nothing works. Is it just my problem or has anyone else had the same thing? And if it does work for anyone out there, can you tell me how you did it? Thanks.
This is a fantastic series. I first came across it a few years ago when I was a student and it was on TV but only caught a few episodes which ignited my interest. I had constantly kept a watchful eye open for it coming back on TV but to no avail.
I was able to borrow the box set from a friend and by journey with the Bartlett campaign began. There is a reason why President Bartlett is the most popular president in the USA, despite being fictional, today. This is how the American people want their president to be.
The series starts of fresh with a host of characters to introduce and develop. As the series continues new characters are slowly introduced before becoming main stays of the series in the end. Every story keeps you gripped and intrigued as to what will come next. My girlfriend is has no interest in politics and originally had no interest in the program but continually found herself watching with intrigue each time I put an episode on.
Definately something for everyone.
Let me start by saying that I have never written a review for a product but I simply felt that I had to after finishing the last episode of The West Wing. I had never seen a single episode of The West Wing before I purchased the complete series a few years ago off the back of all the fantastic reviews here on Amazon. Was it worth it? I can safely say that it is the greatest TV series I will ever see. Ever.
To say that this is the best drama series that American television has produced would be a gross understatement. The characters are perfectly created, the stories engrossing and the dialogue throughout is beautifully composed. Of course, Aaron Sorkin has much to do with this but the performances from pretty much all of the cast are first-class and Martin Sheen and Allison Janney stole the show for me. I know it sounds silly to say that the characters will end up feeling like your family but it really is the case.
It’s funny, moving, intelligent and dynamic in equal measure and I feel genuinely sad that I’ve watched all of the episodes. Reviews on here sometimes have to be taken with a pinch (or a bucket full) of salt but please believe me when I say that I can’t praise The West Wing highly enough.
To be honest with you, no review could ever do this programme justice: it is simply staggering at just how brilliant it is. Don’t hesitate to buy it – it might just change your life.
If I had to give marks out of 10 I would unhesitatingly give 10, Marks out of 1000, yes there were some tiny flaws so I guess I would only give 995. In view of the overall excellence, it seems churlish to list the flaws, but I shall, as follows:
a) The writers were constantly trying to introduce new characters to give some variety, and on the whole their attempts were not successful. In the first series they introduced us to a lobbyist who drove like a maniac and shouted like she was high on something. A series of two later they introduced a Republican lawyer into the staff of a basically Democratic White House. That attempt was almost embarassingly bad.
b) Some of the actors spoke their lines very badly. With one exception this criticism only applies to the minor parts. But the actor playing the lady who spent most of the series as assistant to the deputy chief of staff, the character’s name was Donatella Moss, needs elocution lessons. I would guess that I understood only one sentence in three of hers.
c) The writers introduced two scenes where people played chess. These writers clearly do not know the first thing about the game. It would have taken five minutes for someone with just a passing acquaintance of the game to correct the quite crass chess related aspects of their scripts. This did not really detract from the story, but I would think that any viewer, like myself, who does have a minimal knowledge of the game would have been very irritated.
That said, there were six or seven central characters who were present throughout, or almost throughout the series, and were uniformly excellent. They really seemed like a well practiced team, both as actors and as characters. For the last series or two, they introduced Alan Alda and Jimmy Smits as opposing candidates for the presidential election to replace Jed Bartlett (Martin Sheen), the president for the whole series. Both these two acted brilliantly, though perhaps credulity was a bit stretched in both cases when they stood by their principles and said what they believed not what they thought it was electorally judicious to say. I so disbelieve and distrust every politician on both sides of the Atlantic that I just found their honesty a bit hard to take.
Give me a few months and I think I will go back to the beginning and watch the lot again. I had no missing discs. Not one disc was in any way faulty. I can only give a (pretty well) unqualified recommendation.
In brief – `The West Wing’ is like no other film, programme or TV series that I have ever seen before. In fact, `seen’ isn’t really the right word. `Experienced’ is much better:-
It’s like no other film, programme or TV series that I have ever experienced before.
How can a series that is almost purely about the minutiae of American politics and the people who administer it keep you gripped for hours on end, especially when almost everything is so alien to the systems that we have (or are told about) here in the UK?
How can a series with minimal physical action and almost all talk (and LOTS of walking along corridors) keep you on the edge of your seat and wanting to come back again and again for more of the same?
And when there IS action, such as an apparent attempted assassination, how is it that the most tense scenes and virtually all the various consequences happen elsewhere away from the scene of action?
How can it be so enthralling when a trio of DEA agents are captured and an attempted rescue ends with marines being killed and you never see any action at all?
And how on earth can one of the seasons end with the high drama of a man standing at a podium, putting his hands in his pockets and then slowly and silently smiling leave you in a state of high excitement and desperate to start watching the next season?
