Ryan Murphy’s Netflix Show Is Too Glib for Its Own Good

It’s a daring show that reveals right from the start how wooden and obviously constructed its central character is. The opening credits of The Politician, Ryan Murphy’s first series for Netflix, show a boy-shaped simulation being formed out of flawless report cards, prescription drugs, Dale Carnegie books, and a silver spoon, all contained within a polished teak shell. (Imagine Westworld, but with an Ivy League obsession.) The inference is clear: Here is a character who is exactly the sum of his parts, and no more.

But is he, though? Payton Hobart (played by Ben Platt) is an impossibly driven teenager running for student-body president at an elite California high school—a milestone is planned as a multiseason work; each installment will tackle a different electoral race over the course of Payton’s career.) Like , Payton is ambition anthropomorphized; unlike Tracy, his ruthlessness and zeal fit seamlessly with his status as a billionaire’s adopted son. No one around Payton seems to question how or why he got this way, and the fact that the series he’s in doesn’t either is among its most perplexing elements.