Mary McNamara: Trump fatigue? 17 political TV shows to watch if you're totally over politics
Hey Hollywood, here's a political series pitch:
The United States is in the midst of a worldwide pandemic that happens to coincide with an election year. The president, who refuses to follow protocols recommended by the Centers for Disease Control, holds regular press conferences during which he often openly contradicts his own medical advisers and blames the media for everything. His opponent, who, like the president, falls into the at-risk category of being over 65, continues to abide by his state's shelter-at-home order, communicating with the world and American voters from his basement. Subplots include the Postal Service teetering on bankruptcy even as the potential of a mail-in election becomes a distinct possibility and the federal government stockpiling medical equipment while hard-hit hospitals go begging.
No one would believe it, you say? Maybe not. Fortunately, we have a welter of what suddenly seem like far more plausible politically themed television series to choose from.
Before we had a reality star in the Oval Office, political series fell, for the most part, into four categories: aspirational ("The West Wing"), instructional ("The Wire"), satirical ("Veep") and sensational ("Scandal"). Because television is character-driven, all examine the effects of power on the individual and the inevitable tension between people - good, bad and complicated - and the democratic system, also
