Thank you Dutton for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own. No review was required in return for an advance reading copy and no review was promised.
Mr. Book just finished What’s Next: A Backstage Pass To The West Wing, Its Cast And Crew, And Its Enduring Legacy Of Service by Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormick.
The book is about one of the greatest television series of all time: The West Wing. The authors are the actresses who played Carol and Kate Harper on the series. Of course, every fan of the show understands the meaning of What’s Next.
The book is an excellent look behind the scenes at the West Wing. It goes into great, and fascinating details on things such as casting, episodes, scenes in the show and the cast that brought it all to life. There were plenty of interviews with cast and crew members as well as the book being filled with quotes from scenes.
There are so many great tidbits in the book. For example, just in the casting areas, we learn that they originally wanted Bradley Whitford to play Sam, but he absolutely refused and insisted that he was Josh. As I read that, it was so easy for me to how, in that moment, he was acted entirely the way that Josh Lyman would have acted to get the job done. I also thought it was fascinating that someone else had read for the Toby role and gave the funniest version of the character. But, they definitely made the right casting call here. A funny Toby, while it is interesting to think of, would have completely altered the entire character. Richard Schiff was truly born to play Toby Ziegler (to such extent that during the first season of Good Doctor, I even imagined that Dr. Glassman was just Toby’s pseudonym for his next job after leaving Barlet’s White House. I did eventually accept that they are two separate characters.)
One of the great appeals of this book is in written in the same fast paced style as every episode of the show.
There was just one disappointment in reading the book. It did warn that they will not be dissecting every single episode and every single classic moment of the show, such as a complete review of Josh’s secret plan to fight inflation. That’s no problem. We didn’t need the book to literally run thousands of pages. I was just disappointed when my personal favorite episode of the series (17 People) didn’t make the cut, neither did my favorite scene (I always love Toby’s speech in the Oval Office about how there was a coup in the White House the evening of the shooting). But, despite that disappointment, it did not take away from my enjoyment of the book.
This book was definitely a worthy tribute to the West Wing. That was an A+ show so I’ll give the book also an A+, which results in its induction into my Hall of Fame. NetGalley, Amazon and Goodreads require grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A+ equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).
As soon as I finished, I went to Audible to preorder the audio version. That way, I will be enjoying it again when that is released.
This review has been posted at NetGalley, Goodreads and my book review site Mr. Book’s Book Reviews. It will also be posted at Amazon, as soon as the book is released to the public on August 13.
Mr. Book originally read this on May 27, 2024.
