Review of the West Wing Season 2 DVD

Episode Guide:

In the Shadow of Two Gunmen (Part 1): The continuation of the cliff hanger Season One ending of the West Wing, in which President Bartlett (Martin Sheen) and Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) are wounded by gunmen later linked to a white supremacist group. This two-part episode shows how all of these people came to know each other through well written flashbacks, showing the Bartlett campaign for president and the staff’s journey to the future president.

In the Shadow of Two Gunmen (Part 2): President Bartlett recovers from a superficial bullet wound, but Josh remains hospitalized and in critical condition. A particularly emotional scene, and perhaps one of the most emotional scenes in the entire series, comes at the end of this episode when Josh’s father dies after a critical primary win for Bartlett. At the airport, Bartlett and Lyman have a conversation about Josh’s father and Bartlett’s love for his close knit staff is shown by his support for Josh even on the night of his greatest political success.

The Midterms: The gridlock of modern government and the tenuous balance of power in Washington is detailed in this episode of the West Wing. One story line has Sam recruiting a potentially strong Democratic candidate for a House seat, only to have to pull the White House endorsement because of his questionable background as an attorney. Another story line deals with the explosion of Bartlett’s poll numbers and how responsible it is for government to use tragedy in order to forward policy agendas.

In This White House: The character of Ainsley Hayes (played by Emily Proctor) appears for the first time in this episode of the West Wing. Hayes, a Republican operative who schools Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe) on national television, is seen by some on the staff as an aggressive attention grabber while the president sees her as a potential member of his team. This character develops throughout the episode from a callous partisan to an individual appreciative of the pressures faced by White House personnel in a constantly changing political environment.