The show is co-written by Amy Chozick, a journalist who spent years of her 20s and 30s on the campaign trail and was struggling to balance personal life with her work. The show is essentially about this. Since people of different ages struggle with different things, and this show takes place during one campaign season, they have four main characters who are at different ages in their life, each facing a different set of problems. The show does this well, the actors are excellent. The weakness I'd highlight here is the unlikely friendship of the characters, but some reality bending is acceptable in television.
On the politics front: the show follows the Democratic primary election. People with some political knowledge will be able to identify the real politicians who the nominees are based on, all were nationally known at some point. To get an idea: the show also invents new newspapers for its fictional story, the "The Washington Union" and "The New York Sentinel" as well as the cable news network "Liberty News". Can you guess which companies these stand in for?
The political discussion in the show is shallow and hyperbolic (not unlike a campaign). What is a little disappointing is that the journalists sometimes also seem to have very naive ideas about politicians, about one level above the black and white characters in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (a movie the show also references). And they do so while navigating the complex economic and political environments in their own lives.
The show is also noticeably left leaning (I had no problem with this, because so am I).
To sum up, the lived experience and lived politics of the show is nice, the abstracted politics and scoops are pretty thin. If you want to watch a journalist dramedy, you'll probably like this, but if you want Lincoln level political drama, you probably won't.
1 out of 4 found this helpful