Allison Janney
Looking for purpose? Watch TV.
Books and television are both forms of
communication and entertainment, yet books always get the better
rap. Why? I dunno, but I think Dancing With The Stars
might have something to do with it. That, or Paula Abdul.
Based on this line of thinking, one might feel compelled to peruse the self-help section at your local bookstore, especially at the start of a fresh new year. So how can I recommend watching TV as a way to find your life's purpose? Well for starters, there are shows like Charlie Rose. Programs that while less than groundbreaking in their execution, harness the power of the medium at its purest form.
Then of course, there are shows that take the format, sand it down, buff it, turn it on its ear, and present it for the world to see anew. I'm talking about a show like The West Wing.
Last September, in the midst of a historically exciting Presidential election, I ordered a copy of the show's first season and proceeded to watch it straight through within a matter of days. For a political junkie, and a professional writer, the show presented fascinating material and a challenge to step up the substance of my own work. Based simply on the subject matter, the inner workings of a White House that truly cares about the effects their daily activities have on the American people (during the final days of the Bush Administration, this seems like pure fantasy!), the show grabbed me and pulled me in. But on a different level, just getting to know the characters, each written and developed as a three dimensional, full bodied, flesh and blood individual, The West Wing managed to sink it's claws into me in a way few dramatic programs have managed to do before. This is a show about political movers and shakers, but more than that, it's a program about professionals, compulsive over-achievers, who feel utterly compelled to rip out their hearts and toss them in the furnace to fuel the great good. These are the folks we all wanted to grow up and become. Well, except perhaps with more well-rounded interests. But then, that's a whole other challenge. Tunnel vision seems to breed success in type A personalities, but those same folks often find it hard to develop the personal aspects of their lives. The folks in Jed Bartlet's White House are casebook studies of accomplished individuals with lives that tip the scales in one direction or another. Ironically, in this case, the guy with the top of the masthead position, the President himself, is the one who really seems to have found the closest semblance of balance between his personal and professional lives. Perhaps that's why the People elected him! But I digress...
The writing is impeccable. Dialogue comes fast and furious, but it hits all the right notes. With more than half of the series' seven year run helmed by Aaron Sorkin (Of A Few Good Men, and The American President fame), there are few episodes or even exchanges that don't ring true. This is steady cam, soliloquy heaven for the actor's actor, and everyone from Martin Sheen, to John Spencer, to Bradley Whitford brings their A-game.
From a technical filmmaking perspective, the set design, the filming, the editing, it's all first rate. Grade A. In 2001 the trailer for Hannibal renewed my love of film (the movie itself was another story), in 2008 this show made me yearn to write and shoot some truly high quality television. In watching a special one hour episode of Charlie Rose (you knew I'd come back to him, right?) in which he-of-the-paperclip-cuff links spoke with most of the show's cast about what they felt set the show apart, one word came up again and again: Heart.
The West Wing, more than anything, is about HEART. Martin Sheen's iconic President Bartlet does everything with heart. When he succeeds, it's because he made the decisions from his heart. When he fails, that failure hits him in the chest like a ten-ton truck. I believe the hearts of Sorkin, Sheen, and frequent director Thomas Schlamme are evident in every frame and syllable.
The West Wing is about folks with purpose,and the purpose of the show, in my opinion, is to instill the need for personal commitment in everything we, the viewers do. From a writing perspective, it's pushed me to give the story of my next project just a bit more heart as well.
Whether you work in writing, film, television, politics, public service, or a field totally unrelated to any of those areas, I urge you to check out The West Wing's complete series, and see if it doesn't inspire you to go after those projects you've always sat at the bar mulling over, or evaluate if what you do from day to day leaves you feeling fulfilled, or wishing you could take a moment, look around, and start anew.
Based on this line of thinking, one might feel compelled to peruse the self-help section at your local bookstore, especially at the start of a fresh new year. So how can I recommend watching TV as a way to find your life's purpose? Well for starters, there are shows like Charlie Rose. Programs that while less than groundbreaking in their execution, harness the power of the medium at its purest form.
Then of course, there are shows that take the format, sand it down, buff it, turn it on its ear, and present it for the world to see anew. I'm talking about a show like The West Wing.
Last September, in the midst of a historically exciting Presidential election, I ordered a copy of the show's first season and proceeded to watch it straight through within a matter of days. For a political junkie, and a professional writer, the show presented fascinating material and a challenge to step up the substance of my own work. Based simply on the subject matter, the inner workings of a White House that truly cares about the effects their daily activities have on the American people (during the final days of the Bush Administration, this seems like pure fantasy!), the show grabbed me and pulled me in. But on a different level, just getting to know the characters, each written and developed as a three dimensional, full bodied, flesh and blood individual, The West Wing managed to sink it's claws into me in a way few dramatic programs have managed to do before. This is a show about political movers and shakers, but more than that, it's a program about professionals, compulsive over-achievers, who feel utterly compelled to rip out their hearts and toss them in the furnace to fuel the great good. These are the folks we all wanted to grow up and become. Well, except perhaps with more well-rounded interests. But then, that's a whole other challenge. Tunnel vision seems to breed success in type A personalities, but those same folks often find it hard to develop the personal aspects of their lives. The folks in Jed Bartlet's White House are casebook studies of accomplished individuals with lives that tip the scales in one direction or another. Ironically, in this case, the guy with the top of the masthead position, the President himself, is the one who really seems to have found the closest semblance of balance between his personal and professional lives. Perhaps that's why the People elected him! But I digress...
The writing is impeccable. Dialogue comes fast and furious, but it hits all the right notes. With more than half of the series' seven year run helmed by Aaron Sorkin (Of A Few Good Men, and The American President fame), there are few episodes or even exchanges that don't ring true. This is steady cam, soliloquy heaven for the actor's actor, and everyone from Martin Sheen, to John Spencer, to Bradley Whitford brings their A-game.
From a technical filmmaking perspective, the set design, the filming, the editing, it's all first rate. Grade A. In 2001 the trailer for Hannibal renewed my love of film (the movie itself was another story), in 2008 this show made me yearn to write and shoot some truly high quality television. In watching a special one hour episode of Charlie Rose (you knew I'd come back to him, right?) in which he-of-the-paperclip-cuff links spoke with most of the show's cast about what they felt set the show apart, one word came up again and again: Heart.
The West Wing, more than anything, is about HEART. Martin Sheen's iconic President Bartlet does everything with heart. When he succeeds, it's because he made the decisions from his heart. When he fails, that failure hits him in the chest like a ten-ton truck. I believe the hearts of Sorkin, Sheen, and frequent director Thomas Schlamme are evident in every frame and syllable.
The West Wing is about folks with purpose,and the purpose of the show, in my opinion, is to instill the need for personal commitment in everything we, the viewers do. From a writing perspective, it's pushed me to give the story of my next project just a bit more heart as well.
Whether you work in writing, film, television, politics, public service, or a field totally unrelated to any of those areas, I urge you to check out The West Wing's complete series, and see if it doesn't inspire you to go after those projects you've always sat at the bar mulling over, or evaluate if what you do from day to day leaves you feeling fulfilled, or wishing you could take a moment, look around, and start anew.