There’s a reason good shows that revolve around politics are rare. If they don’t figure out exactly what is so absurd about politics and how government works, then veepor are not very honorable about what the represented government officials are doing, ala The west wing, the program seems niche and unreliable. What ends up happening is that raunchier elements are piled on to make things more interesting. Sometimes that works (Scandal), but most of the time this is not the case. TO new max series is one of those in the latter category.
THE BUS GIRLS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Initial shot: The balloons begin to fall at a political convention. A woman looks on and begins to leave quickly when she sees two FBI agents chasing her.
The essence: As Sadie McCarthy (Melissa Benoist), a reporter for the New York Sentinel, is arrested outside the Republican National Convention. His voiceover says: “I didn’t do it, but as any political journalist can tell you, these days the truth is whatever you want to believe. So here is my truth…”
We go back seven months to the days leading up to the Iowa caucuses. Sadie is looking to cover Caroline Bennett’s (Joanna Gleason) presidential campaign, but her editor, Bruce Turner (Griffin Dunne), felt she got too emotionally involved last time. time she was on the road three years earlier, crying when the candidate followed her, Felicity Walker (Hettienne Park) lost.
Sadie maintains that her journalistic hero, Hunter S. Thompson (PJ Sosko), whose ghost she imagines whenever she needs inspiration, would get involved. Turner says that was 50 years ago and that objectivity is more desired on the campaign trail. However, since Turner likes Sadie’s reporting so much, he tells her that if he can get an exclusive print with Bennett, he can follow her down the road.
At the hotel he meets Grace Gordon Greene (Carla Gugino), who has followed presidential campaigns for more than 30 years and is the only one on the press bus he has befriended. Also arriving are Kimberlyn Kendrick (Christina Elmore), an up-and-coming reporter for the conservative cable news network, and Lola Rahaii (Natasha Behnam), who has a popular Instagram account and is funding her campaign trip. . through influencer sponsorships.
Everyone has their own things to deal with: Grace is being pushed out of the way by family obligations; Kimberlyn is planning a wedding and doesn’t think her network will take her seriously enough because she’s black; Lola is in love with a socialist candidate and has to fight against the dirty looks of more traditional journalists who think that she is not real.
Sadie is motivated to get that interview with Bennett, but things become more difficult when she discovers that Bennett’s new press secretary is Malcolm (Brandon Scott), the guy she slept with on the road three years ago and then disappeared. when things got serious at the end. of the Bell. Of course he won’t give her that exclusive, but that doesn’t stop Sadie from calling every source she can think of to get involved.
Sadie finally gets in when she does a favor for Kimberlyn, who has the exclusive on the cable and is stranded in rural Iowa with Lola, of all people. Lola pulled Kimberlyn out of a mob that was attacking her because of who she works for, and video of that incident is now causing a backlash on social media. Sadie thinks she has Sunday’s cover, until a story she was working on with her friend Grace ends up making her article about Bennett irrelevant.
What shows will it remind you of? The girls on the bus It feels like a combination of The Morning Show, Scandal, Grey’s Anatomy and The news room.
Our opinion: Created by Julie Plec and Amy Chozick, The girls on the bus It is inspired by Chozick’s book Chasing Hillary, the journalist’s personal chronicle of following Hillary Clinton in two presidential campaigns. Of course, the title of the program is a version The boys on the bus, Timothy Crouse’s 1973 book about the journalists (including Hunter S. Thompson) who followed the 1972 presidential campaign; That becomes evident when Sadie not only shows off a well-read copy of the book, but she also has Thompson’s ghost giving her pep talks.
There was potential for some good drama here about Sadie, who is obviously Chozick’s understudy, forging unlikely friendships with her competition and showing the difficulties women still have on the campaign trail, whether they’re reporters, candidates or staffers. Instead, Plec and Chozick decided to turn the show into a soap opera series that’s less about politics or journalism than about who sleeps with whom or which reporter stabs which other reporter in the back.
Perhaps Chozick’s personal narrative, while fascinating for a nonfiction book, simply didn’t spark enough for television. So they just piled nonsense on top of nonsense until the show stopped feeling real and felt like, as we mentioned, Grey’s Anatomy in the electoral campaign.
That’s why we have Sadie’s narration and her fascination with early ’70s gonzo journalism. That’s why we can’t just hear her talk about Thompson, we have to see He too. That’s why we have to see Lola packing her vibrator at the suggestion of one of her followers during a live broadcast. That’s why Sadie has running into someone she slept with within the first ten minutes of the first episode, who turns out to be the person standing in the way of what she wants. AND of course There is a lot of sexual tension between the two, despite their previous history.
That’s not to say Benoist isn’t just as charming as Sadie. Of course, she played a reporter in supergirl, but this is a completely different animal, and she’s believable as a tough journalist who gets a little too attached to the candidates she follows. And that’s not to say Gugino is as tough as Grace. And that is also That’s not to say that Elmore and Benham don’t show promise as Kimberlyn and Lola, respectively. We just wish they were in a vehicle that was a skosh more serious than the first episode showed.
Sex and skin: A flashback to Sadie sleeping with Malcolm, showing a lot of bouncing under the covers.
Parting Shot: Back to the Republican National Committee; We see the four women, now good friends, holding hands. We then see Sadie being taken away by the FBI.
Sleeping star: Scott Foley plays a Democratic candidate whose speech impresses Sadie; He may be a small role, but we enjoy Scott Foley in everything he does. Mark Consuelos plays another candidate who we also hope to see more of.
Most pilot line: Malcolm tells Sadie that he and Bennett have “5,780 minutes” until the caucuses, then comments “I went to Yale” and then tells her that she just wasted 2 of them. That is a tortured dialogue.
Our call: SKIP IT. The girls on the bus is a soap opera show that feels like it could take place in any setting; It just so happens to take place during the presidential campaign. And that seems like a missed opportunity.
Joel Keller@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and technology, but make no mistake: he’s a couch potato. His writings have appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.comFast Company and other places.
