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Entertainment
THE POLITICIAN TV Show Review Written By Sally McDonnell Ryan Murphy—the famed director of Glee and American Horror Story— recently released yet another infatuating brainchild, The Politician, on Netflix. With actors such as Ben Platt, Zoey Deutch, and Gwyneth Paltrow joining the crew, this show had viewers everywhere desperate to see what they had come up with. The show’s description presents Payton, a teenager from Santa Barbara who has dedicated his entire life to becoming the President of the United States—and will stop at nothing to ensure his own success. The concept sounds interesting enough, especially at a time where politics is at the forefront of many people’s minds. Within the first five minutes, however, the show completely derails itself from whatever the audience could have possibly been expecting. It is not that the plot did not match what the show presented itself as, because it did, but there is simply more plot than viewers are capable of digesting. The show shifts from storyline to storyline at a rapid-fire pace, leaving the audience unsure of what exactly happened. In addition, none of the seemingly endless twists-and-turns really move the plot forward, they just serve to shock the audience into. By the time the credits roll on the eighth and final episode, it is hard to believe that it is the same show and characters we met at the beginning. Ryan Murphy’s work is often ripe with strange satire and puzzling plot points, but the Politician just seems to miss the mark. The show constantly makes fun of the rich, entitled, and heartless characters but then turns around and asks the audience to sympathize with them. Payton himself is the protagonist, and as a viewer it is only natural to want to root for him, but the show makes it incredibly difficult to do so. Payton is vapid and shallow, willing to turn on his friends as soon as they serve no purpose to him and exploit his and other people’s
minority cards in order to win public favor in his apparently important high school election. He recruits Infinity, the school’s resident cancer kid and Gypsy Rose Blanchard knock-off, to be his running mate in the election only because he thinks it may win a pity vote. Ultimately, the characters of this show have the potential to be incredibly multifaceted, but often fall victim to their own one-dimensional stereotypes: the rich power player, the infantilized sick kid, and the cheating housewife. The show does have its selling points, with beautiful cinematography. It is captivating and intriguing in the moment, but with each passing episode the show seems to get tired of its own characters and plots, trading them out for new ones every five minutes. The Politician’s first season concludes with a cliff hanger that begs the question: why didn’t they just begin the show here? With such a talented cast and crew, they have the potential to make the next season incredible if they can just figure out what they are trying to say. Is it supposed to satirize our current political climate or the college scandals? Is it a high school drama or a comedy sketch? Once they decide where they show is going, the audience left stunned and drifting at the end of this season will follow with rapt attention.
