My favorite television show of all time is The West Wing. Aaron Sorkin is awesome, and most of his stuff is just good. The West Wing is my favorite for many reasons, but I loved it because it dealt with human problems in at least somewhat realistic ways. The good guys didn’t always win. So much of TV drama ignores the human condition, which just makes things seem so unrealistic to me.

My biggest problem with the show is the romance. I’m a big shipper, for those of you who don’t know me. I love to have a bit of romance in my stories because I think it adds flavor. The West Wing was no different. As almost everyone who watched the show did, I cheered for Josh and Donna to get together right from Season 1. It was obvious that was where the show was going to go.

Like with all TV shows, the romance was slow and drawn out. I’m okay with that, if it is done right. But so many shows ruin that aspect because they have to figure out new ways of keeping the characters apart. For example, in Castle, one of my other favorites, once the main couple get together, the writers seemed lost and started to rehash the will-they-won’t-they storylines from previous seasons all in an attempt to keep Castle and Beckett apart. It ruined the show so much I still haven’t watched the last season.

The West Wing also ruined the romance by drawing it out too long. They didn’t want Donna and Josh to get together at the end of season 6 (after she got blown up in Gaza would have been a great time, but they invented a new love interest to get in the way). What they did, after Donna returned to work, was to change her character completely.

One of the reasons why Donna was so loveable for West Wing fans was that she was a cinnamon roll. She cared about everyone, and was one of those people who you really only ever find in fiction. Maybe she was too perfect, but her being like that made her character such a contrast to Josh’s pitbull-like personality that they offset each other perfectly. She softened his edges and he made her believe in herself more. You could see them growing together and making each other better.

The problem is, at the end of season 6, Donna quit working for Josh to find growth elsewhere. Now, people might say I’m being sexist by being against Donna finding her own professional success, but it isn’t that at all. Donna could have had that success without turning into Josh.

The writers, for whatever reason, decided that Donna and Josh needed to be more alike in personality, so they turned Donna Moss into a fierce political operator and removed all of the cinnamon roll-like aspects of her personality. Yes, she achieved growth, but she did so by becoming a completely different person.

There are stories in which reinventing yourself is good. And if done well, those characters can maintain their fanbase. But with Donna, she changed so much, it was hard to like her by the end of the show. The series didn’t need another Josh.

It’s not like Josh was a saint. But by her leaving him to be on his own, his own personal growth was also derailed. These two should have grown together, instead they went different directions and both were worse off in the end.

I still like the last season a lot. The series finale remains one of the best endings of any TV series ever. But I’ve always been a little disappointed in how the writers handled the romance. It would have been so much better if they’d avoided changing Donna so completely.

Do you like The West Wing? Let me know in the comments below or by email.