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Nothing quite matches up to The West Wing when it comes to projecting the American presidency

I’ve been watching The West Wing all over again. Some of you may remember the show. It was set in a fictional White House and Martin Sheen played Josiah Bartlett, the President of the US.

When the show was originally conceived, it was meant to be a close look at the lives of key White House staffers and Rob Lowe was to be the star. But as time went on, the writers bowed to audience responses and gave Bartlett a muchbigger role.

In the process, Lowe was downgraded and eventually left the show. He writes, with some bitterness, in his autobiography about how the rest of the cast resented him as he was a big star.

Whether this is true or not will remain a matter of dispute. But what is certain is that the West Wing worked better as an ensemble piece than as a star vehicle.

The show premiered at the end of the Clinton presidency and continued through George W Bush’s terms in office. Apparently, Clinton and his aides loved The West Wing because Bartlett is a liberal democrat (like Clinton) and many of the characters seemed inspi-red by figures who actually worked in the Clinton administration.

I got into The West Wing late and then watched it intermittently. So, a few months ago, when I came across a box set of the show’s entire run — every episode plus extras — I grabbed it. For the last month or so, I have watched nothing else. Each evening, I come home, slump on my sofa, and put a West Wing DVD into the player. As of this writing, I’ve got to Season Four and am sad that I am more than halfway through.

But before I resumed watching The West Wing, I watched a lot of TV about politicians. Some of you may know The Thick Of It, an edgy British comedy show which grabs the civil servant-minister relationship so affectionately portrayed in Yes, Minister and yanks it into today’s world of profanity and back-stabbing. The creators of The Thick Of It have crossed the Atlantic to come up with Veep, a comedy about a fictional woman Vice-President.

Then, there is House of Cards. This started out as a novel by Michael Dobbs, a British author who had worked for the Conservative Party. The premise of the novel was that a ruthless Parliamentary chief whip could knife his colleagues, oust a sitting Prime Minister, and get to the very top. But because Dobbs seemed horrified by the immorality of his protagonist, he killed him off in the last few pages of the book.

Then, the BBC bought the book and turned it into an excellent mini-series distinguished by a terrific performance by Ian Richardson and great writing by Andrew Davies, who adapted Dobbs’ book. The BBC felt that the story had more potential than Dobbs realised. So, the evil protagonist did not die in the end but rose to be a powerful Prime Minister.

Dobbs saw the point and promptly produced a sequel in which he resurrected the character he had killed off in the first book. This was also turned into a mini-series starring Ian Richardson by the BBC. For the third series, however, Dobbs and Davies went their separate ways. The TV version of To Play The King differs substantially from Dobbs’ book of the same name.

You may have heard of House of Cards recently. It was remade in America with its characters transplanted to Washington. Kevin Spacey played the evil protagonist and though the show has won great acclaim, I thought it did not measure up to the BBC original.

Then, there is Scandal, about a political fixer played by Kerry Washington. The show is made by the people who also make Grey’s Anatomy, so that should give you some idea of the emotional approach it takes to fixing. For instance, Washington’s character is traumatised by her feelings for the President with whom she had an affair.

What distinguishes the new raft of political shows from The West Wing is their lack of idealism. Watching The West Wing again reminded me how the characters are all idealists at some level. They are forced to do bad things sometimes. But they agonise over them and their intention is always to make America a better place.

In contrast, the new shows lack a moral centre. In Veep, politics is a parody of its public image. Nobody has any time for ideals. Expediency is everything.

In the original British House of Cards, the protagonist’s immorality seemed more shocking because he set out to destroy people with integrity and idealism. In the Kevin Spacey version, nearly everybody else is as sleazy as Spacey himself. In Scandal, the soap-opera element is so strong that idealism hardly gets a look in.

So, what’s changed? Despite its idealism, The West Wing was a huge critical and commercial success. It sealed the reputation of its creator Aaron Sorkin and the last season (which Sorkin did not write) eerily foreshadowed the rise of Barack Obama in its plotline. (Only, the Obama figure is a Latino. The writers misjudged the public mood and did not think that America was ready for a Black President.)

None of the new shows has the brilliance of The West Wing, which may well be one of the best TV shows ever made for American network television. I reckon you need a certain level of brilliance to make idealism seem dramatic and compelling.

It’s far easier to go for laughs or to throw in a murder mystery. But that can’t be the only reason. Something fundamental has shifted away from the moral centre.

Perhaps we just live in more cynical times. Perhaps our opinion of politicians has sunk so low that idealism no longer seems believable. Or perhaps the political show is this decade’s 
answer to the lawyer show (most notably LA Law from the 80s) in which the backdrop is not as important as the drama surrounding the characters.

I don’t know what the answer is. But I do wish they would make a new season of The West Wing. This time around, Rob Lowe could be President. And maybe, he will even get along with the rest of the cast.