Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

The West Wing: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown October 14, 2024

Once upon a time, in a land that looked very much like our own but felt so very, very different, there was a dream; a dream of leadership, integrity and progression toward a future where all were equal. Where all were governed with care, kindness and a stern dedication to right over wrong. Not the days of the Declaration, flawed as they were. No, go back with me all the way to 1999, when we recognized our shortcomings but believed that we, all of us, were clawing our way towards an era of betterment, equality and prosperity, both literal and figurative. Sigh. The West Wing isn't just quaint in 2024, twenty-five years after its pilot first introduced us to the Bartlet Administration. It seems positively out of touch. Fantastical. It's much easier, in fact, to see our modern reality in the politics of House of the Dragon than The West Wing. And yet there's still the lingering breath of hope. The idea that people will wake up, cast aside childishness and conspiracy nonsense and see the world for what we've accidentally made it. The idea that we will manage to pull back from the brink and return to being the country we've always aspired to be. The idea that we can turn the ship around before it's too late.

Such grandiose ideas are what allow The West Wing to remain one of the best network television shows of all time, even if recent years have rendered it strangely and depressingly dated. With moving performances, sharp writing, a keen eye for the things that make politics worth caring about, and only a few missteps (a showrunner-transition season is the worst you'll have to endure), the series stands tall and screams, "this is possible! You can still have this! It's not too late. There is a way back to normalcy and governance where agreement and disagreement do not equate with ally and enemy but fellow citizens of all stripes." A dream, perhaps. But a dream The West Wing, whatever your political bent, will leave the vast majority of you desperate to hold onto.

A group of cutthroat presidential advisers find their personal lives hopelessly entangled with professional duties as they try to conduct the business of helping the President run the country. Fictional Democratic leader of the free world, Josiah "Jed" Bartlet (Martin Sheen), suffers no fools, a personal philosophy that alienates many, even those in his own party. As he and his dedicated team of staffers struggle to balance the needs of the country with the political realities of Washington, D.C., Bartlet survives two presidential terms, countless scandals, threats and political scuffles, and a race to succeed him as the leader of the free world. The multi-award-winning series was created executive produced by Aaron Sorkin and co-stars Rob Lowe as deputy communications director Sam Seaborn, Moira Kelly as media consultant Mandy Hampton, Dulé Hill as personal aide Charlie Young, Allison Janney as press secretary C. J. Cregg, Richard Schiff as communications director Toby Ziegler, John Spencer as chief of staff Leo McGarry, Bradley Whitford as deputy chief of staff Josh Lyman, Janel Moloney as senior assistant Donna Moss, Stockard Channing as First Lady Abbey Bartlet, Joshua Malina as speechwriter Will Bailey, Mary McCormack as deputy national security advisor Kate Harper, Jimmy Smits as Texas congressman Matt Santos, Alan Alda as California senator Arnold Vinick, Kristin Chenoweth as deputy press secretary Annabeth Schott, and a host of other familiar faces over the course of the show's seven seasons.

The West Wing is at its best in its opening four-season volley. A brief dip in quality (or maybe just consistency) comes with Season Five, as Sorkin departs and a new creative team assumes the reigns, but it isn't long before the series recovers and ends strong. By and large, though, this is Sorkin's baby, complete with all the rat-a-tat-tat dialogue, sharp retorts, stirring monologues and witty barbs the Emmy-nabbing screenwriter is known for. Yes, there are times where characters begin to sound a bit too similar and the writer's voice inadvertently seeps through the noise and reveals itself, but such is the struggle of injecting one's creative ventures with as precise and identifiable a narrative cadence and intellectual presence. Sheen and company do a fine job cloaking these moments in believable, often self-interested characters who feel real and tangible despite whatever melodrama faces the White House and threatens their standing with Bartlet and the public. Theirs is a thankless job built around making one man the source of all their wisdom, skill and experience, without revealing him to be a culmination of a staff's brain trust. Sheen, as Bartlet, manages the impossible: crafting an enviable president who's both exactly who he purports to be and someone who needs those around him to fashion and project strength wherever his weaknesses lie. As the late '90s and early 2000s go, this is as convincing as any network television show could capture the chaos and fury surrounding POTUS (short only the few dozen F-bombs per minute that surely graces most political conversations behind the curtain), and only suffers when compared to presidential politics today, which are far more farce and spectacle than policy and governing.

Fortunately, the series doesn't exactly revolve around Bartlet, even if he's the force of nature at the center of Sorkin's whirlwind. Staff members tend to come and go, revolving door style, rising and falling by their own mistakes or on the sword (so to speak) in service of country, party and all manner of interest. The Bartlet administration is far from perfect, and hardly representative of the ideal Sheen's president strives for. And its in these tense moments of conflict that the cast shines, grasping for power, fighting to keep their morals intact, or sacrificing principle in favor of a quick path to victory. The West Wing never devolves into the pageantry and soap opera melodrama of shows like House of Cards or other dark political fare, but it doesn't pull punches either. The best comparison is probably to Sorkin's own Newsroom, an excellent series in its own right that didn't earn the seasons it was due. Like it, The West Wing certainly parades Sorkin's personal politics and views onto the floor for all to see -- conservative/Republican TV fans will have a hard time warming up to its liberal leanings, especially in today's age of divisiveness and forbidden crossings of the aisle -- but he also knows his audience is made up of a wide swath of Americans, and does his best to walk a centrist's line, swaying hearts and winning minds by way of reason and decency rather than beating the dead horse of whatever belief or policy is at the core of any given episode.

