Suddenly, Women Pols on TV Shows is a Thing

In the recent documentary Miss Representation -- which criticized American culture and the media for its negative impact on women and girls -- child advocate Marian Wright Edelman lamented the scarcity of American women politicians saying that, "You can't be what you can't see." Given the latest uptick in the number of fictional female pols appearing on television, the vision of all those women politicians in their red, white and blue clothing ought to give Wright Edelman something to cheer about.

Female characters seeking or occupying elected office have been popping up on a number of shows across primetime from the new Shonda Rhimes drama Scandal and the dark HBO comedy Veep, to lighter comedies like Parks and Recreation and Modern Family. Alongside the strong, brainy women, there are a fair number of female pols who are occasionally depicted as tone deaf, goofy or a bit off, but the other male pols with whom they share the screen aren't exactly Nobel Prize winning brain trusts either.

Take, for example, the soapy, D.C.-based Rhimes show Scandal. In addition to the main character -- a powerful, savvy, whip-smart D.C. scandal fixer Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) who has a team of what she calls "gladiators in suits" who worship her -- there's a female vice president, Sally Langston (Kate Burton). And Vice President Langston is no slouch. She attempted to take quick political advantage of a situation when the president was caught doing something he shouldn't have. And while she didn't succeed in her maneuver, the viewers saw her as just as much a political player as her colleagues.

On the sardonic HBO comedy Veep, there's another female vice president who is also depicted as the "first" woman to hold that office. However while Julia Louis-Dreyfus' vice president Selina Meyer, a former senator, is intelligent and ruthless, she's very awkward, similar to the way in which Joe Biden can be awkward. She can be commanding when she wants to be, but isn't entirely convincing when she tries to smooth out political waves, largely of her own making. The latest plot twist -- the first female vice president was impregnated by her boyfriend and she's unmarried -- could've been ground-breaking, as I can't recall seeing a pregnant politician on a TV show. But having Meyer suffer a miscarriage, thus disposing of a potentially thorny plotline, left the vice president looking for a scapegoat to stave off the rumors of her pregnancy. Who took the fall? Meyer's quick-thinking chief of staff Amy Brookheimer (Anna Chlumsky) who claimed that she'd been the one who was pregnant, not the vice president.

Veep has also featured a powerful female senator, Barbara Hallowes (also played by Burton, the vice president from Scandal), who politically tussled with Louis-Dreyfus' Meyer on a few occasions. Burton's really good at the politician thing, perhaps even better than she was as Meredith Grey's mother Ellis on Grey's Anatomy.

One TV pol who shares some of Meyer's politician DNA but is painfully earnest (in contrast to the uber-cynical Vice President Meyer) is Parks and Recreation's Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) who spent the past season campaigning for a seat on the Pawnee City Council after taking a leave of absence from her post in the Parks and Recreation Department. Knope, a clever and big-hearted candidate, had to match wits with her moronic chief opponent's professional campaign consultant -- another knowledgeable woman -- who played very, very dirty. Knope held her own throughout the season as her campaign had little cash and a tiny volunteer staff, but Knope kicked some serious behind during the big debate, even bested her opponent after he threatened that his father would shut down the big Pawnee candy factory and throw a bunch of people out of work if Knope won. In the end, Knope squeezed out the victory.

Not so lucky was Modern Family's Claire Dunphy (Julie Bowen) who also campaigned for a spot on the Town Council but had an utterly disastrous debate performance, mostly due to the idiocy of her husband Phil and a Valentine's Day surprise that went terribly awry. The refusal of Town Councilman Duane Bailey to erect a stop sign at a dangerous intersection -- after Dunphy had collected all the necessary signatures from concerned citizens and made an impassioned argument for the sign -- was the catalyst for Dunphy's first bid for elected office. Although Dunphy lost, at least, in the end, her opponent gave her the stop sign she wanted.

