Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Riverdale Avenue Books, and author Joshua Stein for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

This was a book I really wanted to like. I was a huge fan of the television show The West Wing when it aired more than 25 years ago now. I reviewed the DVD sets when they came out on Epinions, and have debated doing a series rewatch of it for this blog. I went into this thinking I might have another great resource for that endeavor.

In The Binge Watcher’s Guide to The West Wing Seasons One and Two, author Joshua Stein basically does the same thing. Written from the perspective of all these years later, some of what is in the series resonates differently than it did at the time. It’s that historical context that Stein is missing. You can study it all you want, but unless you lived through that time, or listened to the people that did, you’re going to miss out on some of the nuances.

Seasons One and Two of The West Wing were pre-9/11. Thus, the first two seasons had a lot to do with domestic issues. Terrorism was out there, but it hadn’t really come home just yet. Series creator Aaron Sorkin had a tight hold on the reins for this one and much of the show was his vision for how government could be if we all worked together, even when we disagreed.

In the forward, author Joshua Stein describes how he set out to write this book. He began in 2015 and didn’t finish until this year. Thus, his impressions of the show are colored a bit by what the ensuing years have brought us. Indeed, the way the show depicts Democrats and Republicans getting along can be considered quaint, and he stresses this over and over again. He also addresses criticism of the show as being a “liberal fantasy.” It was not. In fact, I have gotten flak from more than one liberal friend for saying this is how government should work.

Sorkin was very critical of President Bill Clinton and his administration, which Stein addresses throughout the book. Each chapter addresses several episodes. Stein gives a recap of the episode and provides important historical context. Sometimes it’s something that was going on in the world at the time. This can be very helpful when watching the series again.

Why can’t I give it four or five stars? Well, there are a few facts Stein got wrong, that make me wonder about his research. For instance, he credits the song, New York Minute to The Eagles when it was a Don Henley solo production on his album, The End of the Innocence. He also criticizes the Clinton Administration for Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell legislation about gays in the military. I’ll admit that all these years later, it doesn’t seem to be progressive, but at the time it was huge. This meant that the military wasn’t going to seek to learn someone’s sexual orientation anymore. If no one said anything, soldiers would not be discharged. In a sense, it was turning a blind eye to the issue, but it was a huge step forward at the time that likely cost Hillary Clinton the ability to enact any health care legislation.

I also felt that Stein missed an opportunity to put the events depicted in The West Wing in a more modern context with how it would play in this era when government is more about scoring points off of the other party and serving the wealthy donors than working for the people. He brings up Citizens United several times, which is how we arrived at a point in history where corporations influence the government more than everyday people.

I did like the book, but will I be looking for guides for the ensuing seasons? I doubt it. While Stein manages to touch on a lot of important parts of the series, he seems to be reinterpreting it in his own vision, rather than letting it speak for itself. The recaps are the bulk of the book, yet more than the last quarter of it is just his footnotes. I would think some of these footnotes are part of the context needed for each episode and he should have found a way to address it within his recap and commentary of the episodes themselves.

I think there are some insights that can be gained from reading The Binge Watcher’s Guide to The West Wing Seasons One and Two if you are a fan of the series, but it reads more like a position paper than a reflective guide to the series.