This is the quintessential TV show about American politics. Forget House of Cards (v2) and Veep, those are fine shows in their own right but this is at the same time the most realistic, optimistic and original show made about American politics by Americans. Kevin Spacey’s House of Cards is a (good) remake of a classic British TV show which presents a much more cynical and frankly, British perspective of politics. Veep is from the mind of Armando Ianucci famous for The Thick of It amongst others so again, it’s got a British sense of humour reminiscent of classics like Yes, Minister.

The West Wing, on the other hand, is an entirely American show, fathered by Aaron Sorkin and, although he left after the fourth season, it’s final few seasons are still seriously good TV. His dialogue is incredibly sharp and the cast is amazing. If you aren’t familiar with his work, you should get familiar. He’s one of the few writers of film & TV that it’s worth following just to see what they do next. Usually, you follow actors and maybe directors, rather than screenwriters. Everything he does is a masterclass in writing, though. If you’re not convinced well then, “You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth!” is not a line Jack Nicholson wrote for himself, Sorkin wrote the fabulous dialogue of A Few Good Men (the whole thing to be more specific). It’s his dialogue which is his particular strength, laden with intelligence, meaning and emotion it zips off the screen and is eminently quotable.

The show has a stellar cast including Martin Sheen as President Josiah Bartlett and Rob Lowe as Sam, one of his key speech writers. You may recognise but not be able to name a lot of the rest of the cast and the number of celebrity cameos over all 7 seasons is pretty impressive. Alan Alda and Jimmy Smits feature heavily in the last two seasons and there’s even an episode about free speech guest starring Penn & Teller as themselves.

In these troubled times where politics is trending towards being utterly repellent at every level and the voting public is less engaged than they have ever been, The West Wing is a look into the optimism that our politicians should show. Whilst they struggle against the toxic policies of the Republican party these democratic staffers shine a light on the political process in the US. I suspect it’s a more comprehensive lesson in American politics than you get in a lot of high-school civics classes. Rather like Yes, Minister and Prime Minister give you a pretty good idea of why the civil service in the UK (and probably any mandarin outside Whitehall as well) are both an integral part of government and a gigantic roadblock to improving your country, this gives you some idea of what it’s like to try and run a country.

Even the well-intentioned heroes make a lot of mistakes and don’t really understand what they’re doing all the time. Vast amounts of time are wasted just campaigning for office, a fact that shocks any sane person living outside the US. Seriously, if you’re visiting from the US you may not realise you have the longest and most bizarre political campaigns on earth and your politicians barely get time to actually govern. It hasn’t felt like it was two years of campaigning we just saw from Clinton and Trump, it actually was two years. It’ll be about two years of governing from him before he has to get back on the campaign trail. So there’s a plus there for anyone who thought he’d get the full 4 years to totally screw things up.

If you want a show that gives you an idea of what politicians should be like, what they should be aiming to do and will provide you a positive outlook, look no further. It’s that or watching TED lectures about the few politicians worth the time to listen to.

As there are 7 seasons of content to get through it’ll be a while before you’re done with this set. Sadly it’s only available on DVD but we live in hope they’ll do a Blu-ray release one day. Unfortunately, it’s from a time when commentaries, gag reels, deleted scenes and other special features weren’t yet that popular. The current DVD box set does include some of these but not nearly as many as you’ll get on your Deadpool Blu-ray or Arrow Season 1 box-set. As such you should get the box set because it’s a great binge watch (if you have about a week or two off work).

Regardless of that if you enjoy fast paced, funny, intelligent TV about a situation that’s somewhat outside your experience and isn’t just about people getting murdered, this is a good place to start.

Want some more Aaron Sorkin magic? Try the short-lived but thoroughly wonderful series The Newsroom about, you guessed it, the team running a fast-paced TV newsroom. The dialogue is just as fantastic as it always is from Sorkin and the show presents a picture of why the news is not the reputable institution it once was (particularly in the US).