There's a warm nostalgia to rewatching The West Wing too; recalling the toil, break through and surge of varying storylines where all seems lost, only to watch good prevail. It's perhaps simplistic in retrospect, particularly the more one realizes how much politics reduce down to selfish pursuits and the accumulation of power, but there's nevertheless a city-on-the-hill glow about the series that helps it withstand the test of time. Maybe, just maybe it isn't as dated as it seems. Maybe it only plays that way to the disenfranchised and disillusioned like myself. Maybe somewhere in all our modern machinations there's a path to restoration, where a people can once again trust its government and feel proud of its country (without resorting to nationalism and other such marathon-to-the-bottom movements). Maybe one day we'll have a government akin to the Bartlet administration, or maybe The West Wing was merely a warning we didn't heed, where the Bartlets of the United States have long ago lost their way or their battle. Whatever the case, The West Wing is both an excellent show and the promise of what could be. Isn't that worth spending time with? Mulling over? Absorbing? Wishing to emmulate? I hope so.

The West Wing: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Brace for disappointment. While the new Blu-ray release of The West Wing offers some of the expected improvements in its move from DVD to BD, the actual results are merely... fine. The 1080p/AVC-encoded presentation of the series is not the revelation its price point or Warner's track record with TV releases might suggest, nor does the image represent much more than a modest, arguably marginal upgrade from its DVD counterpart. Strikingly similar to the high definition streaming version of the show (itself a hit-or-miss realignment of expectations), it proves to be a largely shoulder-shrugging experience in and of itself, with each disc coming and going with little in the way of visual fanfare.

Color, contrast and saturation are all decidedly decent, (though quite warm at times) with reasonably lifelike skintones and fairly deep blacks. That said, the picture rarely pops. Grain sometimes reads as inconsistent digital noise than anything more filmic, and slight blocking is occasionally present in midrange and wide shots. Detail is rather average on the whole too, some of which can be traced back to the HD master being utilized (which appears to my eye to be the same as the master created in the early 2010s) and some of which is simply an unavoidable aspect of the series' original television photography. The showrunners reportedly foresaw the coming of the high definition era and shot each season accordingly. However, the cinematic nature of the show leans far more into an era-specific softness and "dreamy haze" meant to evoke a desired style but, in retrospect, leaves many a scene struggling to make an impact in 1080p. Still, edge definition is relatively clean and textures are moderately well-resolved all things considered, particularly in mid-to-late season close-ups.

Does that mean you'll ever be wowed? I've worked my way through each season (though time required some of the process to be reduced to skimming) and can count on one hand the number of times I came across a sequence that left me thinking, "now that's an upgrade!" Instead, I typically found myself forgetting to take note of the quality at all, as the results are so unremarkable that I just did my best to enjoy the episode that was playing. Image quality does improve bit by bit with newer seasons, but only enough to warrant mentioning. In reality, it's an easily dismissed improvement that may as well not be referenced as it only primes more hopes to dash. For a look at what I found to be examples of the presentation's best and worst, look no further than screenshot #2 (above) for the former and screenshot #3 (below) for the latter.

As for the encode itself, I didn't spot much in the way of banding or significant macroblocking, though minor instances are present here and there. It doesn't amount to anything I'd call an issue with the set, but "perfection" isn't a word anyone will be using anytime soon. There are other problems as well. Edited/altered/cut scenes or lines, missing "Previously On" segments, problems with the title sequence, and other oversights are not only irritating, but should have been caught and corrected altogether had there been any sort of proper quality control measures when authoring the discs. It all screams automation; toss the streams onto discs, tack on the DVDs' supplemental content, and roll it all out to market with the bare minimum of spot checks or thorough testing. Restored or remastered this is not. Granted, there are no significant errors with the authoring to point to -- certainly none that will push Warner to issue any disc recalls -- but it's one more disappointment in a set that might have been a candidate for a "Best of the Year" title had it been given more TLC.

The West Wing: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Likewise, The West Wing's DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 tracks leave a lot to be desired. Flat and uninspired, each season features a lossless mix that captures the feeling of watching the series on television more than a decade ago or, more objectively, an experience identical to watching the series stream on MAX. There is a notable uptick in clarity and proficiency from ye olde DVDs. Moreover, dialogue is clear and intelligible, prioritization is solid, the show's music soars and inspires with appropriate aplomb, and the soundscape is satisfying (once expectations have been adjusted). But quite frankly, it doesn't represent enough of an uptick in quality to warrant much praise.

