“The West Wing” this isn’t. “Veep” this isn’t. Even “Commander In Chief” was better, though I have to say “Madam Secretary” is at least superior to (faint praise alert!) Greg Berlanti’s useless and not dissimilar “Political Animals.”
An unconvincing, predictable, derivative CBS drama about a feisty female former CIA analyst who finds herself suddenly appointed U.S secretary of state, “Madam” comes to us from writer/producer Barbara Hall, who served as creator and/or showrunner for CBS’ “Judging Amy” and “Joan of Arcadia.” I think Hall has either a limited understanding of what a U.S. secretary of state does, or chooses to ignore that she and a lot of Americans should know about the post.
On the plus side Tea Leoni (“The Naked Truth”) is as strong as an actress can be in such a weak project – and way easier to look at than any real person who has held that job. Keith Carradine, however, comes off as the least decisive TV president since “That’s My Bush!”
(It’s also kind of funny and a little weird that “Madam Secretary” and “Scorpion” – another new hourlong hitting CBS this week – both start with black government SUVs descending speedily upon isolated farmhouses.)
The proper noun “Hilary Clinton” finds its way into a lot of reviews of this series, as does the adjective "contrived":
... The problem is that "Madam Secretary," at least through its first three episodes, is a pretty clunky enterprise. …
... I've seen three episodes of "Madam Secretary," and so far, it's contrived, predictable and seemingly allergic to ambiguity and subtext. Tea Leoni is terrific and it's great to see her back on TV, but even she can't make some of the clunkier stuff work. There are a number of problems: All the State Department characters around Leoni's character are poorly defined and uninteresting, the show seems tone-deaf about how Washington and the media really work, and the home-life story lines are either cloying or painfully clumsy. If the world tells me this show improves a lot, I'll give it another chance, but so far, "Madam Secretary" is an elegantly appointed disappointment. …
... This is a prime-time network show ... so the outcome is not as horrible as the videotaped beheadings that happened in real life. The presentation of politics is just as sanitized. … has some good moments, but it would be better if its heroine were just a little bit worse. …
... when it works, as it does here, the character provides audiences with the ultimate avatar. As the story unfolds, Elizabeth will face all sorts of conflicts, internal and external, which she will resolve with varying degrees of believability. …
... isn’t going to win any plausibility awards (which is fine since television doesn’t dole out any plausibility awards), but it has a firm enough grip on reality that it won’t send discerning viewers’ eyeballs rolling up into their craniums. …
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
... scratch beneath the surface of the first three episodes and “Madam Secretary” looks more like a time-tested CBS series with patented heart-tugging moments that feel contrived and made for TV. …
The San Francisco Chronicle says:
... We pretty much know how all of this is going to turn out, but that doesn’t mean we lose interest in how Elizabeth pulls it off and makes it clear to [White House chief of staff] Jackson she doesn’t answer to him. …
... “I’ve never met a situation where I don’t have a choice in the matter,” Elizabeth vows. But that’s a problem with the show’s premise right there: Diplomacy by its nature doesn’t lend itself well to visual storytelling. …
... a forgettable but not unpleasant distraction. Leoni’s character is too good to be true, however, and if the plot devolves into a soapy whodunit, I will vote it out of office. …
... classy but contrived …
... In the first three episodes available for preview, the show struggles somewhat to make its ripped-from-the-headlines crises and its secondary characters ring true. But as the newly appointed secretary of state, star Tea Leoni is appealingly believable from her very first scene, and finding her buys the show some time to find itself. …
... plays more like a slightly simple-minded return to “The West Wing” … has enough interesting pieces, as well as a great big world of trouble to mine, to have significant potential. The premiere, however, doesn’t bode particularly well for being able to maximize those assets, and as they say in diplomatic circles, the devil is in the details.
8:30 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. PT. Sunday. CBS.