I could go on to claim that it’s all down to Aaron Sorkin’s writing because, after all, he wrote every single episode in all 7 seasons? I could say that it’s down to the actors and their skill. I could explain the complexities of the fabulously complex half-acre set and everything that happens on and off camera to make you believe that you really are a fly on the wall of the White House. I could even claim that the series has an educational component in that you learn so much about how political parties and politicians work together or against each other.
And all of those elements are true and important, but in the final analysis I think that what makes `The West Wing’ so incredibly addictive, enthralling, unique and beyond the merely excellent is that you come to truly care about the characters. Obviously they aren’t real, but you still care about them and their dilemmas and relationships. Everything seems so incredibly real and `immediate’ that you cannot help but be drawn into the heart of everything that happens, whether that be interpersonal relationships between particular characters; or relationships between the White House, Congress and Senate, or the government and the people.
`The West Wing’ works on both the micro and the macro levels and as such is worthy of being hailed as the greatest series ever seen on television.
Beyond all that, I’m lost for words. This series is amazing.
I was never into politics, and certainly not American politics. I knew enough to know George Bush was the devil, and that Tony Blair was infinitely better for us than Maggie Thatcher, but I was in my early twenties and well, there was beer to drink and parties to go to.
I’d taken ill a few years back and had to spend a couple of weeks stuck inside with only Virgin on demand and a handful of DVDs. I’d exhausted myself and the poor offerings on the TV and spotted the first five episodes of The West Wing. I watched them in an evening, pausing after the first episode to jump online and buy this boxed set.
Aaron Sorkin is a genius. He introduces us to the fast paced life in The West Wing immediately. We see the lives and jobs of the President’s senior staff – boy wonder Josh “Lemon” Lyman, sad and cynical Toby Ziegler, sassy and smart CJ Cregg, dependable Leo McGarry and soulful Sam Seaborne Each character is unique and you warm to them and their foibles imediately.
The series is based around a democratic administration, and we track the 8 years (plus some great flashbacks) of President Bartlet and his staff try to push their agenda and bypass the attempts of the Republican senate to block all their legislation. Medicare, gun control, banking regulations – all issues that raised their head in my lifetime and I learnt a lot from just watching this show. Josh and Donna would regularly debate the issues at hand, a great way to see two sides of each story.
The plot develops and characters intertwine over the 7 series. The complexities of the American political system are explained well and political and philosophical themes were explored. This sowed a seed in me and I began to learn much more about American and British politics.
The cast bounced off eachother – with passion, with anger, with humour. There are some genuinely hilarious moments, the type where you rewind the DVD and watch and laugh. And the dialogue. Oh the dialogue. Fast paced, heavy hitting and just perfect. This show is heavy on words and I loved each and every one of them.
I’ve watched the entire series a few times now. I’ve compared it to shows like The Wire, 6 feet under etc and it never comes up short. There are some wonderful episodes that echo real life and its enthalling and exhilarating watching them.
Interestingly, the inspiration for Matt Santos was a little known senator called Barack Obama – watching this series a few years after it was shown made me see how insightful the wrting was, and how astute the political research was.
I paid much more for this boxed set, but at this price it’s a bargain. So much so, I’ve bought another one – just in case. From a personal persepctive – this series opened me up to so many new ideas and beliefs.
Spurred on first by reading Clinton’s account of his years as US President and then following the Democratic campaign that ultimately led to the election of Obama, we were attracted by the notion of an intelligent political drama focused on the White House, not to mention the rave reviews read and listened to.
We are now well into season 3, watching at the rate of 2 episodes a night, and are utterly hooked. The main characters are all so attractive in their very different ways and have created for us a parallel world in a larger than life West Wing. The realistic politics of the wide variety of stories is conveyed through an exceptionally witty script.
I particularly appreciate the “Previously on the West Wing” introductions to each episode which reintroduce the aspects of the story directly relevant to the new programme. Although most episodes are complete in themselves, the ever-growing back-story means that every new programme incorporates multiple examples of information first met in previous shows.
I also enjoy the fact that each episode is told in a less than straightforward manner. You often have to hang in there, absorbing everything you see and hear without immediately understanding its significance; which makes it all the more satisfying when you eventually “get it”. A particularly good example of this is the 2-parter that opens season 3, which involves a series of flashbacks-flashforwards. We have often found it beneficial to use the rewind feature on the remote!
There are some wonderfully humorous moments, in particular the story involving CJ Cregg’s root canal filling, as well as many of the dry comments of the President, Toby and, increasingly, Charlie.
With some of the “extras” available at intervals on the main discs and others on a separate disc, they provide additional insight into the creation of the West Wing: the intricacies of the set, information about the actors and their roles and many other facets of this fascinating series. I found the documentary about the episode focusing on the cathedral particularly interesting; the interviews with the cast less so.
Although we will be devastated when we have watched the whole set, we know that we will want to watch it again and again. Indeed, I have already re-watched the Pilot episode, to remind myself of how we were first introduced to the main characters.
We have recently bought a second set, as a gift for my parents, and they are similarly hooked!