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gen_is_goneSo somebody on an Imdb message board (and wow, nothing good ever comes from a sentence that starts like that), in an attempt to refute the OP's negative review of the HBO miniseries Political Animals, said that the show wasn't meant to be a particularly realistic depiction of modern American politics, and that it was meant to be light fun.
While I too disagreed with the OP that the show was boring/not compelling, I have to ask of the second poster: were we watching the same show?
It managed to pack into six episodes some of the most dense misery I've seen on television recently, outside of the news.
Everyone involved manages to find new and exciting ways to make the wrong choices and accidentally screw themselves over in every. single. damn. episode. Some of them (I'm looking at you, TJ) in life-threatening ways, others simply (or really, not so simply) politically. There are two addicts who are major characters, one of them more or less functional, the other in a not-at-all-contained death spiral of doom and despair. It's fucking awful. Another character jumps off the deep end with a reporter, almost immediately regrets it, and spends the latter half of the series trying unsuccessfully to contain his mistake. There are genuinely good politicians and reporters trying to do right by the American public, and then there are the sleazeballs and the assholes and the ruthlessly ambitious (as opposed to reasonably ambitious, something the narrative takes time to point out) all vying for the opportunity to fuck these people over, often in viciously personal ways. It is emphatically not a "fun" show. It's painful.
It's also much better than I was expecting.
I have my continued issues with the way some plot threads were handled--my thoughts on TJ Hammond alone might deserve their own post somewhere down the line--but by the time I finished I was impressed. I actually really enjoyed all of the credited characters in their own right almost immediately, and while the politics weren't that subtle to begin with, things definitely evened out, and I did find myself disappointed after the end of the sixth and final episode that there wouldn't be any more. It also ended on a pretty massive cliffhanger, which just isn't fair.
One thing I noted while watching is that in the same vein as Puella Magi Madoka Magica the show manages to have an undercurrent examination of a theme entirely unrelated to its surface plot. In Madoka Magica's case, this was the devastating effects of unrequited love; here it's an examination of infidelity, in all of its forms, and viewed through the lenses of every player involved in an affair. Someone cheating on a long-term partner or spouse makes up at least a B plot of four out of the six episodes, and rather pointedly, one character who could be considered the central protagonist (one who'd in the past written quite angrily about how despicable she thought cheating was) is involved in affairs both as the cheated on and as the Other Woman. Fascinating stuff.
On a related note, I think it's hilarious that Sebastian Stan and Dylan Baker are playing basically the same roles they played in Kings, in a show that shares more than surface similarities.
Aaaaand now it's technically tomorrow, and I should go to bed.
While I too disagreed with the OP that the show was boring/not compelling, I have to ask of the second poster: were we watching the same show?
It managed to pack into six episodes some of the most dense misery I've seen on television recently, outside of the news.
Everyone involved manages to find new and exciting ways to make the wrong choices and accidentally screw themselves over in every. single. damn. episode. Some of them (I'm looking at you, TJ) in life-threatening ways, others simply (or really, not so simply) politically. There are two addicts who are major characters, one of them more or less functional, the other in a not-at-all-contained death spiral of doom and despair. It's fucking awful. Another character jumps off the deep end with a reporter, almost immediately regrets it, and spends the latter half of the series trying unsuccessfully to contain his mistake. There are genuinely good politicians and reporters trying to do right by the American public, and then there are the sleazeballs and the assholes and the ruthlessly ambitious (as opposed to reasonably ambitious, something the narrative takes time to point out) all vying for the opportunity to fuck these people over, often in viciously personal ways. It is emphatically not a "fun" show. It's painful.
It's also much better than I was expecting.
I have my continued issues with the way some plot threads were handled--my thoughts on TJ Hammond alone might deserve their own post somewhere down the line--but by the time I finished I was impressed. I actually really enjoyed all of the credited characters in their own right almost immediately, and while the politics weren't that subtle to begin with, things definitely evened out, and I did find myself disappointed after the end of the sixth and final episode that there wouldn't be any more. It also ended on a pretty massive cliffhanger, which just isn't fair.
One thing I noted while watching is that in the same vein as Puella Magi Madoka Magica the show manages to have an undercurrent examination of a theme entirely unrelated to its surface plot. In Madoka Magica's case, this was the devastating effects of unrequited love; here it's an examination of infidelity, in all of its forms, and viewed through the lenses of every player involved in an affair. Someone cheating on a long-term partner or spouse makes up at least a B plot of four out of the six episodes, and rather pointedly, one character who could be considered the central protagonist (one who'd in the past written quite angrily about how despicable she thought cheating was) is involved in affairs both as the cheated on and as the Other Woman. Fascinating stuff.
On a related note, I think it's hilarious that Sebastian Stan and Dylan Baker are playing basically the same roles they played in Kings, in a show that shares more than surface similarities.
Aaaaand now it's technically tomorrow, and I should go to bed.
