The second season of Netflix's The Politician is streaming on Netflix now. Photo / Supplied
The second season of Netflix's The Politician is streaming on Netflix now. Photo / Supplied
COMMENT:
If there's one word to describe splashy, expensive Netflix series The Politician it's this: confusing.
It's not that the plot is muddled or it's tonally mismatched, it's that The Politician should be a great show, and yet it's not.
It has many of the markings of a great series, including its outstanding production design and a pacy, entertaining story, but it leaves you feeling cold, unable to invest in its core characters to the point that you hope the leads will be killed off so the series can start anew.
The Politician, the first series to be born out of Netflix and uber-producer Ryan Murphy's multimillion-dollar deal, returns with its seven-episode second season this week, and for all of its bright-coloured and satirical charms, it's also doubled down on its weakest point, the lead character.
The concept behind the series was that it was to follow the making of a politician from his campaign for his high school presidency and up through the ranks – it's why a crew of 30-somethings were cast to play high-schoolers because they needed to age up in subsequent seasons.
That aspiring politician is Payton Hobart, the adopted son of an extremely wealthy Santa Barbara couple, living in a sprawling seaside mansion where mother Georgina is played by Gwyneth Paltrow, beautifully swathed in flowy kaftans.
Payton is ambitious, ruthless and smart, someone who will do whatever it takes, no matter who is betrayed in the process. When he has the occasional bout of conscience, it's quickly smothered by his overwhelming need to win.
Leads don't have to be likeable or relatable, but they do have to be compelling to watch. House of Cards' Frank Underwood was compelling to watch, at least in those early seasons.
Payton is not. For all of his plotting and metaphoric moustache-twirling, surrounded by a group of equally privileged friends, he's milquetoast. He's unremarkable and lacking the charisma The Politician wants us to believe he has – so it makes no sense that so many people in the world of the series would be drawn to him.
That creates a dissonance in which the disbelief we're being asked to suspend stretches too far.
Perhaps the problem is Ben Platt is miscast. While the Broadway star can wrestle with the fast-paced dialogue and wear a three-piece suit with confidence, his performance lacks the warmth and emotional resonance that's required to ground the show.
It would've been easy to write off The Politician completely after its first season, but the season finale set up an interesting premise that lures you back – Payton's second political campaign for a state senate seat in New York, running against an incumbent played by Judith Light and her campaign manager, played by Bette Midler.
The promise of a Light and Midler double-team was too irresistible, and they are a luminous edition to the show. Whenever either are on screen, there's a magnetic pull, you can't look away – especially when they're together.
Light is the long-time politician that has perhaps become too complacent, while setting her sights on a national level, and to see her having to contend with her new challenges is a gift, including the potential exposure of the secret thruple she's been living in with her husband (Joe Morton) and a younger man (Teddy Sears).
Midler as her loyal manager gives Midler the scope to do what she does best, play this broad, disarming character that you have to root for.
But there's not enough of them, and every time The Politician shifts back to Payton and his friends, the resentment builds.
Murphy has created a show that purports to be a political satire that explores the mountains of moral compromises and dirty tricks that go behind getting someone elected, and the idea of starting at the beginning, through a high school campaign and then local elections is a neat ambition.
But when you have a character who starts off as an empty, inauthentic shell and makes no real moves to become otherwise, then there's no arc to follow or invest in.
The Politician season two is streaming now on Netflix.
