Having now seen enough episodes of the
CBS program Madam Secretary, positioned behind 60 Minutes and of course suffering from the timeslot over-run vicissitudes of CBS NFL coverage, it may be yet possible to see the program as a noble attempt to find the NBC West Wing audience as well as provide a useful cipher for HRC's 2016 campaign.
The creators of the CBS show Madam Secretary didn’t hide the fact that they were inspired by Hillary Clinton‘s Benghazi testimony (one episode is titled “Another Benghazi.”) But that still begs the question: is it really based that much on Clinton? And, beyond that, is it actually propaganda to help Clinton in 2016?
Yes, this is an argument a fair number of people have been making this week. One person told Fox411, “The connections in the show between Elizabeth and Hillary are clear, from the blond hair to the pantsuits.”
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It is a well crafted program and has elements of the snappy patter that Aaron Sorkin has given us in so many narratives about our national government, with some of the possibility that there will be a Vince Foster conspiracy back story at work. Ultimately, the casting may be what lets the program down.
Much like Fox's "24" made us desensitized to the notion of an African-American POTUS, and unlike HBO's VEEP, the program provides the possibility of interpreting coherent US foreign policy to the usual idiots who watch the "Box of Death" that the hitherto misunderstood 'bagger concepts of international diplomacy as Chamberlainian appeasement. I would so dearly, much like I love every mention of my alma mater in media scripts see the use of the word Sudetenland in an episode, and alas the program might not get to season two if only because of the some of the larger limits of plot construction, articulation of action, and detailed intent (there may actually be too many children) that made audiences spoiled in West Wing.
And of course there are the usual TMZ-like information universes
According to the latest gossip news updates, Bad Boys alum Téa Leoni is in danger of being fired from the first high-profile acting gig she's had in ages. Word has it that her diva antics are alienating the cast and crew of Madam Secretary, despite the show's continued rise in the ratings. Last week it was announced that CBS had already sold the show's first season to Britain's BSkyB network, but if the tensions on the set are allowed to grow as reported, there may not even be a season 2. In related news, Téa revealed in a recent interview that regardless of their divorce or past misdeeds, she would never hate her ex-husband, David Duchovny.
But as usual, the
Guardian is spot-on:
The show that it’s really closest to is the short-lived Geena Davis vehicle Commander in Chief where a female president has to balance her political and family life. The problem with Madam Secretary is that Téa Leoni, as the lynchpin of the show, doesn’t exhibit the likeability of Davis or the vulnerability of Julianna Margulies on The Good Wife. She’s a smart, strong woman, but with Leoni’s delivery she comes across as a little bit bland and holier-than-thou. When she tries to be tough she is less of a fierce badass and more of a threatening bully. These aren’t very good qualities in a person we’re asked to spend 22 hours with over the course of the year rooting for.
While this is a pretty major flaw, it’s really one of the few that the show has. The political action – and I assume there will be a different international incident to diffuse every week – is spelled out so that even those who haven’t picked up a New York Times since the Reagan administration can understand it, but isn’t so exposition heavy that it will turn off news junkies. What’s going to make or break this show is how the intrigue around the disappearance of the old secretary of state is handled. There needs to be a bit more intrigue and danger than we see in the pilot and the relationships between Elizabeth’s staff members needs to be fleshed out a lot more. The impetus in the pilot is, naturally, on Elizabeth, but for the show to have a long life, the audience is going to need some heroes and villains among the staff to keep things interesting.
John Baird and his "Television" In 1927 Baird sent a moving live image (in color) over 438 miles via telephone lines, between Glasgow and London. The first long distance television broadcast and the first color broadcast.