Okay, I don’t really understand the need for a program like this. Everyone knows that politicians are self-absorbed lackeys for large corporations, that James Carville is a looney and Mary Matalin is a pit viper. I’m not interested in watching them in a series. The show just seems to reinforce the polarization of politics in the U.S.
Opinions?
I couldn’t make it past the first 15 minutes or so. Kept expecting something to happen. I guess after an hour of expecting something to happen in Carnivale with no results, I had just about bottomed out on waiting. Plus I kept nodding off. Maybe I can try again later with more sleep ahead of time. Otherwise, it appears to be like a night time version of Crossfire. I don’t watch the day time version so I can’t see why I would watch the night time one.
I thought it was pretty interesting. The bits of “plot” seemed tedious, but fortunately they didn’t take up too much screen time. I really enjoyed the parts with Carville and Begala doing Dean’s debate prep. Given my own politics, I think there’s a good chance I won’t like it near as much when it focuses on the GOP, but given how much more interesting Carville is as an on-screen presence I figure he’ll eventually become the main character.
–Cliffy
::tumbleweed rolls by, lone dog barks in the distance::
The lack of response on this thread is comment enough on the series, apparently.
Overall I guess I liked it but I was confused about how much was real and how much was a tv show. Perhaps that’s the whole point of the show, but if that’s all the show is going to be about then I think it will get old fast.
At first I thought the show was going to far invading the lives of the supporting characters: taping a call between that woman (Maggie?) and her boyfriend, taping a job interview, etc. But then at the end I saw :smack: that actually these scenes were just actors playing characters.
Do Carville and Matalin actually have a political consulting firm, or are they just doing this show? I know that Dean did actually use that line about how, if all it took to be racially sensitive were having lots of minorities in your community, then Trent Lott would be Martin Luther King. Did he really get that line from Carville, or was that dreamed up after the fact?
I agree with Cliffy that it was interesting to watch Begala prep Dean. I find that kind of stuff fascinating, and of course Begala is an absolute master at it (as is Carville.)
I wish I saw the pitch meeting to green light this show.
“Okay so picture this. It’s like Seinfeld - everyone loves Seinfeld, because it’s about nothing. Right, so we make a show about nothing, but take out Larry David’s humor and instead put in characters no one can relate to in a world of putrid, boring, mind numbing modern day politics. Then we take out all semblance of plot, which will alienate almost the entire audience. We’ll also jerk the camera around to make it seem like a real documentary because we’re such brilliant artists.”
“Sorry… I just don’t see it.”
“Did I mention we’d get to do a lot of Bush bashing?”
“Sold!”
:rolleyes:
Funny stuff; you had me right up to the end, but I don’t believe for a second that Mary Matalin would sign on to something that would keep her from bludgeoning us all with her subtle charm.
The dem bashing just hasn’t gotten its airtime yet.
It’s all a TV show. The political figures who appear on the show are participating as actors, if you will, playing themselves. I suppose it’s possible that Dean let them film an actual session of debate prep for the show (and also let actor John Slatterly sit next to Carville while it was going on), but it seems more likely that the debate prep scene was filmed after the debate and that they just crated a backstory for the line which Dean had in reality already used.
–Cliffy
I liked it. It’s staying as a TiVo season pass.
So there.