Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6833 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-05-09
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
• Formats: Dolby, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish, French
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 949 minutes

From Amazon.com
With the ghost of creator Aaron Sorkin fully expunged from the spotlit soundstage maze representing that most busy portion of the White House, the sixth season of The West Wing is less a return to form than it is a remaking of the things that were best about the show in the first place. There's C.J. and Josh throwing high-speed dialogue at each other; there's the tension and personality arc as characters are back in step with their original realization; there's the overarching story that runs throughout the 22 episodes along with the self-contained mini-dramas within each one; there are the new people who bind themselves to plots that are alternately tidy and messy, just like real life. The taking-stock the show's creative minds clearly did after a roundly drubbed season five had a lot of help from the necessity of thinking ahead to a new crop of faces and places as the Bartlett administration starts winding down its second term. Some of the plot points may be a little hard to swallow: Would C.J. really deserve to take over the Chief of Staff position? Would Josh really walk away from his dream job to pursue the seeming nightmare of running a presidential campaign for not-a-chance-in-hell Rep. Santos (Jimmy Smits)? Thankfully the answer turns out to be yes in these fully crafted episodes, even as they still sometimes ring with the people-don't-really-talk-that-way banter that makes up most of the conversation in the Oval Office or hallways of the elaborate set.

Jimmy Smits isn't the only welcome new regular face in season six. Alan Alda grandly returns to the medium that made him with effortless authority playing Republican senator and front-running aspirant to the West Wing's throne, Arnold Vinick. From his modest introduction, to the nuances of personality that slip through over the course of the season, Vinick is definitely one of the people we want to see more of. Adding her own personal flair and tweaking the subtleties of the scripts is Lily Tomlin as President Jed's protective secretary. Gary Cole plays smarmy and vapid with elan as the Vice President who believes he's heir apparent, and disgraced ex-VP Tim Matheson returns from the political graveyard, unbelievably believing he has a chance to win his party's nomination. The politics are still integral to the drama, with fiery President Martin Sheen refusing to go gentle into that good night of professional or personal shadows. The late, great John Spencer also brings poignancy to his last days as ex-Chief of Staff Leo McGarry, scenes made all the more touching by the actor's death in 2005. As with its best early seasons, The West Wing again proves that strong writing, top-flite production design, and authoritative acting always covers flashes of skepticism and makes great TV.--Ted Fry

On the DVD
C.J. Cregg: From Press Secretary to Chief of Staff profiling the growth of one of series television's most dynamic characters through interviews with the show's stars and creative team
Commentary on 3 key episodes
Subtitles: English, Fran�ais & Espa�ol (episodes only)

DVD Menu

• Disc #1 -- The West Wing: The Complete Sixth Season
  • Play All
  • Special Features
    • See Other Discs for Additional Special Features
  • Episodes
    • NSF Thurmont
      • Start
    • The Birnam Wood
      • Start
    • Third-Day Story
      • Start
    • Liftoff
      • Start
  • Languages
    • Spoken Languages: English
    • Subtitles: Fran�ais
    • Subtitles: Espa�ol
    • Subtitles: Off
• Disc #2 -- The West Wing: The Complete Sixth Season
  • Play All
  • Special Features
    • See Other Discs for Additional Special Features
  • Episodes
    • The Hubbert Peak
      • Start
    • The Dover Test
      • Start
    • A Change Is Gonna Come
      • Start
    • In The Room
      • Start
  • Languages
    • Spoken Languages: English
    • Subtitles: Fran�ais
    • Subtitles: Espa�ol
    • Subtitles: Off
• Disc #3 -- The West Wing: The Complete Sixth Season
  • Play All
  • Special Features
    • See Other Discs for Additional Special Features
  • Episodes
    • Impact Winter
      • Start
    • Faith Based Initiative
      • Start
    • Opposition Research
      • Start
  • Languages
    • Spoken Languages: English
    • Subtitles: Fran�ais
    • Subtitles: Espa�ol
    • Subtitles: Off
• Disc #4 -- The West Wing: The Complete Sixth Season
  • Play All
  • Special Features
    • See Other Discs for Additional Special Features
  • Episodes
    • 365 Days
      • Start
    • King Corn (With Commentary)
      • Commentary
      • Start
    • The Wake up Call
      • Start
    • Freedonia
      • Start
  • Languages
    • Spoken Languages: English
    • Subtitles: Fran�ais
    • Subtitles: Espa�ol
    • Subtitles: Off
• Disc #5 -- The West Wing: The Complete Sixth Season
  • Play All
  • Special Features
    • See Other Discs for Additional Special Features
  • Episodes
    • Drought Conditions
      • Start
    • A Good Day
      • Start
    • La Palabra
      • Start
    • Ninety Miles Away
      • Start
  • Languages
    • Spoken Languages: English
    • Subtitles: Fran�ais
    • Subtitles: Espa�ol
    • Subtitles: Off
• Disc #6 -- West Wing: The Complete Sixth Season
  • Play All
  • Special Features
    • In God We Trust - Commentary by Executive Producer / Director Christopher Misiano and Writer Lawrence O'Donnell, Jr.
    • 2162 Votes- Commentary by Executive Producer and Writer John Wells, Executive Producer and Director Alex Graves
    • C.J. Cregg: From Press Secretary to Chief of Staff
  • Episodes
    • In God We Trust
      • Start
    • In God We Trust: Commentary
    • Things Fall Apart
      • Start
    • 2162 Votes
    • 2162 Votes: Commentary
  • Languages
    • Spoken Languages: English
    • Subtitles: Fran�ais
    • Subtitles: Espa�ol
    • Subtitles: Off

Customer Reviews

Alan Alda and Jimmy Smits want lame duck Martin Sheen's job on "The West Wing"
The difference in the style if not the substance of "The West Wing" in the wake of Aaron Sorkin's depature crystalized for me in the final episode of the series when I realized that Sorkin would not have simply referred to the inaugural address of the new president who replaced President Jed Barlett (Martin Sheen), he would have written it and we would have seen and heard it. This perspective becomes useful in looking at the last couple of seasons of "The West Wing" because while the show never ran out of ideas regarding the wonderful world of politics, the execution of those ideas was never quite as glorious as during the first Barlett Administration.

