Political Animals (Season 1)

Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Carla Gugino, James Wolk, Sebastian Shaw, Brittany Ishibashi, Ellen Burstyn, Ciarán Hinds

Creator: Greg Berlanti

Genre: Drama, Miniseries

Rating: B

I'm a bit undecided about this show.  On the one hand, I really enjoyed it and found it fun, but on the other hand if that's how it ended I'm going to be really annoyed.  The entire season/series is really well written (albeit a bit soap opera-y), but the problems aren't wrapped up in the end.  If this was intended to be a mini-series then it's annoying that there isn't any real resolution in the end - if you know your show is only going to last for six hours then wrap the plot up at the end of that six hours.  If the show wasn't meant to simply be a mini-series and happened to be cancelled then that just sucks but I'll forgive Berlanti and Mark.  That being said though, I really hope there's a second season.

Sigourney Weaver is Elaine Barrish; former US First Lady, ex-wife to former President Bud Hammond (Hinds), and Secretary of State to the current President Paul Garcetti (Adrian Pasdar), and mother of two, Douglas (Wolk) and TJ (Shaw).  After leaving the White House Elaine ran for the Democratic nomination for president and lost out to Garcetti; now two years later, after divorcing her husband and being a very successful Secretary of State Elaine has decided to run for the Democratic nomination for president again; the show follows her and her family in the very short period after she makes this decision.  Her family is one of controversy; Bud is a womanizer, TJ a promiscuous, gay, drug addict, and her mother (Burstyn) an alcoholic and former Vegas showgirl.  The only one who appears to have it together, beyond her, is Douglas, her chief of staff, although even he and his fiance Anne Ogami (Ishibashi) have their share of secrets.  Looking into these secrets, and the family at large, is Washington Globe reporter Susan Berg (Gugino).

I really liked the characters of this show. The core is the family and Susan, and each individual has really good characteristics as well as really bad characteristics.  Even when the plot ideas might be a bit stale the way that they do it is still enjoyable.  My favourite character by far is Margaret Barrish, Elaina's mother.  She's just such a gem.  She seems to understand the other characters the best, and has this nice eccentric way about her.  She's totally the cookie grandmother.  I love it.  My second favourite would be TJ, who I was rooting for the entire time.  I don't usually root for the character on drugs, so that says something.

As for the politics... honestly, I don't really have the best understanding of the American political system.  I never have, and not being American I don't see all that much of a need to understand it.  As such, I can't really comment on how the show portrayed the situation there, although I do have to say as an outsider it looked believable.  I bought into most of it although I do kind of question how far some issues went.  I liked the idea of Elaine being somewhat of a backstabber and the way that they tried to approach it - I thought they nicely handled both her being politically ambitious and also trying to do the best for her country.  I also loved the way she paired off with the current president - Adrian Pasdar, by the way, was amazing - and the other members of his administration.  Overall, I thought it was really well done and I really hope that it gets a second season because, as I already mentioned, it didn't feel like it ended.

Recommendations: July 13

Ice Age: Continental Drift - The fourth in the hugely successful Ice Age franchise, Continental Drift follows our favourite Paleolithic mammals after their continent is set adrift and they attempt to get back home.

Easy Money - A Swedish movie that's getting a limited release, Easy Money follows a man who becomes a drug runner in order to maintain a double life, causing things to go to shit after he meets a man on the run from the mafia and the mafia enforcer who is looking for him.  The thing that caught my attention about this was that they're already talking about doing a remake, which suggests that this movie is really good.

Red Lights - A paranormal horror and a cat-and-mouse thriller all in one, Red Lights stars Sigourney Weaver and Robert De Niro, which just sounds awesome.  I haven't seen anything about this movie and it's only getting a limited release, but based on the names I'm thinking it might be good.

Being Flynn - Another De Niro film, this one is about a young man who encounters his father while working in a Boston homeless shelter.  Directed by Paul Weitz, the same guy who did About A Boy and American Pie this movie could be really good, really bad, or a bit of both.

The Flowers of War - Staring Christian Bale, The Flowers of War brings him back to China during the Second Sino-Japanese War (a return from the 1987 film Empire of the Sun, his first major role).  This time the focus is on the 1937 Rape of Nanking and follows Bale's attempts to safe the women of Nanking by posing as a priest.

American Reunion - The fourth feature film in the American Pie series, American Reunion follows the old group as they embark upon their high school reunion and try to figure out just where their lives diverged from the path that they had once dreamed of.  I was pleasantly surprised by this movie, and suggest it for a night where you just want something easy and funny to watch.

Stonehenge - I recently re-read this Bernard Cornwell novel and it's definitely one of my favourite individual Cornwell novels - possibly even one of my favourite individual novels.  Stonehenge is a "how it could have happened" type novel and tells a story about how Stonehenge came into being. Cornwell takes what we know about the structure and the surrounding land and weaves it together with this wonderfully imaginative world that he creates.  In my opinion, Cornwell is at his best when he's writing his "how it could have happened" type stories, so you should totally read this book.