Catching Up On Last Season of "The West Wing"

One of the perks of being a stay-at-home Dad, Graduate Student and Blogger is that, from time to time, when you're just hanging around and trying to get things done around the house is that you can catch up on old TV shows you never watched through the first time. Used to be, daytime TV was a wasteland of soap operas and talk shows. Didn't have much choice. Nowadays, you can skip network and cable tv and head straight for the good stuff on Netflix!

That's right...every season of Aaron Sorkin's The West Wing is up on Netflix to be browsed at your leisure. Currently, I'm on the final season, Season 7, watching the "live" debate between Congressman Matt Santos and Senator Arnold Vinick. It's odd, because the issues they raise (healthcare, gun control, tax policy) are spoken about in terms that are still very much relevant today. It's only been six or so years since this season was released, but seriously, how many bigger issues do we have facing us today? Climate Change, to be sure, has grown leaps and bounds in the consciousness of mankind, but we're still rehearsing the same debates they were presenting so many years ago. One, it's a testament to how good of a show it was, but on the other hand, it's a little sad that we couldn't come to more definitive conclusions on the issues important during the waning years of Bush II.