Heading east

About three months ago I wrote that I was getting ready to watch The West Wing. All of it. Seasons 1 through 7. At the time I thought I’d be able to plough right through and accomplish the task within a month. Well, that didn’t happen but I’ve finally watched the last episode this evening.

I was extremely excited when I first started the series because so many people I know told me how fantastic it was. In fact, one overly-enthusiastic fan informed me that (except for Season 5) “…the whole thing is the best telly on the planet. Ever. Period.” I received similar reviews from others – including the opinion that Season 5 was, essentially, rubbish.

Now, to not be overly contrary I have to say that the show was, on whole, very good. Not the best telly on the planet, but certainly very good. In fact, I even liked Season 5. (I will make no apologies for that statement.)

However, I think that I made a mistake in watching it all back-to-back-to-back. I think that part of the reason I wasn’t overly impressed is that I got a bit of West Wing Fatigue. It just seemed a bit monotonous after a while. Maybe if I’d seen the show one episode at a time over a period of years, I would have enjoyed it more. (This isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy it, I just didn’t totally and completely love it like crazy.)

I had originally planned to start watching The Sopranos next, but I feared that watching it all at once would cause me to become a bit bored of it, too, and I can’t bear the thought of being bored by one of my favourite genres: mob flicks. So I’ve decided to just watch a couple of episodes a week and mix them in with re-watching a series I’ve already seen, and love, Black Adder.

NOTE: In case it didn’t make sense, my post about “The West Wing” was titled “The signs point west” and now, because the settings for both “The Sopranos” and “Black Adder” are east of the Pacific Northwest, I am heading east. I know, I know: If you have to explain it, obviously it wasn’t that clever…