The West Wing goes out with a Bang!

The worst-kept secret in television is out; NBC's The West Wing ended its first season with a dramatic cliffhanger involving an assassination attempt.

Even the most lurid fan gossip was hard-pressed to match the carnage that wunderproducer Aaron Sorkin left viewers with. Disaffected skinhead assassins opened fire on a contingent containing most of the show's cast, leaving devotees of the series wondering who has been hit and who has not. Even the target of the assassination attempt is unclear; President Josiah Bartlet (Martin Sheen), like any national leader, has enemies, but his daughter Zoey (Elisabeth Moss) and her boyfriend Charlie (Dulé Hill) have been the target of death threats by white supremacists who can't accept their interracial relationship.

Reaction to the finale has been mixed. In newsgroups and chat rooms, some fans accuse Sorkin of turning The West Wing into Dynasty in one fell swoop. Others, however, confess to being gripped by the drama the cliffhanger brings - and dismayed at the prospect of waiting until the fall season to find the answers to the nagging questions of who lives, who is wounded and with what repercussions, and who (if anyone) dies. ("Bring me the head of Aaron Sorkin!" wailed one frustrated fan in jest on the newsgroup alt.tv.the-west-wing.)

Until the new season starts, fans of the smart, funny drama will have to be content with poring through the final scenes in slow-mo, looking for clues which someone as clever as Aaron Sorkin is unlikely to leave - except to tease and possibly confuse. That, and watch the repeats, of course. The West Wing's strength lies in its writing, and the episodes stand up to repeated viewing - indeed, some would insist you must view an episode repeated times in order to truly understand it - and a second or third look at last season's shows will have to satisfy the political junkies who have taken The West Wing to heart.

I know I'll be chewing last season's episodes over here - along with keeping an eye on gossip and news about the upcoming seasons and what the cast are doing during the summer hiatus.

Upcoming articles on this site will also review the last season's episodes as they're repeated over this summer, explore the characters who populate The West Wing and the actors who play them, and examine the social phenomenon that the program has become. We'll eavesdrop on some of the political debate the program's plots have sparked on the web. We'll discuss why a show about the American presidency should be so popular in Canada and the UK and what - if anything - it means that the show has become required viewing for real-life politicians.

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