This show had so much potential. Although no one should have expected it to be the West Wing, it still had a great cast and looked like it was going to be good. While it wasn't bad, the show had so much lost potential it was hard not to be disappointed. However, the cast and some of the character make up for the disappointment and keep you engaged in the show.
Most of the show was spent on whether or not Elaine Barrish (Sigourney Weaver) was going to run for President. She decided to, but she was very hush hush about it for the first five or so episodes, and then she decided to tell everyone. Everything in between the first and last episode is filler as a result. Each of the characters have their own storyline, some better than others, but none of them have a huge impact on the overall season-long story of her presidency except TJ's (Sebastian Stan).
The characters are pretty evenly split between interesting and boring. I personally found Elaine, Bud (Ciaran Hinds), Susan (Carla Gugino), and Margaret (Ellen Burstyn) interesting. Everyone else is either boring, annoying, or the writers were either inconsistent with the character or didn't understand them. Everyone does a good job portraying their characters, but some of them are just badly written, so it's not the actors' fault at all.
The writers, instead of trying to make a steady story, tried to make this a soap opera with a political background, which, if executed well, could have been a good show. They failed at this, since they tried to fit a bunch of random relationships into six episodes, not stopping for the viewer to understand why they have chosen to have an affair or get back together or anything like that. It just sort of happens. There's no build-up or anything. A good example of this is when Doug and Susan have sex on the plane. Doug is suddenly really upset with his soon-to-be wife Anne, so they decide to get drunk and have sex. Which just makes him look like an absolute asshole because she developed a food disorder for him. This would have been fine (kind of), but there's absolutely no introduction to this. He just suddenly doesn't like Anne. I mean, they could have waited for the second to last episode to tell you this, but why wait? Why not tell us in the many Doug and Anne scenes they had. Unless I missed something (which I sometimes do), this scene was really random and unneeded. However, it will probably have an impact on next season.
The best episode of the six is definitely the season finale. This episode was story-focused and didn't drag at all. There was a twist that you probably won't expect. The only problem with this episode is the fact that everything that happened so far in this episode is rendered a waste of time as a result. At the end, they're right where they started, with one thing different. However, it did set it up for season two quite well.
While the show certainly has it's flaws, it does have Sigourney Weaver, who makes the show. Even if season two didn't look good, I'd still be watching. I probably wouldn't recommend going back and watching this show because you probably won't be satisfied. It's one of those shows that you DVR and watch while you're bored. That's not to say it's not a good show, but if I had six and a half hours on my hands, I'd probably spend it watching a better show.
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