Goodbye to the West Wing

Well, after seven glorious seasons, Sunday was the Series finale for my all-time favorite show. Unfortunatly the last three seasons with John Wells as Executive Producer, were increadibly lacking compaired to the first four seasons, during which time the show won four consecutive Best Drama Emmys, under the healm of Aaron Sorkin. I have to admit that th series finale was a bit anticlimactic for me. I am severely disappointed that Toby was not in the series finale AT ALL! The entire Toby fiasco dragged on for far too long. Because of it Toby could not participate in Leo's funeral, the election and the Inauguration (It would have been nice to have seen Sam and Toby working together on a speech again). I personally feel cheated due to the fact that Bartlet was in office for eight years, but we only got six and a half seasons. What a rip off! Like all problems I have with my all-time favorite show, I blame John Wells. I'm partially thankful that they wrapped up most of the remaining plot questions. HOWEVER, the following questions still remain:

What about Charlie and Zoey?

What is Kate going to do now?

Did C.J. accept Franklin Hollis' offer to run his organization?

Did Nancy McNally become UN Ambassador?

Did Ainsley Hayes become White House Counsel?

Did Oliver Babish become Attorney General?

What happened to Gail?

And most importantly: Why the Hell was Sam not at Leo's Funeral!?!?

Rob Lowe's return was a waste of time; his had one line in the series finale made me think that perhaps he was being paid by the word, so they kept his dialogue to a minimum. Lou was noticeably missing. Was the Inauguration not a big enough event for the White House Communications Director?

The finale could have been infinitely better than what NBC put out, however, the show went out with class, and I can respect that. When Santos walked out to be sworn in, I was talking to my sister about what a shocking ending it would be if Santos were assassinated while taking the oath of office. It could have been easy for the network to put in some stupid twist ending ala St. Elsewhere, or Newhart. Kudos to John Wells for fighting the urge to do something stupid, and allowing the show to go out with some class.