The Sixth Season of "The West Wing" was ambitious in two regards. First, it started off by attempting to solve the quagmire of peace in the Middle East, at least as it applies to the tensions between Israel and the Palestinians ("The Birnam Wood"). Then it moved on to getting an accord with China ("Impact Winter"), which would be following the lame duck game plan of trying to have an impact on international relations since everybody has stopped listening to you at home. I found the Middle East negotiations to be tinted more with pragmatism than idealism, but while Barlett's MS problems upped the ante on his negotiations with the Chinese, the nuts and bolts of how he got the detail were hidden behind closed doors. Certainly this added drama to the proceedings, but it also represented the tendency for significant things to happen off camera during this season. In retrospect it seems that since Barlett now had to share time with the men competing to be his replacement that there was an effort to have him deal with real big issues. As Barlett pointedly says, "Progress is not good enough for me now. I want to get something done" ("In the Room").

Second, the show established an entire second track having to do with the primary campaign to select the Democratic nominee for the upcoming election. That the Republican nominee is going to be Senator Arnold Vinnick (Alan Alda) is established pretty much from the moment he announces ("In the Room"), while the fact that the credit for Jimmy Smits appears right before Sheen's at the end of the title sequence in the "with" section gives away the outcome of the Democratic side before the last delegate vote is counted ("2162 Votes"). I found this much more interesting than the re-election campaign from the third and fourth seasons, mainly because I knew from the start that as soon as Barlett got on stage to debate his opponent, and I was right ("Game On"). The flaw here, again determined through the value of hindsight, is that Matt Santos wins more by default than by the merits of his education plan. The presumptive Democratic nominee, Governor Eric Baker (Ed O'Neill) drops out, John Hoynes (Tim Mathewson) had to resign the vice presidency), and the frontrunner is "Bingo Bob" Russell (Gary Cole), the veep forced on Bartlett by the Republicans in Congress. That whole machination had to do with stopping Bartlett from making his Secretary of State (William Devane) his vice president and heir presumptive, and I suppose it would be tacky for two senior administration officials to be fighting over this particular bone. I loved the description Leo gives of Vinnick as sounding "smarter and more honest than any Republican they've ever seen, because he is," but we got to see little of that because the emphasis more on what alienated Vinnick from conservatives in the Republican Party ("In God We Trust").

In addition to the newcomers Alda and Smits, the Sixth Season was defined by two other pairs of characters. It seems strange to say that after a pair of Emmys wins for both Supporting Actress and Lead Actress that Allison Janney as C.J. Cregg emerges as a stronger character, but become Chief of Staff will do that. The moment at the end of "Third-Day Story" where Bartlett asks her to jump off a cliff for him is one of my favorites from the season, but I also liked how when you go back and watch the episode again they set her up as the obvious choice for the job over Josh and Toby. Less surprising was that once Donna Moss (Janel Moloney) got out from under Joss's wing and join the Russell campaign, she would prove to be capable of doing substantial things (like dress down a heckler in a chicken outfit in "Freedonia"). You also have Annabeth Schott (Kristin Chenoweth) and Kate Harper (Mary McCromack) giving women more prominent positions in the White House, making up for seeing less of Abby Barlett (Stockard Channing) and Debbie Fiderer (Lily Tomlin). For that matter we have Helen Santos (Terri Polo) and Sheila Brooks (Patricia Richardson) making substantial appearances as well. In contrast, Leo (John Spencer), and Charlie (Dule Hill) have less to do in the White House this year, leaving Tony Ziegler (Richard Schiff) a bit more to do. There is also good news that Ron Silver is back as Bruno Gianelli, even though he is now working for the other side. It also has to be said that watching Leo's heart attack in "The Birnam Wood" is now a chilling scene because of Spencer's death this past year.

The other characters that come into their own in new ways would be Joss Lyman (Bradley Whitford) and Will Bailey (Joshua Malina), who are running competing campaigns for the presidency. Ultimately they are more important than their candidates. Obviously that is true about Will with running the Russell campaign, but I think it is even more true about Josh coming into his own, if only he could call down without Amy (Mary Louise Parker) having to tape him into a chair ("Freedonia"). I have to say, as much as the Lemon Lymans would hate to hear it, give Will and Josh candidates of comparable competence to run and I think the results would be different. Ultimately my biggest complaint about this Sixth Season is that when it comes to the primary campaign stories I wish they would show more and tell less. If you have an entire episode about candidates getting to debate, then seeing the debate would be a good thing (this is why "The Debate" episode from Season Seven was so much fun and exactly what I had hoped they would have done in Season Four--yes, the election happens a year "early" in "The West Wing" universe). There were plenty of similar opportunities to show more of the campaign and to make Santos look like more of a winning candidate, and the pattern continues throughout the rest of the campaign and the series.