Stars: Rob Lowe, Martin Sheen, Dule Hill, Alison Janney, John Spencer, Richard Schiff, Stockard Channing, Moira Kelly, Tim Matheson, Bradley Whitford, Janel Moloney

Director: Thomas Schlamme

Summary: The highly acclaimed television series THE WEST WING follows American president Josiah Bartlet (Martin Sheen) and his White House staff through their daily lives as they tackle issues great and small. Cast members include Rob Lowe, Stockard Channing, John Spencer, Allison Janney, Richard Schiff, Dule Hill, and Bradley Whitford. This collection features the entire first season, including episodes such as Pilot Episode, Five Votes Down, The State Dinner, The Short List, Celestial Navigation, 20 Hours in L.A., Six Meetings Before Lunch, Let Bartlet Be Bartlet, and many more.

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Aaron Sorkin's American political drama The West Wingis more than mere feel-good viewing for sentimental US patriots. It is among the best-written, sharpest, funniest and most moving American TV series of all time. In its first series, The West Wingestablished the cast of characters comprising the White House staff. There's Chief of Staff Leo McGarry (John Spencer), a recovering alcoholic whose efforts to be the cornerstone of the administration contribute to the break-up of his marriage. CJ (Alison Janney) is the formidable Press Spokeswoman embroiled in a tentative on-off relationship with Timothy (Thirtysomething) Busfield's reporter. Brilliant but grumpy communications deputy Toby Ziegler, Rob Lowe's brilliant but faintly nerdy Sam Seaborn and brilliant but smart-alecky Josh Lyman make up the rest of the inner circle. Initially, the series' creators had intended to keep the President off-screen. Wisely, however, they went with Martin Sheen's Jed Bartlet, whose eccentric volatility, caution, humour and strength in a crisis make for such an impressively plausible fictional President that polls once expressed a preference for Bartlet over the genuine incumbent.

The issues broached in the first series have striking, often prescient contemporary relevance. We see the President having to be talked down from a "disproportionate response" when terrorists shoot down a plane carrying his personal doctor, or acting as broker in a dangerous stand-off between India and Pakistan. Gun control laws, gays in the military and fundamentalist pressure groups are all addressed--the latter in a most satisfying manner ("Get your fat asses out of the White House!")--while the episode "Take This Sabbath Day" is a superb dramatic meditation on capital punishment.

Handled incorrectly, The West Wingcould have been turgid, didactic propaganda for The American Way. However, the writers are careful to show that, decent as this administration is, its achievements, though hard-won, are minimal. Moreover, the brisk, staccato-like, almost musical exchanges of dialogue, between Josh and his PA Donna, for instance, as they pace purposefully up and down the corridors are the show's abiding joy. This is wonderful and addictive viewing. --David Stubbs

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Featurette - 1. THE MAKING OF THE WEST WING, TV Spots, Scene Selection, Interactive Menus, Web Link
Year:	1999
Release Date:	November 18, 2002
Runtime:	905 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	D 022393
Keywords:	Off, Box, General, West, Series, Wing, Set, Drama, Complete, Schedule
Genre:	Drama