I am in complete agreement. As I watched last evening's ep, I was impressed with Matthew Perry's acting, but with little else. I found that I could care less about these self-absorbed people. The writing on this program is simply not evolving. You've gotta give people more than pretty faces (and, in last night's case, pretty boobs).

I disagree with you about one thing, however: Sports Night was superior to West Wing. West Wing jumped the shark in its fourth or fifth season, when it ran out of causes to wine about. It, too, persisted on the fine ensemble acting. Sports Night was a masterpiece in its brief run: we actually cared about the characters and both writing and acting were strong.