West Wing: The 25th Amendment

Sometimes an episode of a TV-series is so engaging that when one realizes the credits are due, a verbal "no, no, no, not yet!" is uttered. RollWave's edit responds to this and prolongs that episode. Not by just stacking a couple of episodes and be done with it, but by finding a compelling story arc that manages to uphold the extended run time. And what better arc to use?

Phenomenal work by RollWave, from start to finish. Despite the massive trims, this edit still achieves the tremendous task of fitting it all together. Seamlessly so, I might add. Not a single thing is out of place, jarring, questionable or otherwise disruptive. It even accomplishes to conceal the noticeable transition from an Aaron Sorkin-piece to whomever succeeded him. Audio and Video editing are, to my eyes and ears, flawless. It just fits. Fantastic!

The only thing bothering me, and it's not even a fault of RollWave's, is the quite sudden culmination (with the FBI). It feels rushed in the original episode, but not a lot can be done about it.

A stunning accomplishment and highly recommended.

As a fan of West Wing I was intrigued by this edit. I really wasn't sure what to expect. I was wowed from beginning to end. Even knowing how the storyline progressed before watching this, I was still pulled into the narrative and rather than going from episode to episode, I got a feature length movie that was smooth, cohesive and compelling.

This character driven drama continues to build in a flawless fashion that keeps your attention from beginning to end. At no point do you feel like you are watching a televised series with scenes piled together in order.

Every scene was one logical progression after another. The emotional weight of the series wasn't lost in this feature length movie. It had the heart and passion that the TV series West Wing always possessed. The editing gets a high mark because of how well scenes flow from one to the other.

The storyline, editing, character development, music, and drama were pulled together and presented as a top tiered political dramatic movie. Highly recommended.

Caveat - RollWave was kind enough to point me towards this fanedit when it became suddenly unavailable. RollWave personally contacted me after I expressed interest in viewing this edit.

I am a HUGE West Wing fan. My friends and I ran though the entire series on DVD, usually multiple episodes per night. This particular storyline is one of our favorites, and I was interested in seeing how RollWave slimmed it from 336 minutes to a svelte 144.

The answer is simple - Voodoo. RollWave practiced Voodoo. Because to be honest, and having JUST watched the series, we could not really tell where the edits were. And to us, that was amazing.

If you know West Wing, this is a treat. If you DON'T know West Wing, this is a really great stand-alone film, or an outstanding introduction to the series, or a way to convert a non-fan.

The visuals were flawless, even on a DVD-5. The audio editing, as previously mentioned, had a couple of minor transition issues, but I'm not sure how they could have been avoided, and if you weren't looking for them, you would not notice them (I shouldn't have read Neglify's review beforehand, LOL). The story itself was outstanding. One of our favorite storylines from the series, in an easy to digest morsel.

And "The Jackal" as the end credits was brilliant!

Run, do not walk, and watch this Fanedit.

thanks RollWave for this edit.Ive never watched this show before but was always interested after the fact.Just like i didnt find out about breaking bad and how great it was untill the 3rd season.This edit has a little of my favorite kind of shows all wrapped up into one great edit.Shows like 24,Homeland,Veep.I have to say editing wise it was great,smooth.Having not seen the show before and knowing you mixed some seasons together i couldn't tell the difference.I also believe you must have mixed in some music in yourself and it fit really good.The video effects and titles were done great as well,you have some good skills my friend.I hope to see more from you soon in the fanedit world.
PS i had the jackal in my head all night

Summary:

This is an absolutely wonderful fanedit. Highly recommended for West Wing fans or lovers of political drama.


Technical:

The editing here is solid all the way through. If I hadn’t read the cutlist after I would have never known how many episodes were combined. Hell I had to read Wikipedia to really understand how much work was done. This edit flows so smoothly one scene to the next. Bravo.

Commercial break transitions were handled nicely; I didn’t notice any on-screen credits or zoomed shots to remove them. DVD quality was good, matched the source quality.

I had small nitpicks with some of the audio editing. They were really minor so I’m not going to waste time talking about them. You may or may not notice; they may or may not bother you; your mileage may vary.


Storytelling:

The narrative structure is the strongest part of this edit. I have never watched a single episode of The West Wing but I’d always wanted to check it out. (And yes I purchased the source material.)

You can go in completely blind deaf and dumb and still be able to follow everything. I connected to the characters and once the plot kicked into high gear I was glued to my screen. The three act structure is done very well and this feels like something that was intended as a theatrical movie.

And this show is really good. They weren’t kidding when they said they had great writers. Powerhouse storytelling, acting, everything.


A/V quality – 8
Editing – 10 visual, 9 audio
Narrative – 10
Enjoyment – 9

Recommended drink: Man O' War