The West Wing - Re-Impressed

I may have mentioned before the break, but I have started watching The West Wing again.  In case you didn't know, it's one of the many TV shows you can stream on Netflix.

One of the reasons I stopped blogging for a while is because this show, and Battlestar Galactica, are too engaging.  You see, while I sit home alone (or, before Sherry was in school, while I sat home with her) watching TV, I could compose the first drafts of many of my blog entries.  Most TV does not take up my full attention, so it's quite easy to start a topic and just keep rolling as the TV show entertains part of my mind.  Typically, blog entries which are written in this manner require some editing, but they are still mostly-written, and that's progress.

The West Wing, however, is too engaging, as I said.  I remember loving this show when it first aired, of course, so I expected to like watching it again.  What I had failed to factor into my blogging schedule, however, was how important it was to pay close attention as the stories unfold.  No, wait -- "unfold" is not the word.  Aaron Sorkin's writing does not "unfold" - it flows like a river swollen from a good spring rain.  The dialog is so fast-paced, but so wonderful, that I feel a need to immerse myself in it.

I am reminded once again of why I waited with such anticipation between episodes.  And, since I am streaming it, all by myself, I typically don't force myself to wait.  I move from the end of one to the beginning of the next with as brief a break as possible.  This has meant very little time for any sort of serious brain work, once the show starts streaming.

I suspect over the next several weeks, I will have more than one post dedicated to aspects of this remarkable show, and what I appreciate so much about it.  But for now, let me just say that one of the causes of my month-plus absence from Snippets and Wisps was this wonderful show.

I'm not sorry.  At all.