As disappointing as it is to learn that all of these programs won't be airing new installments until the fall (or later in the case of Veep), there's at least one new summer show that will make the case that women can flourish in the political realm (or at least stumble around as well as the men do). USA Network's Political Animals will be premiering next month featuring Signourney Weaver as the U.S. Secretary of State and the former wife of a U.S. president who had difficulty keeping his fly zipped. With the exception of the "former" wife part, does the premise ring any bells, right down to her denial that she'll ever run for president . . . again?

Image credits: Carol Kaelson/ABC, TVLine/NBC and Peter "Hopper" Stone/ABC.

Forget All These Debates & Pleas for Passing Bills . . . I'm Voting for Leslie!

If only I could vote for Leslie . . .

The fourth season of Parks & Recreation -- which starts on Thursday, September 22 -- will not only feature Leslie (Amy Poehler) trying to decide whether she's going to run for public office, but whether she's going to continue dating Ben (Adam Scott), in violation of the town of Pawnee's employee code of conduct. Their boss, Rob Lowe wouldn't like it if he knew they were an item.

Plus, we will meet not one, but two more Tammys in Ron Swanson's (Nick Offerman's) life. Holy cornrows Batman! And one of those Tammys is Patricia Clarkson, Ron's first wife.

With all the depressing political and economic news out there, I could use some Leslie Knope/local government humor right about now.

Golden Globe Nominations: The Good, the Bad & the Odd

Meryl vs Meryl. Meryl Streep is legend for her superb, award winning dramatic acting chops. Now it appears as though she’s conquered the world of comedy as well. This morning’s announcement by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, that she’s competing for a Golden Globe best actress in a comedy film award against herself, just makes it official: Meryl is the greatest actress of all time. This year she was nominated for her portrayal of Julia Child in Julie & Julia, and for her dramatization of a divorced mom who has an affair with her ex (Alec Baldwin) in the yet-to-be-released It’s Complicated.

Love for the Families. HBO's Big Love got three nominations for its solid third season in the categories of best TV drama, best TV actor in a drama for Bill Paxton and best supporting TV actress for Chloe Sevigny. ABC's Modern Family – which just aired one of the funnniest Christmas episodes I’ve seen – got a nod with a best comedy show nomination. I hope it kicks some comedy behind at the Golden Globes.

Enough with the Boring, Spoiled Boys Already. Why is Entourage even in the best comedy series running this year? Why not Parks & Recreation instead? Entourage was wildly uneven and I found myself getting seriously bored on many occasions and feeling as though the adolescent boy/never grew up/has no responsibilities shtick was getting tiresome.

In Dire Need of Some Texas-Sized Love. Where was Friday Night Lights, trusty Coach Eric Taylor and Principal Tami Taylor in the mix here? This show gets no love, honestly, it’s like the Gilmore Girls of the awards set.

Baffling TV Comedy Actress Selections. Why on earth did Courteney Cox get nominated for the abomination that is Cougar Town? Certainly Amy Poehler from Parks & Recreation is loads funnier, in that wry, Bob Newhart kind of way in its much-improved second season. The Association could’ve also, instead, put Sofia Vergara from Modern Family into that slot, or even Patricia Heaton from The Middle.

And while I’m on the subject of comedy actresses, why is Edie Falco’s excellent Nurse Jackie depiction competing in the comedy category? I really like Showtime's Nurse Jackie but as a comedy? Dramedy maybe. Straight out comedy, no. Ditto for the United States of Tara, also from Showtime and whose lead actress, Toni Collette, is nominated in the comedy category.

HBO Crushes Other Networks. One stat that is likely horrifying the brass at the broadcast networks: HBO got 17 nominations, one less than the combined number of nominations of ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC. AMC – home of Mad Men which got three nominations for best drama, best actor (the exquisite Jon Hamm), best actress (January Jones) -- got as many nominations as did ABC.

Anything please/displease you about the slate of Golden Globe nominees (find the whole list here)?

Image credit: Adam Taylor/ABC.

Talkin' Fall TV Premieres on Manic Mommies Podcast

I chatted up the Manic Mommies at the end of last week -- we recorded our discussion before I'd seen the Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives premieres -- and the subject was fall TV.

