Sunday, July 12, 2020

What I’m Watching: The Politician


The Politician: Season 2, Episode 5 “The Voters” (B+)

This show has proven that it’s formidably able to introduce new characters with absolutely no background and make them immediately interesting. Dede, Hadassah, and Tino all showed up for the first time in the season finale and were suddenly part of everything, and in this installment we got two representative voters, who just happened to be a mother and daughter who didn’t see eye-to-eye on their political views. I recognized Robin Weigert, who played Andi, right away, and I’m a big fan of hers from her role in the movie “Concussion” (not the one with Will Smith), and she also has some previous TV experience including an Emmy-nominated role on “Deadwood” and other shows like “Jessica Jones” and “Big Little Lies.” I thought that Susannah Perkins, who played Jayne, looked familiar too, but aside from one episode of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” I think this is the first time I’ve seen her. Both were terrific, and it was revealing to see how quickly they become disillusioned with the candidates they were so ardently supporting, something that wasn’t as surprising to us given that we’ve seen how Dede, Payton, and their staff members repeatedly put public perception above actual policy issues. Among the most memorable moments were both McAfee and Payton assuming plenty about Jayne’s camping experience and Sherry so callously throwing a mostly full water bottle away in front of Andi. I guess we’re rooting for Payton to win, as long as that doesn’t mean that we lose this other half of the storyline in which we’ve now invested.

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