18 TV Shows That Took on the Government
One of the longest running and most beloved shows of all time, M.A.S.H. is still cited today as one of the best political shows ever made. It used the story (based on Robert Altman’s film, itself based on Richard Hooker’s novel) of surgeons at a mobile army hospital during the Korean War (which was actually eight years shorter than the run of the show) to reflect on the horrors of war and the emotional state of those we ask to fight. Ostensibly a sitcom, the show left many viewers, weary from a decade of brutal Vietnam footage on the nightly news, in tears. The show’s final episode remains one of the most watched television events ever.
20th Century Fox
Though originally spun off from the cult satire "Soap," Benson quickly took on a following of its own. Following the comedic misadventures of the chief of staff for an absent minded governor of an unidentified state, the show was rarely serious, but was one of the first shows to use the political world as a backdrop, including its main character's run for a governorship of his own.
Columbia Pictures Television
In the lead-up to the 1988 presidential election, HBO took a chance on this experimental collaboration between political cartoonist Garry Trudeau and improvisational filmmaker Robert Altman. Years ahead of the mockumentary wave that would break in the late 90’s, the show followed the unlikely campaign of dark horse candidate Jack Tanner. The fake documentary also enabled the show to feature many political figures of the time, including Bob Dole, Jesse Jackson and Pat Robertson. Though it only lasted one season, its legacy remains as an early critical success for HBO, a return to form for Altman, and as a bold formal experiment set in the world of politics.
HBO
In a pre-internet world, conspiracy theories hid in the margins of our society. Sure, flat-Earthers, Kennedy assassination buffs and Area 51 enthusiasts could be found in the tin hat communities and crazy uncles of the nation. But California surfer dude Chris Carter found a way to catalog these and filter them through the lens of a post-Watergate view of government as a place of shady dealings (along with a dollop of sex appeal). Using two outcast FBI agents as its heroes, the show explored a bureaucracy that was intentionally set up to frustrate anyone who sought the truth. Even the show’s villain (the wonderfully '90s conceit of “The Cigarette Smoking Man”) believed he was hiding the truth for the protection of the American people. While the show’s aliens and monsters may seem a touch silly in hindsight, its view of government carries all the way through a show like “House of Cards.”
20th Century Fox
Michael J. Fox originally made a name for himself as the Reagan-loving son of former hippie parents on the sitcom "Family Ties," but it was his role as the George Stephanopoulos character in Rob Reiner’s "The American President" (scripted by Aaron Sorkin) that led to this sitcom. "Spin City" was a sort of '90s update on "Benson" with Fox (and later Charlie Sheen) playing the part of man behind the throne, dealing with a buffoonish boss and a staff full of personality disorders. Unlike Benson’s more goofy tone, "Spin City" took a more modern view of government as an arena of slick operators where victory went to the sly and clever and not the righteous.
Dreamworks TV
The television show that launched a thousand Capitol Hill careers, "The West Wing" snuck onto American screens at just the time when the actual White House was becoming more and more like a TV show. Though President Bartlett never had any scandals of the Lewinsky sort, his combination of Clintonesque optimism and irascible charm gave us a president we wished we had, complete with a staff of smart, hardworking professionals who could be blisteringly funny while talking about the tedious minutiae of policy-making. Though the show faltered the deeper we got into George W. Bush’s administration, the first several seasons stand as one of the best presentations of government in any medium.
Warner Bros Television
The pop cultural juggernaut of the 2000s, it’s easy to forget how nervous this show’s premiere made executives in 2001. Airing a few short months after 9/11, many were nervous that the show's in-your-face violence might upset a shell-shocked populace. Instead, America found a new hero and a sense of security in the idea that we were protected by men like Jack Bauer. He was Dirty Harry for the age of terror. Bauer and his compatriots at the CTU were of the opinion that there was no rule or law that shouldn’t be broken to protect the safety of the nation. But as the show wore on, and the nation became exposed to scandals such as Abu Ghraib, waterboarding and Guantanamo, the moral weight of “safety at all costs” began to show.
20th Century Fox
No one expected much from a remake of a campy '70s artifact, a cheap "Star Wars" knock-off mostly remembered for some cool production design. It didn’t help that it was being produced by a network more typically known for programs like this year's “Sharknado.” BSG defied all expectations by not just being decent, but at times awe-inspiring. Though the show would make a number of missteps in its later seasons, its first few seasons were a nearly flawless age-of-terror allegory. The show did well by taking its premise seriously. The vast majority of the human race was dead, and the survivors were traumatized by the loss. Vicious killing machines were hunting the remainder, whose edges became increasingly frayed with exhaustion. Worst of all, embedded enemies were known to walk among the survivors. They could be your friends, your co-workers, or your lover…and you just would never know. The show took its internal politics seriously as well, with an unprepared Secretary of Education promoted to president and forced to make choices she would never dream of. For instance, do you still protect abortion rights when the entire human population has been reduced to 16,000? It was intelligent thinking like this that elevated the show above its corny origins.
