Posted on 01/09/2003 2:10:32 PM PST by PJ-Comix
Who says network television never does anything worthwhile? Just look at the way NBC and CBS have teamed up to stimulate Miami's economy by giving you two good reasons to go out Friday night and hit the restaurants or bars or crack houses -- anything but stay home and watch TV.
Mister Sterling is a political drama (well, NBC says it's apolitical, or even anti-political, but we'll get to that in a second) trying to surf the waves of The West Wing. Queens Supreme is a courtroom drama trying to not be as relentlessly stupid as the CBS show it replaced, Robbery Homicide Division. The key word in both cases is ''trying,'' which they certainly are.
Mister Sterling stars Josh Brolin (Hollow Man, The Young Riders) as Bill Sterling, a political unknown appointed to fill out the term after a U.S. senator dies. Expected to be a mere caretaker, he turns out to be a ideologically unclassifiable maverick who kicks over the Washington apple cart.
That, at least, is the way the writers imagine it. The truth is when you run down the checklist of Sterling's political positions -- abortion on demand, support for farmworker unions, a ban on offshore oil drilling -- it's pretty hard to find anyplace where he and Ted Kennedy would disagree.
Sterling's single deviation from liberal lockstep, when he expresses mild support for a cut in the capital gains tax, is quickly suppressed by his chief of staff who explains that ''tax cut'' is secret Republican code for dragging old people out of their beds and flinging them down wells: ``The real question is, how much do you want to cut spending on health care for the elderly?''
That's Hollywood liberalism in a nutshell, pun intended: Tax cuts are base, special-interest politics; the welfare state, though, is just plain common sense. The National Rifle Association is a sinister lobby; but Handgun Control Inc. is a grass roots organization. When Sean Penn goes to Baghdad to tell Saddam Hussein that we love him, he speaks for America; but George W. Bush, who got 50 million presidential votes, is a sock puppet for the arms industry.
Much will be made of the bloodlines linking Mister Sterling to The West Wing -- Lawrence O'Donnell Jr., who created the former, spent two years as a writer-producer on the latter. But The West Wing makes no attempt to disguise its liberal agenda and is much better for its forthrightness. Mister Sterling's deceptive packaging, however, forces it into all sorts of plot silliness. Would the Democratic governor of California, knowing control of the Senate was at stake, really forget to check Sterling's party registration before appointing him?
The true spiritual ancestor of Mister Sterling is Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, Frank Capra's overwrought 1939 picture about an accidental congressman reduced to tears when his attempt to create a new national park is pushed aside for all those ''political'' bills on budgets and defense and stuff. Like Mister Sterling, Mr. Smith was arrogant enough to suppose he spoke for us all. In Mister Sterling's case, he'll learn his mistake soon enough, via the Nielsen ratings.
Queens Supreme is not much better written than Mister Sterling, but it's already raised the collective IQ of network television by 50 points by replacing the illiterate grunting of Robbery Homicide Division. Faint praise, perhaps, but that's about all Queens Supreme is going to get.
It wastes a talented cast (including Oliver Platt, Annabella Sciorra and Robert Loggia) on meandering tales of nincompoopery in a New York courthouse full of bellicose lawyers, bellicose attorneys, bellicose jurors and bellicose ex-wives. In New York, apparently, the wheels of justice grind exceedingly bellicose. By the way, if you're ever on trial in New York, keep your mouth shut while you're in the bathroom -- if Queens Supreme is any indication, judges and law clerks spend a lot of time hiding in toilet stalls and eavesdropping. Ahh, the majesty of the law.
That, at least, is the way the writers imagine it. The truth is when you run down the checklist of Sterling's political positions -- abortion on demand, support for farmworker unions, a ban on offshore oil drilling -- it's pretty hard to find anyplace where he and Ted Kennedy would disagree.
Yeah, it sounds like Mister Sterling is about as independent politically as.....Jumpin' Jim Jeffords.
Sterling's single deviation from liberal lockstep, when he expresses mild support for a cut in the capital gains tax, is quickly suppressed by his chief of staff who explains that ''tax cut'' is secret Republican code for dragging old people out of their beds and flinging them down wells: ``The real question is, how much do you want to cut spending on health care for the elderly?''
LOL! Even when Senator Sterling tries to be even moderatly independent, he quickly returns back to the doctrinaire liberal fold.
That's Hollywood liberalism in a nutshell, pun intended: Tax cuts are base, special-interest politics; the welfare state, though, is just plain common sense. The National Rifle Association is a sinister lobby; but Handgun Control Inc. is a grass roots organization.
I couldn't have said it better!
Mister Sterling's deceptive packaging, however, forces it into all sorts of plot silliness. Would the Democratic governor of California, knowing control of the Senate was at stake, really forget to check Sterling's party registration before appointing him?
Not only that, he would be so thoroughly vetted that anybody to the right of La Pelosionara in California would be considered too far to the Right.
NBC should just count this TV series as a campaign contribution, along with The West Wing, to the Demmycrats.
I'll watch it for laughs and keep it in mind the next time someone from NBC denies that network is biased.
NBC should just count this TV series as a campaign contribution, along with The West Wing, to the Demmycrats.
NBC should just count this TV series as a campaign contribution, along with The West Wing, to the Demmycrats.
There is literally no truth in the political movies that come out of Hollywoood now. Every Republican is a dangerous right winger and every liberal is wise, moral, and intelligent. The was recent movie where the liberal poltician gave a passionate speech that gave the government credit for freeing the slaves. WTF?
The Left Wing has, in the words of my totally non-political wife, gotten "too preachy." And, since the show has abandoned its original premise, it's fair to say that TWW has "jumped the shark." The ratings slide is real, not imagined. What remains to be seen is how far it'll slide the rest of the season. I don't think it'll be cancelled THIS year, but I don't see it going more than one more year. Its scripts are thoroughly pelosied, and that's not a winning platform these days.
Michael
But then they'd say he was a liar and had deceived them. He should start out as a genuine liberal, then become conservative as he learns how morally bankrupt and corrupt the liberals really are.
I'd tell them to can this project - and just re-run some of XXXlinton's campaign speeches. You'll get the same point across.
And probably have just as many viewers.
I agree. The only thing I know for sure is that the Hollywood types will stretch the run for Left Wing longer than an ordinary show because they won't want to give up their little propaganda hour paid for by corporate America!
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