The West Wing only really became alive for me with the Vinick - Santos Presidential race.
Whilst The West Wing was a seminal TV series in so many different ways such as camera technique and a sense of real time political action, it often seemed mired in maudling sentimentality.
This led to storylines which meant you had to suspend disbelief - such as rushing a Middle East peace deal before one of the commercial breaks and the endless self introspection which led viewers to wonder if anyone had the time to run a country!
This, though, was far from the case with the Vinick - Santos storyline. Instead you had a sense of a battle of ideas and how the candidates' rival agendas for the country impacted on their personal lives.
This was definitely on display in this incredibly inpressive episode. Senator Arnold Vinick, played by the inestimable Alan Alda, starts the episode on the back foot. An accident at a nuclear power plant has had negative political repercussions for him just two weeks from election day.
At the same time, he is physically feeling the pressure where with constant hand shaking, he has fractured a bone in his hand but has to hide this from the media so that he is not typecast as too old for high office as compared to his much younger and physically fitter opponent, Matt Santos (as played by Jimmy Smit).
Amidst all of this, some secrets about Santos' past are unexpectedly found by Vinick's campaign advisor, Bruno (played with real sensitivity by Ron Silver).
Should Vinick use this new found information to win the election or should a higher sense of ethics prevail? When is it right to release confidential information? Is this about gaining a political advantage or letting voters know the truth?
This is the morality tale that Alan Alda's character wrestles with and this really is an acting tour de force as the character figures out what to do.
Whilst Jimny Smits is good in this episode and in this role, I felt he could have shown more emotion as to his conflicted state of mind in the final scene (without giving anything away!).
Overall this is a very good episode which also contains an intriguing sub plot within the Santos campaign.
Ultimately, after watching this episode, you will ask yourself what would you do if you were Vinick.
By the show leading the viewers to question themselves, this, therefore, is the ultimate accolade for this episode.
