Article first published as MADAM SECRETARY Review on Seat42F.
CBS
has a lot of faith in their new non-procedural (!) drama series, MADAM
SECRETARY. A fictional tale of a female secretary of state, tapped to
help out the President (Keith Carradine, Fargo) because she has a
different perspective than his other advisors and he trusts her, it will
air twice on the Sunday it premieres to make sure that if football
overruns the schedule, viewers can still find it. Of course, the simpler
solution would be to just learn how to schedule around sports, since
the network has plenty of experience screwing that up, but I digress…
MADAME
SECRETARY stars Tea Leoni (The Naked Truth) in the lead role of
Elizabeth McCord. Elizabeth is your typical network leading lady,
tougher and smarter than anyone around her, bucking convention to save
the day and do what’s right. She’s torn between work and family, of
course, as every modern woman must be, and she is besought by doubters
on all sides. Luckily, she has the skills and stamina to persevere,
doing whatever she must to go around any obstacle in her path, a noble
hero if ever there was one. Leoni plays her convincingly, if perhaps a
bit too earnestly.
Her main obstacle
seems to be the president’s Chief of Staff, Russell Jackson (Zeljko
Ivanek). Russell is a very familiar archetype, too, putting his own
interests and politics ahead of what is right, and thus, is easily dealt
a setback. He won’t go away quickly, though, and will probably clash
over and over again in the same ways with Elizabeth as the series wears
on. Ivanek, a brilliant performer with many impressive credits,
including Damages, True Blood, Suits, and Argo, is completely wasted in a
part that is similar to what he’s known for, but could easily be filled
by any number of actors, not nearly complex enough (at least in the
pilot) to rate Ivanek’s level of talent.
One
might assume that Elizabeth’s staff will get in her way, too, since
they’ve mostly been retained from a predecessor who operated in a way
that could be described as polar opposite to Elizabeth’s approach.
Indeed, we see Elizabeth’s own Chief of Staff, Nadine Tolliver (Bebe
Neuwirth, Cheers), flabbergasted at her boss’ behavior in the premiere
hour. However, this is clearly a ‘team of rivals’ situation in which
Elizabeth will win over the people under her command, which also
includes speechwriter Matt Mahoney (Geoffrey Arend, Body of Proof),
press coordinator Daisy Grant (Patina Miller, All My Children), and
assistant Blake Moran (Erich Bergen, How Sweet It Is). It begins
happening right away, far too easily.
Rounding
out the cast are Tim Daly (Private Practice, Wings) as Elizabeth’s
husband, Henry, a professor who catches many of his young female
students’ eyes, Evan Roe as Elizabeth’s self-described anarchist son,
Jason, and Katherine Herzer as good daughter Alison. There isn’t much
remarkable about Elizabeth’s family situation, but the guys in her
household will likely cause her problems, personally and professionally,
as the story plays out. This is being telegraphed well in advance of
any on-screen developments.
I really
want to like MADAM SECRETARY based on its premise and players involved,
but the pilot is predictable and boring. I applaud CBS for moving
outside of the mold and trying to find an appropriate pairing for The
Good Wife, which deserves it, surrounded by rote crime series, but this
show is just too under-developed to fit the bill. As you may have
surmised from the above paragraphs, it sounds a lot like many other
dramas already out there, with shades of The Good Wife and Scandal, but
packaged in an inferior product.
MADAME
SECRETARY tries to be exciting by adding in a conspiracy in which
people are being killed to cover something up. Elizabeth’s predecessor
might very well have been one of the victims, meaning she could be next.
But even that seems forced and hokey, rather than compelling, as it
should be. The overall tone and style of the program are just not living
up to expectation. It’s really a shame.
MADAM SECRETARY premieres Sunday, September 21st at around 8:30 p.m. ET, depending on football overruns, on CBS.
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