Madam Secretary: Season 1

Madam Secretary is a show I went into a little bit blind from the beginning. I had heard the shows title, but I had never really grasped what the show was about until I actually decided to start watching it on Netflix. After 22 episodes, it is hard to say I spent that entire time not liking the show. Usually at that point I would quit watching it and there probably wouldn't be a review like this. But here we are 22 episodes later and there are a couple of things to say.

Madam Secretary follows the story of former CIA agent and current college professor, Elizabeth McCord (played by Tea Leoni). After the sudden death of Secretary of State, she is visited by the President of the United States and her former boss at the CIA and is chosen as the new Secretary of State. When she joins at the new Secretary of State, she is greeted by the staff of the former secretary and the group has a rocky but ultimately close relationship.

What follows is a pretty by the numbers procedural set in the halls of the State Department. Secretary McCord and her team face new issues week by week both foreign and domestic. There is drama from other foreign agents, within the ranks of the state department, and they even butt heads with the President himself (played by Keith Carradine) and his ruthless chief of staff, Russell Jackson (played by Zeljko Ivanek).

But Elizabeth has other problems on her plate including her family. Her husband Henry (played by Tim Daly) is a religious studies professor and her children are growing older and older throughout the entire season. Her oldest Stevie (played by Wallis Currie-Wood) is rebellious and figuring out the trials of being in her very early twenties. Her other two, Alison and Jason (played by Katherine Herzer and Evan Roe) are younger and don't totally understand as much as Stevie does. They still end up being interesting characters but I'd be lying if the show slows down a little bit when the story centers on those two.

Throughout all of this there are a bunch of big name cameos who play smaller one-off roles. Tom Skeritt shows up for an episode and plays Henry's father, Aasif Mandvi makes a surpringly good guest appearance as a foreign representative in one of the episodes. The big cameos don't really show up until the second season but they never feel forced or gratuitous, at least not in the first season....

But throughout the entire first season there is an underlying plot thread that ties it all together. Due to Elizabeth's former career in the CIA, she has connections to spy work and that does come into play in this show. The main story that carries throughout all these hour long procedurals is a really interesting conspiracy that was really interesting.

If you're a fan of espionage, you'll actually find a lot of a fix in this show. If you're a fan of political drama, you'll find a lot of that in here. But I think the way this show sets itself apart is where it blends those lines and the espionage and the politics mesh together.

The other interesting part about the show is that it does kind of mirror the current events and politics happening in our world, and if you're a current events junkie like me, you'll really enjoy that in this show.

I mean, let's not beat around the bush, this show did air in 2014, a year after Hillary Clinton left the state department. You'd have to be pretty blind not to see the parallels between the tenure of Hillary Clinton at the State Department and the stories of Elizabeth McCord. However, the show isn't a full homage to former Secretary Clinton. Tea Leoni does make the character her own and with her background in the CIA and the conspiracies that unfold, there is enough to make the show feel different and not feel too much like a biographic piece.

A criticism of the show is that it does feel like a procedural at times and the crisis of the week feeling does set in from time to time. This is one of the few shows I've watched in the last year and a half that has had more than 14 episodes and I've actually enjoyed almost all the way through. But that does not take away from the fact that there are filler episodes and there was a little bit of space in the middle where I lost interest. When the episodes connect to the larger plot, or they delve more into the characters and their personal struggles, the show gets really good. There are times where the show just doesn't feel genuine enough and I'm just not invested as much.

I think the show does hit some really emotional chords and there is good acting and drama in the show as it is, but I can only imagine what this show would look like if the seasons were a bit shorter and they were able to go a bit further than the prime time network would allow them. As it stands, Madam Secretary is perfectly serviceable as a PG, sometimes PG-13 drama but I can only imagine if those restrictions put on by prime time television were taken off.

But again, as is, I really enjoyed Season 1 of Madam Secretary. I am already a good amount of episodes into season 2 and its reassuring that the show seems to improving more and more. I don't know if I'll do a second season review because with a show with this many episodes, it's hard to pinpoint an exact storyline and like the second season, some of the major plot points only have a finite number of episodes dedicated to it.

One of the downfalls of the show is that the finale was not really as grand as I had expected it to be. It was fine, but it was building up to something that ultimately went no where. There are a couple of points of imbalance in the show and some things that were the most important thing in the previous episode might not be as significant in others.

Still, overall, Madam Secretary is a great show. Again, it has been a while since I've been this invested in a show on prime time and with more than 14 episodes. Somehow they're able to grab me. I do recommend Madam Secretary for anybody who likes their political, espionage, and even family dramas.

But those are my thoughts on Madam Secretary. What do you think? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films and TV shows I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie and TV news and review coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. So this is a first look at the first episode of the season. It's basically a five minute run through of the entire episode so if you're not interested in spoilers, don't watch this. If you don't care, or if you watch the first thirty seconds or so, you can get an idea of how the show starts, the kind of tone it sets. Enjoy!