I used to love THE WEST WING so much that I watched it endlessly. I still can slip into the voice without even trying. Every episode has at least one scene like this one: the template of the Aaron Sorkin Scene™
The recipe is simple.
Take a character who has a thought—a little speech about some policy or moral question. Then, instead of having them deliver it straight, drop another character into the scene and split the speech between them. Have them interrupt each other constantly. Let the teasing and flirtation disguise the fact that neither is learning anything new. The subject itself doesn’t matter. What matters is the rhythm, the chemistry, the demonstration of intelligence and intimacy.
Done right, it’s hypnotic: two brilliant people performing being brilliant together. It’s not conversation, it’s choreography.
There’s nothing wrong with that! It produces fast, watchable, entirely unrealistic television. And because I’ve watched so much of it, I can write one in my sleep.
The key thing is that Sorkin doesn’t really write conflict—he writes people over-verbalizing anxiety. He hasn’t written an extended direct conflict since the final courtroom scene in A FEW GOOD MEN. But the seeds of his entire style are already visible in his first one-act play, HIDDEN IN THIS PICTURE.
It’s a simple setup: a film director is trying to capture the perfect sunset shot when three cows wander into the frame. There’s no villain, no real problem to solve—just smart, anxious people talking too much while reality refuses to cooperate. That’s Sorkin’s whole career in embryo: the quest for the perfect version of something, constantly being interrupted by cows. Offscreen cows. Not cows that exist as their own thing. Just cows that are a metaphor.
With the notable exception of A FEW GOOD MEN, Sorkin never writes the cows. He never gives them flesh and blood.
His characters already share the same values, worldview, and competence. They’re all on the same side, just tripping over their own intelligence. Even when they “fight,” they’re harmonizing.
That’s why his shows are full of affection disguised as conflict. THE WEST WING feels like a workplace of genius liberals who adore each other but are exhausted by the world’s stupidity. STUDIO 60 and SPORTS NIGHT apply the same rhythm to television production: clever, likable folk arguing with network producers who are also clever and likable and fundamentally good. By THE NEWSROOM, he’s dropped the pretense entirely: everyone agrees, the bad guys are offscreen, and the entire show becomes a therapy session for decency itself.
Sorkin’s faith is that smart, good people—if allowed to talk long enough—will arrive at The Truth™ together. His stories have no villains because in his moral universe, villainy is a failure of dialogue. Evil doesn’t speak; it just exists offstage to give the good people something to be exasperated about.
It’s both why he’s so comforting and why he drives people insane. The dialogue feels electric, but it’s really just the sound of everyone already agreeing. The topic is meaningless. The rhythm of the back-and-forth is the meaning.
Here’s how it goes:
A Pretend Scene From The West Wing That Is At Most Only 10% Sillier Than Every Real Scene In The West Wing
THE WEST WING (Episode XXXX)
INT. JOSH’S OFFICE—NIGHT
Josh is burning the midnight oil. He sits at his desk and reads an article in the newspaper with increasing interest.
JOSH
(to himself)
Huh...huh...sheesh...how the hell...is that right? That can’t be right...
Finally, he stands up, folds the newspaper under his arm, and heads out of his office and into the bullpen.
INT. BULLPEN - CONTINUOUS
The lights are dimmed, and the area is empty. Most of the staff has long since departed for the night, but Josh doesn’t care. He’s looking for a file in the cabinet. It isn’t there, so he scrunches his face.
JOSH
(Joking, to himself)
To find the Ag report, you need to think like the Ag report.
He walks over to Donna’s cubicle to see if it’s on her desk.
In the dark, he steps on something and almost trips. A woman yelps from the floor.
JOSH
Whoa!
It’s Donna. She was on the ground and he just stepped on her.
DONNA
Ouch!
Josh is surprised to find her down there. He’s curious, but mostly he’s just amused.
JOSH
Donna! What are you doing on the floor?
DONNA
Having a nervous breakdown.
She climbs to her feet, exasperated.
JOSH
Well, sure, but I mean, why are you having it on the floor?
DONNA
Lucy…
JOSH
Lucy?
DONNA
(Examining her hand)
Ow, that hurt. Yes, Lucy!
JOSH
How many girls have you got down there?
Donna hits him in the arm, which exacerbates the pain in her hand.
DONNA
Ow!
JOSH
Easy, Million Dollar Baby.
DONNA
Lucy found...
JOSH
Who is Lucy?
DONNA
(Looking at her fingers under the light of her desk lamp)
I think you broke my nail.
JOSH
I am not ready to take responsibility for this.
DONNA
Well, you should have thought about that before you got me pregnant after Junior Prom, buddy.
JOSH
(smiling)
Pump the brakes.
DONNA
This baby is coming whether we’re ready or not.
JOSH
You’d be so lucky.
This cutesy, flirtatious HR violation is interrupted when Donna’s attention returns to the pain in her hand.
DONNA
(waving her fingers to get the circulation flowing)
Yeeesh...what are you wearing, bowling shoes?
JOSH
(He earnestly looks down at his shoes as though he really isn’t sure.)
They’re, you know, normal shoes. Black ones.
DONNA
Lucy! You see her 15 times a day!
