Liberals are turning to The West Wing for escapism from the Trump presidency

The Washington Post

The Aaron Sorkin drama is not just a sharp contrast from President Trump's administration -- it's a far cry from recent White House TV depictions. "The West Wing ran from 1999 to 2006, predating TV’s full pivot toward anti-heroes, as political shows turned to the craven operators on House of Cards and Scandal and childish bumblers on Veep," says Zachary Pincus-Roth. "In one episode, the president appoints two Supreme Court justices, one liberal and one conservative, in the name of spirited debate. A Republican presidential candidate argues for free trade, and the winning Democrat wants to make him secretary of state." Pincus-Roth adds: "Revisiting the series on Netflix means revisiting moderation, collegiality, principles over partisanship. Compare the virtuous-to-a-fault communications director (Toby) Ziegler to the 10-day flameout of Anthony Scaramucci. The characters forget their own imperfections but help each other overcome them." Richard Schiff, who played Ziegler and who now stars on The Good Doctor, first noticed "a massive spike" in interest in the show during the 2016 presidential campaign. That year also saw the launch of The West Wing Weekly, the Joshua Malina co-hosted podcast that averages 1.3 million downloads a month. Even Sorkin can't shake the contrast between the Bartlet administration and the Trump administration. “It was always aspirational, but not so fantastical that it didn’t feel like it was possible,” he said, and “not in the sense of ‘Let me teach you how it should be done,'" says Sorkin, adding: “If you were to watch West Wing in the age of Trump, you could watch a simple C.J. Cregg press conference about nothing . . . and I think feel a sense of ‘Isn’t that what a press conference should look like and sound like?’ And not a crazy thing where a woman is, you know, just plainly lying.”