Shows discussed included: Mad Men, The Good Wife, Cougar Town, The New Adventures of Old Christine, House, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Parks & Recreation, Glee and FlashForward.

You can listen to the podcast by going to iTunes, then looking up the Manic Mommies page. The fall TV interview is their latest one, number 185.

NBC’s Thursday Night Slate Made Me Laugh

*Warning, spoilers ahead from recently aired premieres of NBC comedys*

I didn’t have high expectations when I turned to NBC last night. Didn’t expect to laugh out loud. But laugh I did. Hope it’s not an aberration.

Amy Poehler’s Parks and Recreation dramatized an awkwardly twisted parody of how penny-ante political scandals can spiral out of control in short order. Sure, a penguin marriage ceremony at the Pawnee Zoo is silly stuff with no substance, simply a shallow PR attempt to lure foot traffic. But it’s really not that unrealistic to have something as innocuous as a zoo event morph into a scandal. Such as when Leslie Knope inadvertently married gay penguins (she thought it was a male/female pair), making her a target of a conservative family organization that wanted her to annul the marriage, then resign and, simultaneously, a hero to her local gay community. Poehler absolutely pulled this off with aplomb.

I think that broadening the subject matter with which Leslie deals will only help. The first season was a bit bogged down in Leslie’s singular quest to transform a dirt pit into a park. (Hulu now has the season two premiere on its site.)

Speaking of Poehler, she also appeared on Saturday Night Live’s Update Thursdays and did a “Really!?! With Seth and Amy” segment on the recent spate of public incivility. Spot. On. Best line: Seth advising Kanye West about what to do if he sees an older woman holding a “World’s Best Grandma mug” and he thinks some other nana is a better grandma.



I likewise was laughing at The Office’s bizarro first scene. Parkour anyone? Seriously? There’s such a thing?



Community was kind of snappy and kept a running Gilmore Girls-ish loop of pop culture references throughout. Wonder if they’ll be able to keep up the meet-cute conceit and give this show some legs for the long haul.

Anyone else catch the 8-10 NBC slate? Thoughts? By the way, am I the only one who hasn’t heard of Parkour before?

Suburban Mom's Pop Culture Week: Parks and Recreation, Curb Your Enthusiasm & the Emmys

TV

Aside from watching New England sports (Red Sox, Patriots), I’ve finally caught up on the HBO show Hung and watched the season finale, which, I must say, didn’t thrill me, season finales rarely do. The show, overall, has proven interesting enough that I’ve bothered to keep up with it.

I’ve been thoroughly bored by the Jay Leno Show which premiered this week – otherwise known as “Hey-Let’s-Put-the-Writers-Out-of-Work-and-Hog-Up-Five-Hours-of-Primetime-a-Week-with-Lame-Crap-That’s-Really-Cheap-to-Make.” The set looks like NBC invested exactly $247 in it. The two blue chairs where the interviews are conducted appear to be placed on what looks like a dance floor. The whole show seems awkward and weird to me because when I see Leno, I think that I should be getting to bed because I’ve been trained to think that it must be past 11:30 when I see his face. Maybe he was funnier later at night. Maybe that’s it. Or not.

Despite the Leno mess, I am planning on tuning in tonight to NBC’s slate of Thursday night humor, particularly to see if one of my favorite comedians, Amy Poehler, can make Parks and Recreation work this season.

By the time Sunday rolls around I think my TV is going to explode. Notwithstanding the fact that The Spouse and I will be hosting a belated Rosh Hashanah dinner here for family in which we’ll engage in the age old ritual of putting the Patriots game on TV lest my eldest son’s head explode because he cannot watch it, my poor DVR is going to be conflicted that evening.

Of course, Mad Men is on at 10, as is Army Wives, both of which I write about here in this space on Mondays. Plus there’s Entourage – which I usually watch On Demand but on which I’m a bit behind. But Curb Your Enthusiasm is back with new episodes after a very, very long absence.



