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Madam Secretary (CBS) (1 Viewer)

Adam Lenhardt

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From Morgan Freeman's Revelations Entertainment and creator/executive producer Barbara Hall ("Homeland", "Northern Exposure", "Judging Amy", "Joan of Arcadia") comes this companion series to "The Good Wife" about Elizabeth Faulkner McCord, a former CIA analyst plucked from obscurity to be Secretary of State after the serving Secretary of State's untimely passing.The show balances three main storylines: her home life with her husband and two youngest children, the day-to-day work of running the State Department and being the nation's top diplomat, and a conspiracy surrounding the circumstances of the previous Secretary of State's demise.Téa Leoni is very winning in the title role, as an idealized version of Hillary Rodham Clinton stripped of the Clinton political baggage and Hillary's political ambitions. She is firm, at times very aggressive, but still likable. The supporting cast is also strong, led by Tim Daly as her very sharp husband, Bebe Neuwirth as her discontented chief of staff (a holdover from her predecessor) and Željko Ivanek as the president's chief of staff and her primary antagonist. Keith Carradine, recurring as the President of the United States and McCord's former boss at the CIA, brings a inscrutable air to his role. We know McCord trusts and respects him, but we're not sure that we do.Barbara Hall is one of those writers that I really enjoy. "Joan of Arcadia" was a show I absolutely loved, and her time showrunning "Judging Amy" and her tenure on "Homeland" demonstrated that she has the ability to write political figures and international politics, respectively.This isn't a show that's going to reinvent the wheel; it's firmly in CBS's procedural wheelhouse. But it is one of the stronger pilots I've seen in a while, a show that in its first episode already has a strong sense of its identity.Unless it really tanks in future episodes, I'm along for the ride.
 

McPaul

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It wasn't bad. Seems very formulaic as most things are on network TV these days. You mentioned it is a companion to "the good wife". I've never watched that show. Do I need to see that before watching this? What did you mean? Thx
 

Stan

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McPaul said:
It wasn't bad. Seems very formulaic as most things are on network TV these days.You mentioned it is a companion to "the good wife". I've never watched that show. Do I need to see that before watching this? What did you mean? Thx
I think he meant it was just a way for CBS to class-up Sunday night with nicely done, well written dramas. The two shows have nothing to do with each other.
 

Citizen87645

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Given it's leading in to The Good Wife, and is also about a woman navigating personal and professional concerns, pubs like Entertainment Weekly are making easy comparisons between the two series.
 

Adam Lenhardt

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Yes, I was referring to the thematic pairing of the two shows. As far as I know, there's no storyline connection between the two shows.
 

NeilO

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Good to hear it was picked up. We were wondering about the most recent episode "The Call" just how easy it is to smuggle from West Africa to Europe - apparently it is being done quite a bit. Here is one article talking about it.
 

Adam Lenhardt

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While the show is more than a little idealized so far in that Secretary McCord seems to manage every week to solve or make significant headway into intractable world problems, the supporting details of the episodic plots tend to have a strong basis in real world consequences.My one complaint is the decision, after naming real world countries in all of the other episodes, they created the fictional Republic of West Africa for Sunday's episode. I don't know why Hollywood so often feels the need to do this for Africa specifically. It was a lazy stand-in for any one of a dozen or more real countries in the former French West Africa. I did like how they played with France's lingering colonial commitments and the politics of deploying African Union troops. I also liked the moral complexity of Henry's old professor.Bebe Neuwirth continues to be terrific as Elizabeth's chief of staff. Željko Ivanek manages to wring what nuance he can out of the president's chief of staff. There's a screwball undercurrent to the show that really works for it, without ever undercutting the drama. Keith Carradine remains enjoyably inscrutable as the president. He may or may not be a really bad guy, but he hired McCord for the right reasons.
 

Citizen87645

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I finally watched the pilot. I can't say I was drawn in. Generally speaking, DC politics tends to appeal to me more in feature film form rather than as a series (never watched The West Wing) and this was no different. With other shows I'm behind on I had to prioritize and Madam Secretary got the boot.
 

Adam Lenhardt

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Renewed for season two.

This makes me happy. It occupies a comfortable middle ground between CBS's top-tier drama "The Good Wife" and its schedule of more traditional procedurals. The only major thing I'd change is to dial back the focus on the romance between Daisy and the nerdy guy from "Body of Proof."
 

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