Thursday, August 16, 2012

Political Animals

Political Animals
Episode 5: 16 Hours
By: Carlos Uribe

Political Animals is a six-episode miniseries that follows Elaine Branch, former first lady and current Secretary of State, and her family. I will be covering every episode.

Spoilers Ahoy!

There is a particular image in this episode. It's an image that appears in the beginning and at the end of the episode. It's a scene where the President, Vice-President, and the Secretary of State are watching the rescue operations live. It's a scene that reminded me of the now famous photograph where President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton watched Osama Bin Laden being taken down. While the scene isn't framed in a similar way, it does seem to be similar in it's nature. I wouldn't be very surprised if the next episode happened to feature such a picture coming out. What makes that scene work hard is that it's not just the stress of the situation that is getting Elaine. It's what is currently happening to her son, who has overdosed on drugs and is currently in the hospital. This is a mini-series that set out to not only tell the story of a woman who wants to be President but to also tell the story of power and what it does to a family. While every episode has touched on this theme, it's possibly this episode that has managed to have the most success. Having a family member be in the hospital but requiring that the mother deal with issues of national importance is a great way to show how the personal lives of the characters are being influenced by their professional lives. In this way “16 Hours” manages to encompass what the mini-series is supposed to be about. It isn't a perfect episode but it's a perfectly enjoyable one.

One thing that I think makes good drama is stories that involve large stakes. It's not necessarily the life of the soldier that I'm interested in but the political powerplays that lay behind these stories. It can make for some juicy, backstabbing plot-lines. This is why one of the most fascinating aspect of this episode was Elaine's actual job. She's the one who pushed the President to save the Chinese spies and she's the one who ensures that the President goes through with it. She fought hard to convince him and she wasn't going to let any obstacle get in the way. When the Chinese ambassador reveals their intention of scuttling the submarine, which would endanger millions of Californians to radiation poisoning, if the rescue operation goes forward, Elaine has to deal with the situation. She's able to give the President the bold speech that is required and it's a simple message to the Chinese: scuttling the ship is a declaration of war. The mini-series does make the mistake of trying to drive up tension for the viewer by trying to have us wonder if the trapped Chinese would actually go through with it. It was clear they weren't going to. It would have been different if something went potentially wrong with the actual rescue, but the consequences were simply too outlandish for them to actually happen. It was a nice technique to raise the drama for Elaine but it shouldn't have tried to raise the tension at the very end of the episode.

While Elaine has to deal with the Chinese, her own son is being revived by doctors. The drugs have been pumped out of his stomach and he lies asleep. His entire family wishes that he could be there when he woke up but that obviously isn't going to happen. His mother is too busy with national security to be there the entire time. It's nice that she was able to be there when he temporarily woke up but she couldn't stick around as long as she would have liked. It might have killed her but she had to go to the situation room. His twin brother had to go to San Diego to handle the rescue operation. That means that the only person who is able to stick with him throughout his stay is the former President and his father. Bud is currently without a position of power and he's not drawn elsewhere. T.J. does have his grandmother and soon to be (maybe) sister-in-law but they're busy setting up Elaine's house for his eventual revival.

As for that sister-in-law story there's some interesting developments in that front. The grandmother reveals that she has realized that Anne is polemic and confronts her about it. This is after having smoked some pot with her. That wouldn't be any problem but it's what Doug does that signals that maybe the relationship is doomed. Doug cheats on her. While on a plane to San Diego, he sleeps with another female. Who? Susan. That's right: he sleeps with the reporter that has tried for so long to tear down Elaine. They both got drunk and this is right after Doug expressed doubts that he and Anne were willing to commit. He might have stated that he loved her but it doesn't hide the fact that he proposed while he was on ecstasy. A secret that he revealed to Susan. This finally helps to make Doug a more interesting character rather than the boring old goody two-shoes. While Anne might not find out that he cheated, the fact that he did is not a good sign. I guess he's more like his father than he would like to admit.

Political Animals is about to end it's limited run. It hasn't been renewed for an actual season and it's looking more and more likely that this is all we're going to get. This is an episode that has been setting up the final episode. It has Elaine finished her last buisness as Secretary of State, T.J.'s recovery from overdose, Doug's affair, and other confrontations. The question ultimately becomes whether or not the next episode is going to be able to properly close out the mini-series or whether there's going to be lingering plot-threads.

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