Summary : Irresistible leading trio, empathic relationships, feminism-driven
story but stereotyped characters and questionable production
Score : 7/10
One actress to rule them all, Sigourney Weaver. The more I grow up
the more I'm into politics but without her I would probably have
ignored the miniseries. Now that I've seen its pilot I won't say that
not giving Political Animals a chance would be a foolish mistake
because it has some flaws. Otherwise this first installment shined in
many departments so in the end it's really about what you expect from
a show and which mistakes you're not ready to forgive.
Lady Weaver is really the ultimate acting chameleon. She can
become anyone and the characters she has played have become icons and
changed the life of millions of people around the globe. Don't worry,
she has plenty of scenes respectful of her inspiring talent. From
thundering anger to contagious hilarity the palette of emotions she
developed would make an interesting painting if you splashed all its
dual colors on a canvas. Her character, Elaine Barrish, instantly
grew on me because her profile felt realistic enough to make me care
about her story. Contemporary and feminist. A valley of intelligence
and beauty. Of course it's impossible not to compare her to Hillary
Clinton but if you're interested by foreign cultures other names like
Ségolène Royal should pop up in your head, and the
reason will be obvious once you have seen the pilot.
Around Elaine gravitates plenty of other characters, some are
perfect matches when others couldn't be more stereotyped. Among the
last we have the gay son, addicted to drugs… The list of clichés
is long but he has an excuse, his twin brother. Seriously ? As for a
blogger she reminded me too much of Willa from Dirt, played by the
gorgeous Alex Breckenridge, so let's hope she's not just one
dimensional. However their respective roles are minor so they
shouldn't ruin your experience. In fact each time Carla Gugino and
Ciarán Hinds enter the stage you instantly forget about what
went wrong a second earlier. The first already had my vote because I
found her quite convincing in Threshold. Here she's a reporter named
Susan Berg and I absolutely loved her dynamic and chemistry with
Sigourney. From their complex mind games to well designed costumes
most of their scenes are televisual diamonds. Sadly the only one that
disappointed me was their last as it featured majestic animals behind
bars and I found Elaine's metaphora way too literal. There was
definitely room for improvements in order to make it memorable
because it's what all great pilots require. Still the truthful
moments they share, the one on the plane felt like a self-help
session, are what you will remember. As for Hinds, Julius Caesar in
Rome, my heart balances between skepticism and subjectivity. In the
one hand the character he portrays, Bud Hammond, made the episode
more entertaining but in the other hand if it wasn't for Elaine I
would have definitely thrown him into the clichés trash.
However they made a believable couple and the part featuring the
bodyguards was brilliantly staged and delivered exactly what you
would expect from a miniseries titled Political Animals.
It leads us to the production quality because it's actually one of
the show weakness. Apparently they didn't have the resources, time
and budget, to polish all scenes as they would have wanted. Some are
cinematographic when others, in the garage or at the zoo, are
immersion breakers. Therefore it prevents the viewers from fully
diving into their screen for more than an hour. Otherwise despite all
these cons the pros should be numerous enough to convince part of the
audience to watch all six episodes. I don't know yet if I'll be part
of them but I'm sure of two things, Elaine Barrish's destiny
intrigues me and Sigourney Weaver is an extraordinary womanimal !
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