Article first published as STATE OF AFFAIRS Review on Seat42F.
Anyone who remembers the Grey’s Anatomy
behind-the-scenes drama of a few years ago won’t exactly be excited for
Katherine Heigl’s return to television. NBC decided to take a chance on
her anyway with STATE OF AFFAIRS, premiering this week, which has Heigl
in the leading role. With some good actors around her, though, and an
interesting premise, this series is not half bad, though far from great.
Heigl plays Charleston “Charlie” Tucker,
a CIA Analyst responsible for assembling and delivering the president’s
daily briefing. Charlie is haunted by her past, though, suffering PTSD
from witnessing her fiance’s death in the Middle East, leading to
copious drinking and erratic sexual decisions in her off-hours, before
somehow still managing to be a put-together woman at work, doing her job
well, even at 2AM. Will this catch up with her? Or might her therapist,
whom she resents having to see, eventually be able to help her work
through her issues?
STATE OF AFFAIRS does suffer from an
abundance of coincidence and believability-stretching elements. The
president whom Charlie serves is Constance Payton (Alfre Woodard,
Desperate Housewives, Star Trek: First Contact), who just happens to be
Charlie’s dead fiance’s mother. Constance is bent on revenge for her
son, which makes one wonder how she manages to stay in office and be a
good leader as the first black female POTUS. There’s also a mystery
surrounding the day of the death about which Charlie is repressing
memories. This all feels a little too contrived to me.
Charlie’s team is equally preposterous,
eagerly standing by her at the risk of their own jobs, without pausing
to consider what might happen to them. Even if they like her, they
shouldn’t be so willing to jump off a cliff for her, at least not
without agonizing over the decision.
Charlie has a scene in the pilot in
which she defies her boss in order to do a noble thing, putting the life
of a doctor captured by terrorists ahead of petty vengeance. This is
supposed to establish Charlie has a genuine hero, but instead, drags
STATE OF AFFAIRS down. For one, why do TV shows always have to have one
person who ignores authority because they inherently know the right
thing, proving themselves better than everyone else? For another, why
would a briefer have the power Charlie has to affect events?
Yet, I still want to watch this show.
One big reason for that is because it is a political drama. I love the
machinations of politics, various factions battling one another for
power on the national stage. There are many shows that have done it a
lot better and more authentic than STATE OF AFFAIRS; The West Wing and
House of Cards spring to mind, or even Scandal. But there is still some
draw that this show has in that arena.
For another, besides Woodard, whom I
enjoy, the show has David Harbour (The Newsroom, Manhattan) as Chief of
Staff David Patrick and several familiar guest actors sure to be
recurring. These performers are entertaining to watch and raise the show
a bit above Heigl’s expected quality.
STATE OF AFFAIRS does have the
afore-mentioned personal component in Heigl’s character, but unlike new
CBS stinker Madam Secretary, doesn’t allow it to make the show
melodramatic or whiny. The scenes outside of the work place are well
used to add depth to the character, but not the meat of each episode.
Hopefully, it stays that way.
STATE OF AFFAIRS is popcorn in the way
24 was. It gets the adrenaline pumping and it’s fun to watch, but it’s
never going to win any awards for being the best acting or writing on
television. For my money, that’s good enough for now, and compared to a
very weak crop of fellow freshman dramas this fall, this one is
certainly one of the better recent entries on the broadcast networks.
STATE OF AFFAIRS premieres Monday, November 17th at 10 p.m. ET on NBC.
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