Washington Drama
I moved to Washington, DC a bit over four months ago. I have long liked the city, traveling here at least once a month for business over almost four decades.
During this transition, I started watching TV shows associated with the White House. I have been binge watching The West Wing – just into the third season of eight seasons. I binge watched several episodes of House of Cards, but found the show too depressing. I have been keeping up with Designated Survivor, a series whose first season just ended.
There is a fourth show that is reported each day on the front page of The Washington Post that is delivered to my door each morning. In this show, events develop so fast that I have to check CNN at mid-day and in the evening to see what has happened in the past few hours. This show is much more dynamic, surprising, and often amazing than the other three shows.
It usually seems too astounding to be true. The dialog frequently involves statements that are blatantly and obviously false. There are often retractions, which are also nakedly false. People are accused of misdeeds that could not have happened. Occasionally people, seemingly in the way, get pushed around a bit. Bit players sometimes assault reporters.
There is a looming conspiracy in the background. Foreign intrigues, security breeches, and under the table business deals suggest that the major story only involves the White House in that it serves as a pit stop between golf outings and negotiations of naming rights. Occasionally, someone questions why the American public is funding all the travel and security associated with this deal making, but such questions are lost in the next day’s revelations.
This show has an enormous following as the news media — both liberal and conservative — devotes large portions of time to reporting each character’s statements and behaviors. There are droves of pundits whose full time jobs are to report and assess the characters’ behaviors, motivations, and intentions. The ratings have soared and the show will likely be renewed for next season and beyond.
