I watched Madame Secretary pilot episode yesterday and thought it better than recent shows based in the White House. I rarely watch these political dramas, but there was nothing else on at the time and I was surprised I got caught up in it. The plot is that a woman (Tea Leone) gets appointed to be Secretary of State, because she is a friend of the President (Keith Carradine), after the last one disappears. She is also a former CIA executive is willing use the CIA to further the ends of the State Dept. First off, I love the fact that Keith Carradine is President (I wish he really were!) I wonder if he'll get a chance to sing on the show... Secondly, I didn't think at first that Tea Leone could carry the show as the main star, but she did better than I thought. What I really liked was the writing. The plot of the pilot was so timely....two kids end up being held hostage by "freedom fighters" in Syria, while Tea tries to get them freed. Oh, and of course Tea Leone got a makeover during the show and suddenly she looks and acts just like Hillary. In fact, it appears in one scene she was wearing a red dress, identical to one Hillary has worn. So much for keeping things fictional...
^ I'd say "So much for the media not making blatent political endorsements", but that went out the window a long time ago.
I watched it too, and I was surprised that I liked it. I do like Tea Leone, and she was the main reason I decided to watch it, but I wasn't holding out much hope for it. It will be interesting to see if the show can maintain the edge they have or if it just becomes more commercial like most other shows.
Tea Leone is an interesting and unexpected choice for that role. I had never seen her do anything serious before this. Her character is a great example of how a woman can accomplish important things without being a total bitch. It's also nice to see a serious drama of this kind written by somebody other than Aaron Sorkin. He's very talented, but I've seen so much of his stuff that it's all starting to sound the same. It's time for somebody else to get their turn.
I'm actually enjoying this show a lot. It's one of the few shows I actually watch on TV. Her character is both tough and easy going, hard and soft, kind but rough when she needs to be. The story lines are not overly dramatic, like on some shows.
