This last year has been a tough one to live through as far as politics go. And it’s not just been due to the chaos created by the mad con man in what’s become, on his watch, the Offal Office. A large part of his political party has been complicit in how he has shredded our systems of politics and government (just for starters). And the Dems have had their questionable moments as well.
The coming year, 2020, only promises to be worse and more torturous with the most critical election of any of our lives, What can one do to save ourselves from going totally around the twist or descending into crippling depression?
Well, entertainment has long been tagged as escapism. And sometimes escapism goes beyond being not just a bad thing to an outright need. What’s helped me through the travails of 2019 are two TV shows I binged on that enabled me to maintain the illusion that sometimes people running the government in Washington, D.C., can actually be good and honorable folks doing the right things: “Designated Survivor” and “Madam Secretary,”
Before I discuss both, let me rewind time back to 1999 into 2006, when “The West Wing” was on the air. It began in the heady latter years of the Clinton administration, which, despite its neoliberal “third way” flaws, now seems almost paradisal in retrospect. “The West Wing” helped carry some of us through the bulk of the Bush II years, and as a show was a fine series with both a mighty lead character and one vibrant ensemble cast around him.
But tougher times call for stronger stuff. And simply in dramatic terms, “Designated Survivor” is strong stuff indeed. I’m not being a spoiler to reveal that it opens with the loss of all three governmental branches – The president and cabinet, Congress and the Supreme Court – in a terrorist attack on the State of the Union. The “designated survivor” is the one cabinet member in the line of succession held out just in case such a scenario happens (which is a real thing). It’s HUD Secretary Tom Kirkman, played by Keifer Sutherland, an academic and political neophyte thrust in becoming the Chief Executive after the national disaster and having to rebuild the entire government.
It’s really not giving anything away to say that watching his character stick to his moral compass and strive to serve we the people as best he can is quite an enjoyable contrast to the amoral sociopath elected in 2016 not long after this show debuted on ABC. Kirkman’s growth through the show’s 53 episodes over three seasons (the last on Netflix, where it now streams) displays the kind of character development that gives this series its dramatic nutrition.
To make it even more compelling, the plot is a true roller coaster ride of huge surprises, twists and suspense. It’s damn fine TV, and even if it didn’t last that long on its network, it’s encouraging that a show this smart and edgy was even on one of the three major broadcast channels to begin with.
I went almost immediately from that into “Madam Secretary,” which had two major figures of the sort one can only wish for. First is the Secretary of State of its title, Elizabeth “Bess” McCord, a former CIA analyst, played by Tea Leoni as someone who cares about the state of the world. As does her president, her former boss as head of the CIA, portrayed by Keith Carradine.
OK, both characters are likely nicer than real-life CIA operatives. But at the same time “Madam Secretary” deals weekly with quite-true-to-life international crises with genuine geopolitical and policy wonk depth. it’s also a smart family series. I enjoyed its nice touches like how Bess McCord’s sleepwear always includes a rock band T-shirt.
And in ways that the GOP and evangelical so-called Christians are vigorously trying to resist, both shows have quite outright LGBTQ characters, including an androgynous bisexual female State Department policy advisor on “Madam Secretary” and transsexual sister-in-law to the president on “Designated Survivor.” Or in other words, they reflect our 21st Century reality. Which is a reassuring realm to escape into in our insane political times.
Populist Picks
Movie: “The Mule” – This film’s star/director Clint Eastwood may have alienated leftists with his political stances. But he still makes quality films and delivers fine performances as he does in this tale, based on a true story, about a retiree who takes up transporting drugs for a Mexican cartel to earn money he applies to the greater good.
TV Show: “Derry Girls” – A charming and rather edgy Netflix series about a universal topic – adolescent girls coming of age – unfolds in the quite interesting setting of 1990s Northern Ireland when “the troubles” (as the conflict there has been called) were still roiling. The misadventures of the gang of Catholic schoolgirls has become a big critical hit, thanks to keen and witty writing and sharp performances by its young cast.
Rob Patterson is a music and entertainment writer in Austin, Texas. Email orca@prismnet.com.
From The Progressive Populist, December 15, 2019
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