West Wing cast reunites to make you feel safe (and vote)
Offering a wave of early-'00s nostalgia America didn't know it needed, The West Wing cast has reunited to remind us all just how intellectual and idealistic political discourse can be when it's not real. The four-minute video of swelling strings, banter, and walk-and-talks is an endorsement for Bridget Mary McCormack, non-partisan candidate for Michigan's Supreme Court and sister of Mary McCormack, The West Wing's Kate Harper. Mary McCormack collected her former costars for the video, which couches the endorsement in the larger issue of voters failing to complete their ballots. As the presidential campaign crawls to its spiteful peak, Martin Sheen's sonorous Einstein quote just makes politics seem so inviting again. Joshua Malina bouncing his tennis ball, Allison Janney thoughtfully removing her glasses, Bradley Whitford yelling, it's a political culture we can understand. And while Aaron Sorkin wasn't involved, the dialogue is really not that far off from those last couple of seasons. Although even those writers probably wouldn't have let Whitford's Josh refer to himself as "a movie-star handsome Louis C.K."