However the Emmys are also on at the same time. My pop culture column at Mommy Track’d for next week is on the awards show, so I’ve got to watch live. (If there are still relatives here when the Emmys start, maybe I’ll try to goad them into wagering.) Such the dilemma . . .

DVDs

Still watching The West Wing, season one. Just saw the episode where Toby pulled strings to arrange a military funeral for a homeless vet who got Toby’s coat from the Good Will. Also saw the episode where the president revealed to Leo that he had MS. I thought that happened later, not within the first eight episodes.

Books

Am still in the early part of On the Road, although my progress through it may be detoured because I have to read two other books for some articles I’ve got coming up.

I also just joined a local women’s book club – it’s been eons since I’ve been in a book club – and have got to read The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa by next month.

So, what’s on YOUR Pop Culture slate this week?

Giving Poehler's 'Parks and Recreation' Room to Find Its Own Way

After its first few episodes, many folks were complaining that NBC's new Amy Poehler comedy, Parks and Recreation -- where Poehler plays deputy Parks director Leslie Knope -- was too similar to The Office, a show from which several of the Parks folks hailed. Poehler's character, people complained, was just a female version of Michael Scott.

However after reading New York Magazine's Emily Nussbaum's ode to the show and Poehler's character, I find myself agreeing with her thesis:

". . . [A]fter five episodes, [Parks and Recreation] has begun to kick free for me, mainly because the writers are onto something timely and resonant with Leslie, a fool who is also a budding heroine . . . [H]er motives are mixed, and her go-girl feminism goofy, she's not wrong to see cynicism everywhere -- the show satirizes her naivete, but it's also clear she's the only one trying to make things better."

Nussbaum added that the comedy showcases a female pol, similar in vein to the lead character in the comedic film in Election, Reese Witherspoon's Tracy Flick. Knope is, "a deserving hard worker, beaten down by the lazy and popular. At its best, Parks and Recreation provides an appealing Flick's-eye view -- the opportunity to see Leslie's burning, bumbling ambition as noble, not merely absurd."

I concur that Parks has started to grow into its own. Having Poehler's Knope work so hard to break through the political glass ceiling is simultaneously played as much for chuckles (because of her vast cluelessness) as it is for the "truthiness" it provides, that being that it's not exactly easy to be a successful female politician.

Knope went to the barbershop where a number of famous local pols have had their hair cut for years, even though that particular barber doesn't usually cut women's hair. He gave her a severe, masculine hair style and didn't understand why she went to him, but Knope was thrilled and felt as though she'd been accepted by the political establishment, that she'd invaded a male bastion where she believed political wheeling and dealing was conducted.

Knope wanted to fit in with the "guys" at city hall and have a few beers with them in the courtyard as they regularly do. But she was felt terribly guilty over having shared a bottle of wine from a gift basket that she'd received and said they couldn't ethically accept as public servants. She then outed herself as an unethical employee, something none of the men would've done and was reprimanded.

Knope -- whose office prominently features framed photos of women politicians -- tried to use a hardball political tactic recommended by her mother, also a local official, in order to help a worthwhile public works project move forward. However when she was unable to execute the borderline unethical political manuever, she was wholesome enough to feel guilty about it.

Sure, at first blush, Leslie Knope may seem Michael Scott-ish, but she's evolving, along with her own kooky brand of dunderheadedness. The show could also shine an interesting spotlight on the wackiness of local government. As a young newspaper reporter who covered my fair share of small town meetings, I know that there's plenty of material the writers can mine to make this show an entertaining, comedic romp, with Poehler at the helm.

Image credit: NBC.

New Promo for Amy Poehler's Comedy 'Parks and Recreation'

If ever there were a subject ripe for satire, it would be the experiences of small town local government officials. And that's the subject area Amy Poehler will be mining in her new The Office-like show, Parks and Recreation, debuting on NBC on April 9.

The show's creators have set up a web site for the city of Pawnee, Indiana where Leslie Knope (Poehler) is deputy director of Parks and Recreation. Looks promising. (Link to promo here.)