WHERE’S the suspense?
On “The West Wing,” it’s non-existent.
President Bartlet and his Republican opponent are running practically neck-and-neck in the polls going into next month’s election, but the outcome has never been in doubt.
Of course, Bartlet wins. Otherwise, they’d have to recast the entire show. That’s not going to happen and everybody knows it.
The predictability of the election contest – a climactic showdown toward which the series has been building since last season – is just one of the problems plaguing NBC’s blue-chip drama series as the network and the show’s producers come to grips with an unexpected decline in viewership.
For the season-to-date, “The West Wing” has averaged 16.98 million viewers per week, according to Nielsen – down 6.22 million viewers from the same time last season.
And in the demographic group NBC and its advertisers covet – men and women 18-49 – the series is down more than 2 million viewers.
Why are viewers abandoning NBC’s most-prestigious show? I watched the last three episodes in search of an answer and was stunned at what I saw.
In a nutshell, “The West Wing” has become dated and irrelevant. It’s also become intolerably preachy and maddeningly condescending. And oh, yes – before I forget: Mary-Louise Parker’s voice is like fingernails on a chalkboard.
“The West Wing” premiered in fall 1999 as a clone of the Clinton administration, but without the scandals.
Today, though, we’re almost two years into the Bush era and the White House of “The West Wing” – with all those young, eager know-it-alls running around – seems like a quaint time capsule from the early ’90s.
Except for the indispensable Leo McGarry (John Spencer), the denizens of the Bartlet White House are much too young to handle the nation’s problems, which, in the real world, have become much more complex recently.
What they are good at, though, is spouting Ivy League-style debate rhetoric – endlessly and without mercy – in conversations written by scriptwriters trying to show off.
And while we’re at it, I didn’t understand Sen. Stackhouse’s parable about first-time pilots flying upside-down or the president’s anecdote about Cicero and the Roman Senate from Plato’s “Republic.”
Tonight, NBC has a rerun of “The West Wing” before launching into a flight of new episodes for the November sweeps starting next Wednesday with the long-awaited debate between President Bartlet and the challenger, Robert Ritchie (James Brolin).
And on Nov. 6, it’s Election Day. Not that I expect to affect the outcome, but I’m voting for James Brolin.