It doesn't seem fair to criticize the television network that gave us Psych. After all, any show modeled around a wannabe detective who hides behind his supposed ESP gifts to solve crimes can't take itself too seriously.
But then USA gave us Political Animals and opened the door to legitimate claims that it should never produce a drama. Ever again.
USA's newest entry into the political television field centers on Secretary of State Elaine Barrish, played by Sigourney Weaver. In the pilot, we learn that the former first lady lost a tough presidential race against a male candidate who would go on to win the White House.
After winning, President Garcetti (I was hoping for Carcetti) nominates his former rival to be secretary of state even as Barrish's personal life continues to scramble amid her husband's rampant infidelities. Ciarán Hinds plays her husband, a former president (and governor) during the 1990s who left office and became extremely popular except, see, he was from North Carolina, not Arkansas. He even features an incredibly authentic Southern accent that sounds like he was choking on collard greens the entire episode.
Five minutes in to the pilot, and I can't help but think how the real story of when this happened in 2008 to Hillary Clinton was so much more more interesting. But there's more. A journalist - Susan Berg, played by the beguiling Carla Gugino - angles for a scoop on Madame Secretary by dangling a story she swears is in her back pocket about a Barrish son's suicide attempt. Also in the pilot, former President Barrish is shtupping a hot latin actress, the Iranians abducted three journalists, Douglas Hammond - their son and the secretary's chief of staff - is engaged to a woman with bulimia and Elaine Barrish loves elephants. This last point seemed so, so relevant to the writers who made sure we understood her love of the maternal, independent and strong willed nature of pachyderms. It's a metaphor! Get it?
Perhaps a show like Political Animals would have been fine 15 years ago, when dramas valued characters over writing. Today, though, television viewers have never had it better. One reason is simply the plethora of choices viewers have today that were not at their fingertips even 30 years ago. It could also be because we live in a society that pushes boundaries, and not all for the better. Man v. Food is an abomination in which its host challenges himself to eat too much food in a certain amount of time while folks cheer him on like a gladiator.
We watch shows about "real" housewives, degenerates on the Jersey shore and competitions that intentionally set people up to fail.
But we also have shows that challenge us, expose our minds to new levels of thought and inspire conversations.
Somewhere in the vast middle is USA - a network that carved out a spectacular niche as a second tier alternatives when your favorite show isn't on. Monk and Psych are great shows to pass the time and I've heard the same about its other offerings. USA is the trade school of televisions in which they know their offerings will never be nominated for Emmy's but that's ok because they are damn good at what they do.
Then they had to go and throw Political Animals in our faces - a show as much an affront to the network's viewers as it is to our senses. My main issue with the show is not that it is tightly based on a present day figure, though that is an issue which inhibits escapism fictional television is supposed to inspire. (I can only think of two reasons why the creator would write a show about Hillary Clinton: Either he is so unimaginative that he has to rely on the present to replicate story lines or he so loves her that he wants to tell the "real" story about Clinton that will then catapult her into the West Wing. Either way, it's a troubling state of affairs.)
No, the real reason why I found the show loathsome is because the writing seemed like a carbon copy of what I imagine the How to Write Your First Script reads. From start to finish of the pilot, there were such awful one-liners I thought they were pressed for time, until I realized the pilot was 90 minutes and there more story lines than a Christopher Nolan script.
A few choice examples:
- Former President Bud Hammond: "I dont eat shit, I serve it.";
- Secretary of State Elaine Parrish: "When the president asks you to serve, you serve.";
- Washington Globe reporter Suasn Berg, re: journalism: "They only love us when they're not busy hating us."
With a cast as stellar as Sigourney Weaver, Ellen Burstyn (the matriach) and Ciarán Hinds, Political Animals aims for greatness yet falls absurdly short. It's soapy without being deliciously indulgent and dramatic in ways uninspiring.
By the end of the first episode (without spoiling anything), alliances were made, backs were stabbed and plans were hatched, as they are in any good show about politics. What sets this apart from other shows of similar ilk, however, is not only that it does not deliver a political junkie fix but I'd rather watch CNN for my daily dose of political drama.
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Jeremy... it is still escapist fun for the political animal in all of us.
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