The West Wing: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

I'm tired of attempting to use words other than "disappointing" to describe a set I was so, so looking forward to getting my hands on. But here comes the sentiment again, this time in response to the 28-disc Complete Collection's lackluster packaging. Two bulky DVD-size clear cases (each containing overlapping discs, two by two) are housed in a flimsy, glossy slipbox; one that isn't even all that attractive or eye-catching. The first case is dedicated to Seasons 1-4 (16 discs, 4 per season) and the second to Seasons 5-7 (12 discs, 4 per season). A small booklet is tucked in one of the cases that provides a bullet-point roadmap to the seasons, episodes and extras -- helpful if you're looking for something specific -- but that's about all the frills you're gonna find.

It's a surprisingly generic set, with little in the way of pomp, circumstance or supplemental bells and whistles. (All previously released extras, as far as I can tell, are present and accounted for, minus the 15-minute production tour with Thomas Schlamme and production designer Jon Hutman that could be found within Season Two's clunky, thankfully exorcised "Access Granted" interactive feature). There aren't any exclusive or newly produced special features either, which is, word of the day, disappointing.

• Audio Commentaries - All twenty-one audio commentaries from the DVD complete series set have been ported to the 28-disc Blu-ray release. Tracks include:
  
  
  • "Pilot" with Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme (S1)
• "In Excelsis Deo" with Sorkin, Schlamme and Alex Graves (S1)
• "Take This Sabbath Day" with Sorkin and Schlamme (S1)
• "Celestial Navigation with Sorkin, Schlamme and Christopher Misiano (S1)
• "What Kind of Day Has it Been" with Sorkin and Schlamme (S1)


• "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen: Part I" with Sorkin, Schlamme, Bradley Whitford and Janel Maloney (S2)
• "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen: Part II" with Sorkin, Schlamme and Martin Sheen (S2)
• "Noel" with Sorkin, Schlamme and Whitford (S2)
• "18th and Potomac" with Sorkin, Robert Berlinger and Kathryn Joosten (S2)


• "Manchester: Part II" with Sorkin, Schlamme and Janney (S3)
• "Bartlet for America" with Sorkin, Schlamme and John Spencer (S3)
• "Posse Comitatus" with Sorkin, Schlamme and Graves (S3)


• "Game On" with Sorkin, Schlamme, Graves and Joshua Malina (S4)
• "Commencement" with Sorkin, Schlamme and Graves (S4)
• "Twenty Five" with Sorkin, Schlamme and Misiano (S4)


• "7A WF 83429" with John Wells and Graves (S5)
• "The Dogs of War" with Wells and Misiano (S5)
• "The Supremes" with Graves, Jessica Yu and Debora Cahn (S5)


• "King Corn" with Wells and Graves (S6)
• "In God We Trust" with Misiano and Lawrence O'Donnell Jr. (S6)
• "2162 Votes" with Wells and Graves (S6)

• Featurettes (SD) - Also spread across the set, specifically on each season's fourth disc, is a collection of production featurettes and other goodies. Almost all are of the talking-head variety and presented in standard definition, but there's quite a bit of good stuff to go around, especially for those who haven't explored the making of the show prior to this. Extras include:
  
  
  • "The Primaries" (S1, 17:32)
• "The Inauguration" (S1, 29:02)
• "Capital Beat" (S1, 8:09)
• "Sheet Music" (S1, 8:10)
• "The West Wing Suite" (S1, 1:50)
• "Off the Record" (S1, 3:31)


• "Constructing Two Cathedrals" (S2, 17:42)


• "NBC Documentary Special" (S3, 42:06)
• "A Property Master's Story" (S3, 10:49)
• "Chief of Stuff" (S3, 13:23)


• "Behind Every Good Man... Is the First Lady" (S4, 12:35)
• "The Letter of the Word" (S4, 18:40)


• "In POTUS We Trust" (S5, 13:45)
• "Gaza: Anatomy of an Episode" (S5, 15:03)


• "C.J. Gregg: From Press Secretary to Chief of Staff" (S6, 14:50)


• "Live from the Director's Chair" (S7, 50:40)
• "Countdown to West Wing Live" (S7, 25:18)

• Unaired Scenes (SD, 34 minutes) - Deleted Scenes are included on the fourth discs of Seasons 1-5.

• Seasons One & Two Gag Orders (SD, 4 minutes) - Outtakes.

The West Wing: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Dated? Overly idealistic? Perhaps. Or maybe The West Wing is exactly what we need. Whatever the case, the Sorkin-born series is primed for a rewatch or introduction. I wish a better set was available by which to experience the show (be it for the first or thirteenth time), but so it goes. There is quite a bit of disappointment to be had with the Blu-ray release of The West Wing, but it nevertheless stands as the way to watch the series. You may want to wait for the pricepoint to come down a bit, sure. But don't wait for a better set or you might find yourself waiting for a long, long time. This may just be -- and likely is -- the best we're ever gonna get.