i don’t praise a whole lot, because i’m bitter and jaded. just kidding…and you’re an awesome person for reading this!

i hate most tv shows, especially daytime tv, but i do find myself addicted to some of the cartoon shows like family guy, south park, and frisky dingo. i lose myself in them and i need that. with the exception of documentaries and a few select dramas, the rest is just crap for the empty masses. i especially detest shows that you have to keep watching every day or week to find out what happens next. give me closure, goddammit!

netflix, a dvd rental company, was a brilliant idea and i joined them in their infancy. this is where i discovered, among other brilliant dvd’s, “the west wing” tv series. i remembered aaron sorkin, the director and writer of “the west wing”, from a unique show that had a brief run called “sport’s night”. it was an eclectic show with excellent writing and a unique approach at directing, so when i saw his name on “the west wing” i gave it a whirl.

after watching a few episodes, i thought it was ok but nothing grabbed me. the first episode hit close to home (my pink one), but much immediately followed. since it was the winter of my discontent in seattle, i watched a few more episodes to give it one more chance. i’m glad i did. i’m so glad i did, that i’m going to give a praise that i don’t think i’ve given in over a decade…aaron sorkin is probably the greatest writer and director of the 21st century. the century’s just beginning, but he’s going to be hard to beat.

what a pleasure it was to watch the characters form and find their voices. i can’t help but wonder if others enjoyed watching that transpire as much as i did. then when the story development kicked in, i couldn’t stop watching. i had to make myself stop putting in the next dvd and get some sleep. absolutely brilliant.

then a strange thing happened around season four (or five?). i noticed that the passion had left, the characters became mundane and predictable, and the writing left me empty. i kept watching each episode, waiting for stella to get her groove back, but it never happened. i got up and went to the web to see if others were writing in their blogs about this and found out that sorkin had left and someone else had taken over. that’s how noticeably brilliant his writing and direction were.

he has a new show out, “studio 60″, but i’m not seeing his talent in this one yet. regardless, i strongly encourage anyone reading this to watch “the west wing” (up to when aaron leaves the show, of course it’s very rare that i will buy a dvd, but i now own the entire west wing series.