Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #41439 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-11-17
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Number of discs: 12
• Formats: Box set, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 42 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Aaron Sorkin's American political drama The West Wing is more than mere feel-good viewing for sentimental US patriots. It is among the best-written, sharpest, funny and moving American TV series of all time. In its first series, The West Wing established the cast of characters who comprise 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 makes 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 second series of The West Wing takes up where the first one left off and, a few moments of slightly toe-curling patriotic sentimentalism apart, maintains the series' astonishingly high standards in depicting the everyday life of the White House staff of a Democratic administration. With Aaron Sorkin's dialogue ranging as ever from dry, staccato mirth to almost biblical gravitas, an ensemble of overworked (and curiously undersexed) characters and an overall depiction of the workings of government that's both gratifyingly idealised yet chasteningly realistic, The West Wing is one of the all-time great American TV dramas. --David Stubbs

DVD Description
Episodes:

• Pilot Episode
  
• Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc
  
• A Proportional Response
  
• Five Votes Down
  
• The Crackpots And These Women
  
• Mr Willis Of Ohio
  
• The State Dinner
  
• Enemies
  
• The Short List
  
• In Excelsis Deo
  
• Lord John Marbury
  
• He Shall From Time To Time...
  
• Take Out The Trash Day
  
• Take This Sabbath Day
  
• Celestial Navigation
  
• 20 Hours in L.A.
  
• The White House Pro-Am
  
• Six Meetings Before Lunch
  
• Let Bartlet Be Bartlet
  
• Mandatory Minimums
  
• Lies Damn Lies And Statistics
  
• What Kind of Day Has It Been
  
• In The Shadow of Two Gunmen Part One
  
• In The Shadow of Two Gunmen Part Two
  
• The Midterms
  
• In This White House
  
• And It's Surely To Their Credit
  
• The Lame Duck Contest
  
• The Portland Trip
  
• Shibboleth
  
• Galileo
  
• Noel
  
• The Leadership Breakfast
  
• The Storyline Develops
  
• Bartlet’s State of the Union
  
• The War at Home
  
• Ellie
  
• Somebody’s Going to Emergency Somebody’s Going to Jail
  
• The Stackhouse Filibuster
  
• 17 People
  
• Bad Moon Rising
  
• The Fall's Gonna Kill You
  
• 18th and Potomac
  
• Two Cathedrals

Special Features
Series One:

• Interviews with cast and crew
  
• Trailer (30")
  
• Making The West Wing featurette
  
• 3 TV spots
  
• Weblink

Series Two:

• Interactive menus
  
• Scene access

DVD Technical Information:

• Total Running Time: 1876 minutes

Customer Reviews

Multi-dimensional excellence; aspirational viewing; hope.
I have 'comfort movies' and The West Wing never fails. Why? because it is multi-dimensional in its excellence. Sometimes I watch for the brilliance of the dialogue delivered by superlative actors. Sometimes I select the episodes which are side-achingly funny. Then again, there are episodes which make me want to be a better person, or show me what real patriotism means - not this plastic stuff currently peddled. Always, I learn, and I find something new.
It's a pretty close rendition of the realities of politics at this level. Sometimes they fail; sometimes they get things wrong. What never fails is the sense of teamwork between the characters and the actors; I couldn't pick a favourite character, but Martin Sheen yet again reveals himself as an extraordinary human being.
The West Wing has a huge fan club, which in itself speaks volumes. This is the best fictional thing on television for at least ten years. Set aside a weekend and treat yourself.

Want the Perfect introduction to the West Wing
If you're like me then you will have seen the odd episode of the West Wing on the insanity that passes for scheduling between Ch4 and E4, which essentially means that unless you happen to know it's on and book your time to watch it, you miss it and you somehow lose the thread. Yet for each episode I watched, I somehow got the feeling that there as something really, really good lurking if I could get to grips with it.

When you're right , you;re right and there is something really good in the West Wing, and this first two season box set is the absoultely best way to get into it. I've watched my share of American drama before, but the rest are relegated to the "should be as good as The West Wing" category, because it is simply the best written, acted, and directed piece of drama I have seen since.......well i actually don't know what is better. To really get to this point, you kind of need to watch the episodes in sequence, and that is what my wife and I did over a couple of months, an episode or two at a time. All I can say is that after this she's as hooked as I am, and we can't wait for Season 3 to come out.

Watch it and you'll love the writing, the characters and some stunning performances from Martin Sheen, Stockard Channing, John Spencer and frankly just about everyone you see on screen. No prizes for guessing I love this and this 2 series box set is brilliant value, and a sure fire way to get into it.

Stellar quality drama
I never bothered to watch TWW when it first arrived on UK TV, the first episode I ever watched happened to be Mathew Perrys debut, which I think is in season 4. But after viewing I thought it was pretty good. So after my wife twisting my arm to tell her what I wanted for Xmas , I picked this box set, seasons 1 & 2.

Did I hit the jackpot !! I can find nothing to fault in this series, the acting, script etc etc are simply stunning. This with no doubt one of the finest pieces of TV drama you will ever see, buy it and you will rejoice.

The story arc is wonderful, and the gear changes in each episode are amazing, I have cried like a baby (ep 10 S1) and cried with laughter (ep 15 S1)

Stunning !!