Real politics and fictional politics collide in this trailer fo HBO Max's West Wing reunion special
Aux Features TV
There’s a clever trick in this teaser for HBO Max’s West Wing reunion special, officially dubbed A West Wing Special To Benefit When We All Vote (because why bother with anything but literal descriptions at this point?), where it’s unclear whether anyone involved is talking about the fictional political drama of the West Wing episode they’re reenacting—season three’s “Hartsfield’s Landing”—or the actual political drama that the special is calling attention to. The low-fi nature of the special, which was filmed on a stage with barebones sets, adds to this feeling, as do the intercut clips of West Wing actors reuniting with each other and having conversations that may or may not be happening in-character, to the point where it’s all almost too clever. Then again, this is a West Wing reunion special tied to a campaign to encourage people to vote in what could be one of the most important elections in many, many years, so creator Aaron Sorkin and director Thomas Schlamme deserve their chance to be a little too clever this time.
The special will feature the return of West Wing stars Martin Sheen, Bradley Whitford, Richard Schiff, Janel Moloney, Rob Lowe, Allison Janney, and Dulé Hill, plus Anna Deavere Smith (whose involvement was previously unconfirmed) and Sterling K. Brown (a newcomer to the show who will be filling in for John Spencer as Chief of Staff Leo McGarry). There will also be act breaks featuring guest appearances from Michelle Obama, Lin-Manuel Miranda, President Bill Clinton, and—according to a press release—”more.” A West Wing Special To Benefit When We All Vote will premiere on HBO Max on October 15 (the same night as the next debate, assuming it happens).
21 Comments
That trailer has successfully convinced me that voting is lame. Crumpling up my absentee ballot ASAP.
As a reminder, The West Wing when you get right down to is and always has been a romanization of neoliberalism the Democratic leadership has been shilling for since after Mondale lost where civility is more important than getting shit done and compromise is just another word for “Giving into the whatever the Republicans ask for.”
This show rotted the brains of a whole generation of D.C. lanyard dorks. Absolutely villainous shit.
Hey, didn’t you post literally this exact comment (including the “romanization” typo, which I assume is supposed to be “romanticiziation”) in another thread the other day?
Same (bull)shit, different day.
What’s true is true.
*backs away slowly*
romanticization
Yeeeeeeah. I mean, it’s a fiction? To be honest when I’ve also seen 500 versions of ‘All Politicians Are Corrupt, Is This Gritty Enough For You Yet – The Show’ I’m gonna give a bit of a pass to the one overly-optimistic one.
Also I guess this guy missed the episode after episode where they water down and compromise and then at the end of the series realise they’ve achieved basically nothing. And, I can’t stress this enough, it’s 20 years old. There was no Tea Party, no QAnon, even Fox news was a bit more chill. Folks on the Left thought John McCain was the devil, that’s how far the Overton window has moved in that time. Things have indeed changed, and it’s very easy for a 20something guy to look back and sneer ‘oh weren’t they naive’.
Are you a neoliberal? Do you LOVE winning hypothetical arguments with your enemies while you’re in the shower? Then you’ll love the West Wing!
Hey, isn’t that the Catheter Cowboy at 1:06?
I know it’s just “Hartsfield’s Landing,” an episode I’ve seen probably 7 times … but I still get chills.
I mean, I’m sure it’ll be good for what it is, but I too would have preferred a new episode. It doesn’t even have to take place “now” (or, whatever, X years after Bartlet leaves office), it could take place in the middle of one of his terms, which would still require someone subbing for Leo (unless they just left Leo out of it; he’s on vacation or on a work trip or something).Having it be a modern-set episode would be tricky because the beating heart of the show was the fact that they were in the perpetual high-wire act of running a presidential administration; if it’s 15 years later and they’ve all gone their separate ways, it doesn’t have that innate tension. Not that it couldn’t be good anyway, but…
Sterling K. Brown is stepping in to play Leo.
Yes, I was aware of that.
I know people like to rag on The West Wing and some of it’s deserved. But I’m definitely going to cry when Shiff does the ‘do not, do not, do not act like it’ speech.
Bite your tongue! Who rags on TWW?! I want names and addresses.
Bring back Mandy!! EDIT: Wait it’s literally just a reenactment? God dammit that’s lame
I love how she just completely disappears between the season 1 finale and the season 2 premiere and is never mentioned, leading the fan theory that she was killed by the two gunmen but nobody cared.
Listen to West Wing Thing instead. It’s a good podcast about this awful show.
At some point, someone in the Dem leadership will realize that – for good or bad reasons – both Clintons are negative magnets and will think of trotting out other people. I guess this point isn’t 2020, sadly.