JOSH
(Still looking at his shoes)
Or maybe they’re more of a dark brown.
DONNA
Lucy! The cleaning lady with the ponytail, The one who has been cleaning up after you day in and day out since the inauguration.
Donna is picking up energy as she looks around her cubicle for a roll of tape.
JOSH
I thought her name was Brenda.
DONNA
I think I speak for all women, Josh, when I say that we would like you more if you learned our names.
JOSH
Can’t argue with that.
She finds the tape and begins to wrap it around her finger.
JOSH
Lisa asked you to spend your Friday night down on all fours taking care of her carpet?
DONNA
Lucy did not ask me to take care of the carpet. AND I wasn’t taking care of the carpet, I was...
(Donna belatedly recognizes the sexual innuendo that has Josh on the verge of laughter)
Oh, you’re sick.
JOSH
I didn’t say anything!
DONNA
This is exactly what social conservatives warned was going to happen the next time Democrats got back in the White House.
Donna continues scouring her work area for something.
JOSH
Yeah, because there is no casual sexism in the conservative movement...
DONNA
Lucy gave me some earrings and…
JOSH
Wow.
DONNA
What?
JOSH
Intimate gift.
DONNA
We’re just friends!
JOSH
And I want you to know that even if that changes and your friendship evolves into something more, though conservatives have worked hard to protect my right to do so, I will not fire either of you.
DONNA
(Sighing)
Lucy found some earrings in the restroom off the Roosevelt room, and the Secret Service said no one had reported them missing, and she thought they’d look good with my haircut, so she gave them to me.
JOSH
You’re wearing bathroom earrings?
DONNA
No! I was wearing them, but then one fell off, and I couldn’t find it.
The radius for Donna’s earring search keeps getting wider and wider, but Josh just looks on, grinning and having a jolly ol’ time. They’re both having a good time, to be honest. This is their love language.
JOSH
I’ll buy you some more $5 earrings at Claire’s.
DONNA
But that’s the thing: they’re not from Claire’s! Charlie told me that the House Minority Leader was wearing them during the budget negotiations and that she used that bathroom!
JOSH
(With faux seriousness)
…Donna…
DONNA
I know!
JOSH
You stole and then lost one of the gang of eight’s jewelry?
DONNA
I didn’t steal them!
JOSH
Receiving stolen goods from your lesbian lover is still a crime, Donna.
DONNA
She’s not a lesbian!
JOSH
The gang of eight is who we have to inform about national security developments. Black ops! What if there is a crisis in the Balkans and we have to launch a covert operation??
DONNA
(Genuinely panicked)
Do you think this could have national security implications??
JOSH
(Dropping the ruse)
No, Donna. No, I do not. You should probably find it, though, before this ends up in the Washington Post.
DONNA
That’s not funny.
JOSH
(Having reminded himself that he’s holding a copy of the Post, Josh changes subjects)
Did you know that cattle prices are up 30%?
DONNA
What?
JOSH
(He points to the article in the paper that he was reading in the beginning)
Did you know that cattle prices are up almost a third over the last two years?
DONNA
Uh, no, because I’m not a rancher.
JOSH
If you were a rancher, you apparently could afford to buy your own earrings.
DONNA
I’m not sure that is how price fluctuations in the commodities market work, Randolph Duke.
JOSH
I’m not either, but unless you have a copy of the commodities report I came out here to find, I think we both need to keep an open mind.
Donna stops looking for the earring and looks at Josh.
DONNA
How about you look for the earring and I’ll look for the report?
JOSH
How about you keep looking for the earring and let me know if you happen to find the report in the process?
DONNA
To think I let you knock me up at junior prom.
She goes back to searching.
JOSH
I’m saying, what I’m saying, Donna, is...
DONNA
What are you saying?
JOSH
I’m saying 30% in two years! That’s a lot!
DONNA
You’re right. It is a lot. I’m going to vote for the Republicans.
JOSH
Not you but, yes, you know, men!
DONNA
Men?
JOSH
Men might turn on us and vote Republican.
DONNA
Because cattle prices are up?
JOSH
Because cattle prices are up! Because steaks cost more!
DONNA
And men love steaks?
JOSH
Some women do, too, but, in my experience, only the good ones I let get away.
DONNA
So...all of them.
JOSH
I’m saying, how is the American man supposed to afford his meat?
DONNA
And I’m saying, where is this goddamn earring?
JOSH
Blame Lindsey.
DONNA
Lucy!
Leo McGary enters. They both turn and look at him.
LEO
There’s been a mass shooting at Disneyland
Josh drops the newspaper. Donna gasps and covers her mouth with her taped-up fingers.
The Dire Straits song ‘Brothers in Arms’ starts to play as we enter a montage of the West Wing staff handling the crisis.
Love,
Ben
P.S. Last week, I shared a post making fun of THE WEST WING from 2024. It was very popular again! This is part of of the follow-up I did the first time it was popular. Since I am so committed to new content, the introduction is new, but the scene itself is the same.
From what I remember about the show, that seems pretty accurate.
Pretty dead on.
I really wish Sorkin had written an actual character for James Brolin, rather than forcing him to carry around a picture of George W. Bush with the word "MORON" scribbled on it.