wiredvanity

Isaac and Ishmael
21 July 2010

I love The West Wing. Everybody who knows me knows that, because I keep coming back to this tv show. While tv show must sound rather banal, it is in fact more than the usual entertainment thing. The West Wing captures the very idealistic idea of what the United States of America wants to be. That doesn’t mean that they actually achieve that – far from that -, but it’s not always a waste of time to play a little bit of “what if?”.

There are many reasons why I love The West Wing, but the idealistic part is my favorite. It’s bundled into great stories, with great actors and impressive execution and for somebody who used to study political science with a leaning towards US politics this is really a dream come true.

It is probably a bit hard for somebody to appreciate the show as much as I do, if you don’t have this interest in politics, but the enjoyment of The West Wing isn’t bound to that factor. It’s a great show and it’s really worth your time, despite the fact that it’s not the freshest kid on the block.

Now, and this is for the people who know me not news as well, there is an episode in The West Wing. Its official episode number is 3.00 and it was called ‘Isaac and Ishmael’. That’s because it’s the first episode of the third season, but it’s not an official episode in the story line. This episode – which is my favorite episode in the whole show – was specially created after the 9/11 attack. The idea was to discuss Islamic Extremism. On TV. Rather shortly after the attack itself.

And discuss they did. Here just two examples:

At the end of the episode Josh, the guy who is talking in the first video, encourages everybody to embrace plurality and tackle more than one idea. And it’s a perfect ending to an episode that so elegantly and beautifully discusses an over emotionalized topic and at that point in time, it was a master piece that couldn’t have been matched by anything.