What I’m Watching: The Politician

The Politician: Season 1, Episode 6 “The Assassination of Payton Hobart” (B)

This episode, twice the length of the last installment, felt more than a bit overstuffed. I’m hopeful that news of this show being renewed for a second season, which has been circulated but not confirmed, is indeed true since there’s a whole lot more left to explore here. Astrid dropping out of the race so that Payton’s victory was meaningless was the ultimate power play, and it was even more crippling for Payton to discover that his big ideas about water fountains and other projects weren’t even considered, mainly because Principal Vaughn didn’t respect him. The fact that he lost by two votes shouldn’t matter much, but to him it will mean everything, as will Vaughn’s comparison of him to Gerald Ford rather than Barack Obama. I like that Payton and Infinity, and apparently Ricardo, are starring in the school production of “Assassins,” further fueling this show’s presidential obsession, and things got much more dramatic towards the end of the episode when Ricardo’s possum poison plan was revealed. McAfee is a real punching bag on this show, getting dumped by Skye after she accused her of lacing the icing and then told by Payton that she couldn’t be trusted anymore. Payton can use any friends he has left now that he’s been shot and potentially poisoned, and hopefully his mother won’t blame him for forcing her to give up her Montana dream escape. I honestly have no clue what comes next, and two episodes probably won’t be enough to satisfactorily process it all.