The West Wing, Season Six

A significant course correction changing the direction of the entire show.

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MOVIES

- No new movies watched, but I have seen Logan again and that still packs a hell of a punch.

- Just in case I can still manage to see Deadpool & Wolverine on the big screen, I may watch Deadpool 2 again in-between as I know both films reference Logan and just complete a bizarre little (non-)trilogy.

GAMES

- Still working my way through Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, where I'm enjoying the story and the open world stuff, but not so much the more linear parts of the game.

- I've also been playing some FC24, which is the new version of FIFA, and it really is just more of the same, but with a new name following EA's refusal to indulge FIFA's greed.

- I'm not going to review it because I see very little point in doing so as a review of pretty much any FIFA game from the last 15 years would still be almost word-for-word relevant in its criticisms.

- I've also gone back to Euro Truck Simulator 2 a bit, as it's a great game to casually play through while watching TV shows and the developers keep improving it for free, which is pretty fucking great.

TV

- As I've said before, I don't think The West Wing's fifth season is quite as bad as its reputation might suggest, but the sixth season is still a definite step-up in quality.

- There's also a big change in focus from those working in the west wing of the White House to those trying to get there, which becomes more pronounced the further the season progresses.

- It's not a criticism, but it really is the start of the show feeling like a completely different animal to the first five seasons and it will remain that way until the end of season seven.

- The weird thing about the show's changes and a more serialised approach to story-telling is that I don't think there are any great episodes to recommend as must-watches.

- That said, while the ceiling may have been lowered, the floor has been raised and neither are there any episodes that I ever felt like skipping or that I didn't enjoy.

- As far as the timing of the show goes, it's worked out quite well that the season ends focusing on who will be the Presidential nominee for the Democrats when that's been settled for quite a while in reality.

- Part of the reason it's so enjoyable in the show is thanks to Jimmy Smits being great fun to watch as Matt Santos, who Josh leaves the White House for to serve as his campaign manager.

- With Santos come a whole host of new characters, Democrat and Republican, who will feature more in the seventh season and it can be a bit tricky to keep straight who everyone is when the show was already an ensemble piece beforehand.

- The situation is helped by the show spending a lot of time with the campaigns, so you can take your time learning all the names, but it does mean some of the longer-term cast feel like they drift into the background as the season goes on.

- This especially applies to Richard Schiff as Toby Ziegler, who is one of the best characters in the show, who still gets a fair amount of screen-time, but unfortunately no great material to shine with which to shine.

- Basically, if you're working your way through The West Wing, get ready for a truly huge change in style and approach with this sixth season; it's better than the season before, but very, very different. [8/10]

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