For those of you who, like me, are going through House of Cards withdrawal, I have something to briefly satisfy that craving.
Political Animals is less intense than House of Cards, but it has a lot of the same themes.
Elaine Barrish, played by Sigourney Weaver, is Secretary of the State and ex-wife of the former president. She, like Frank Underwood, is deeply involved in her political career and has a way of setting aside her emotions and family to focus on the country’s needs. Barrish is more relatable than Underwood, in my opinion. (She doesn’t kill any dogs … or people.)
Another House of Cards parallel comes in the form of Susan Berg, a ruthless journalist who is assigned to — and hates — Elaine Barrish. In the first episode, Berg is sent to spend an off-the-record week with Barrish to get “flavor” for her story.
Turns out Berg picked the worst possible week.
Not only does Elaine lose the presidential election (I promise that’s not a spoiler; it’s the opening of the first episode!), divorce her husband (also not a spoiler) and host her son’s engagement party, but she also then has to handle three journalists being held hostage in Iran.
But wait — as if Barrish didn’t have enough on her plate, Berg’s paper runs a story about Barrish’s homosexual son — played by Sebastian Stan. Refreshingly, the story itself is not about T.J.’s homosexuality but about his suicide attempt the year before.
At the conclusion of the episode, Berg quotes Barrish, saying, “Never call a bitch a bitch. Us bitches hate that.” It leads viewers to believe that the characters might form an alliance almost like the one Frank had with Zoe. Almost.
The last thirty seconds of the episode introduce a predictable but necessary plotline. (I won’t say anything more.)
I said the show will just briefly satisfy you because, as a miniseries, it only has six episodes, which range from 40 minutes to an hour long.
Even though I started the first episode at 12:30 in the morning, I was captivated for the entire hour-and-twelve-minutes by the show’s fast pace and its numerous characters and plotlines.
If you liked House of Cards because you enjoyed seeing how the corrupt leaders of our country conducted themselves in all aspects of their lives, Political Animals will get you through this next week.