Sci-Fi Network
Following their partnership in the spectacular crime film “Out of Sight,” George Clooney and director Steven Soderbergh formed a fruitful production team that would spin out several successful films. As Clooney’s political side began to show, he dove into this experiment with gusto. The episodes were largely improvised and often featured real political figures (James Carville and Mary Matalin were regular characters…as themselves, of course). Episodes were intended to air quickly to address topical issues before they became stale. The theme was clear: Politics are now showbiz. The show received tons of critical praise, both for its stylistic adventures and for its political insight, but "K Street" failed to find an audience (outside of the beltway, where it was quite popular) and was not extended for a second season.
HBO
Following on the heels of "The West Wing," several mid-2000s shows attempted to capture its same mix of idealism, soap opera plotting and smart comedy. "First Monday" and "The Court" (both about the U.S. Supreme Court), "The Lyon’s Den" (Featuring "West Wing" alum Rob Lowe) and this Rod Lurie produced show about the first female president, taking off from his critically acclaimed film "The Contender." All of the shows had high production values, familiar names and lofty ideals…and they all failed to make it through a complete season. Sorkin’s magic was apparently not reproducible.
Touchstone Television
Though modeled on the traditional workplace comedy (via the mockumentary format of “The Office”) the show uses its setting in the small town bureaucracy of the fictional Pawnee, Indiana to comment frequently on the role of government. Though light in tone, the struggles between the optimistic believer Leslie Knope and fiercely libertarian Ron Swanson are often used to reflect on the issues of the day and the ways in which government should respond to them.
NBCUniversal Teleivision
The figure of the (almost always male) politician who lets his libido get the better of him has been around since at least JFK, and with recent scandals by Eliot Spitzer and Anthony Weiner its unlikely to go anywhere any time soon. CBS’s “The Good Wife” takes the somewhat unique approach of presenting this story from the point of view of the wronged wife. The show has the good sense to acknowledge that the modern politician's wife is less likely than in the past to be a homemaker. Often she’s a lawyer herself, and not exactly naïve to the inner-workings of the political machine. So what does a smart and educated modern woman do when she’s publicly humiliated in this world? Women like Hilary Clinton have proven it doesn’t have to be the end of the story.
CBS Television
Think that a show with swords and dragons isn’t about politics? Consider this: The fundamental crux of "Game of Thrones" is the question of who is the person best suited to sit on the throne? And while a more traditional fantasy show would have found an easy answer in any one of the too-noble-for-politics Starks, GoT differs from its Anglo-fantasy sources in a uniquely American way: Nobility is no match for the unstoppable wheels of money and power.
HBO
Almost exactly 10 years after the premiere of “24,” "Homeland" arrived (adapted from an Israeli series by former "X-Files," "Buffy" and "Angel" writers Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa) on Showtime to give a more nuanced picture of the way the government’s counter-terrorism activities really work. While men with guns like Jack Bauer still exist in this world, they are not the crime-solvers. They are the blunt instruments wielded by analysts whose primary weapons are spreadsheets and intelligence reports. Ten years on, the psychic damage of the war on terror has also begun to show, with Carrie Mathison’s bipolar disorder used as both her key weakness and a symptom of her brilliance.
Showtime Networks
England’s master political satirist Armando Iannucci brought his merciless sensibilities to American politics (something he dabbled in quite memorably with “In The Loop”) teaming with an excellent Julia Louis-Dreyfus to create the show that horrifyingly presents what many insiders refer to as the most accurate depiction of D.C. politics they have seen. "Veep" eschews the noir conventions and Shakespearean villainy of "House of Cards" for a picture of D.C. as a giant high-school full of petty, overeducated children more concerned with status and avenging perceived slights than actually helping their constituents. Sound familiar?
HBO
Though it initially drew attention for its unique distribution model, the conversation around the show now centers on its resemblance to the real U.S. government. Premiering at exactly the right time, the show's portrayal of congressional infighting mirrored the gridlocked state of our “do-nothing” Congress…and that was before the shutdown. If anything, the perfectly cast Kevin Spacey and master of atmosphere David Fincher make D.C. look far cooler and more sinister than the real thing, which is doing its best to become a satire.
Netflix
Sorkin strikes again, this time bringing his liberal idealism and "walk and talks" on the media side of our polarized political system.
HBO
The ratings success of ABC’s “Scandal” proves that the nation even wants its juiciest of ham to come from its highest office. Kerry Washington stars as a professional fixer who is hired by the White House to make sure that none of its dirty laundry is aired in public. While President Bill Clinton’s behavior was shocking (to some) in 1998, seemingly no amount of bad behavior from the White House would surprise a modern audience.
Disney/ABC Television