Madam Secretary [CBS] [ Spoilers ]

JP Liz V1 · 22-09-2014 12:04am #1

Tea Leoni stars as a former CIA agent who is abruptly appointed Secretary of State and promptly faced with an international hostage situation. Tim Daly, Bebe Neuwirth, Keith Carradine, Zeljko Ivanek and Geoffrey Arend co-star

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNRjl9vz4Ps

It starts tonight (is paired with The Good Wife)

Tea as the lead is making me sceptical, she fares better at comedy imo

squonk · 22-09-2014 12:20pm

Didn't we have something like this back in 2006/7 or thereabouts with Gina Davis called Commander In Chief? That wasn't the worst show and I did like it for Gina Davis who did a good turn as the president. This sounds like an element of that mixed with Hostages really. Have to watch it of course but we'll see. At any rate it's nice to have the fall season finally kicking off.

_Whimsical_ · 22-09-2014 11:12pm

This seems to be getting pretty good reviews. Thanks for drawing attention to it, I'll give it a watch tomorrow.

Agent Coulson · 23-09-2014 12:53am

Not a huge fan of Tea Leoni but the supporting cast looks very strong.

squonk · 23-09-2014 9:23am

Caught the pilot last night. It looks OK but, to me, it struck me as action/drama for a female oriented demographic. I found parts of it a bit dull but I'll definitely give it room to grow. The reason I say it's a female-oriented demo is that the pilot storyline involved two moron kids who head off to Syria to help overthrow the government by the power of their blogs! Said twats get caught and imprisoned and are lined up for the chopping block. Cue Madam Secretary doing an end run round the chief of staff direct to the pres with some help from an old Russion buddy. The two idiots deserved the chopping block but they got out in time. The final shot was the adoring parents welcoming them back. It just struck me as showing family ties and values over anything else. A male demo show might have sent in a seal team or something or one of the brats might have lost his head. That being said, I'll stick with this show for a while. It looks like it could definitely grow.

mel.b · 27-10-2014 4:13pm

Just watched the first 6 episodes of this and enjoyed it.

stargazer 68 · 11-02-2015 1:32pm

I have seen the first 5 episodes and loving it so far. Definitely female oriented though - probably why Im enjoying it so much

JP Liz V1 · 27-03-2015 1:08am

Starts on Sky Living on Thursday April 23rd at 9pm

rebel girl 15 · 01-04-2015 6:24pm

squonk wrote: »

Didn't we have something like this back in 2006/7 or thereabouts with Gina Davis called Commander In Chief? That wasn't the worst show and I did like it for Gina Davis who did a good turn as the president. This sounds like an element of that mixed with Hostages really. Have to watch it of course but we'll see. At any rate it's nice to have the fall season finally kicking off.

I've watched all of Commander in Chief and Madam Secretary - Madam Secretary just shades it for me. I find it really enjoyable. Still no West Wing, but does give a good insight into the working's behind the scenes in the Secretary of State's office. Up to episode 18 in the States, airs Sunday nights

squonk · 15-04-2015 9:29am

I've just finished episode 20. I'm guessing there's only 2 more to go this season and I'll be sorry to see the finalé.

For a show that was a bit throw-away for the first few episodes, it's grown to become something that's pretty intelligent and entertaining with a lot of heart.

The only real low point for me was episode 19 where the US decided they were the only ones who could work out the Greek debt crisis and decided they knew better than the poor little EU. It was rah-rah TV at it's finest, and deeply insulting viewing for Europeans but I can forgive that fault!

A high point was her trip to Iraq, getting involved in a coup and it was nice to see the fallout from that with her PTSD symptoms being carried over for a few episodes. Most shows would have reset and she'd be back storming the political castles the following week. Mind you they've forgotten about it now too but it wasn't badly handled.

Tea Leone is doing a great job and she's very likeable. I'm very impressed with this show. I'm glad we're getting Season 2. I just hope they stick ot the standard they've set so far.

ohnonotgmail · 15-04-2015 1:10pm

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

Tea Leoni stars as a former CIA agent who is abruptly appointed Secretary of State and promptly faced with an international hostage situation. Tim Daly, Bebe Neuwirth, Keith Carradine, Zeljko Ivanek and Geoffrey Arend co-star

It starts tonight (is paired with The Good Wife)

Tea as the lead is making me sceptical, she fares better at comedy imo

why did nobody tell me that Bebe Neuwirth was in this? I'm very disappointed in you all. Tea Leoni i can take or leave but Bebe Neuwirth is the real deal.

aine1980 · 15-04-2015 7:13pm

This was a real surprise for me, enjoying it much more than I'd expected to.

mafaa · 10-06-2015 6:13pm

Season 2 will premiere on Oct 4, 2015

Mr E · 05-07-2015 9:13pm

Surprised there isn't more buzz about this show. It's terrific.

pinkypinky · 05-07-2015 9:28pm

Yep, totally agree. Current highlight of the tv week for me. Watching on Sky.

squonk · 06-07-2015 9:29am

Yup I enjoyed watching it during Season 1 and it'll be back for Season 2. Very impressive show overall for a 'crisis of the week' type show.

bnt · 03-08-2015 3:24pm

(Ep. 19 spoiler ahead)

I'm nearly finished with S1, and I'm generally very impressed with the show, but they hit a real purple patch with the episode involving the Greek crisis. It features a thinly-disguised Angela Merkel locking the US delegation (including the President and Madam Secretary) out of a secret meeting, so she can screech "GREECE MUST BE PUNISHED!" to a captive audience of Euro-peons. Of course, the Americans have to sweep in and save the day, which they duly achieve, by brokering some daft deal involving the Elgin Marbles. Where would the world be without AMERICA? :rolleyes:

bnt · 23-10-2015 5:47pm

What, no-one else watching Season 2? I'm on Ep. 2, with a nice little cameo from former real-world SecState Madeleine Albright.

mel.b · 23-10-2015 7:03pm

I'm watching it and enjoying it. Interested to see where they go with Russia and the takeover of the Presidents plane.

stargazer 68 · 28-10-2015 10:16am

Just watched the first episode last night! Love this show

bnt · 13-11-2015 6:37pm

Life imitating art? Very soon after the episode featuring

the bombing of "Jihadi Judd", an American version of the real life "Jihadi John"

, this happens.

FloatingVoter · 13-11-2015 9:05pm

bnt wrote: »

Life imitating art? Very soon after the episode featuring
the bombing of "Jihadi Judd", an American version of the real life "Jihadi John"
, this happens.

Let's face it, that maggot was always going to get nailed. Perhaps Obama has money in the show. Hillary certainly does.

bnt · 23-11-2015 12:27pm

FloatingVoter wrote: »

Perhaps Obama has money in the show. Hillary certainly does.

Don't forget that Morgan Freeman is an executive producer, too. I'm up to Ep. 8 now, and it's getting even more "interesting" in the proverbvial sense. McCord has a lot of balls in the air, and some of them might just land on her head ...

We haven't heard the last of Sterling (Nat. Sec. Adv.) - he's not going to go away quietly. Jackson (Pres. Chief of Staff) is apparently heading for a heart attack, but I hope that's a red herring, since that's already been done: remember Leo McGarry in The West Wing?

mel.b · 30-11-2015 9:14pm

I really enjoy this show and it is very topical at the moment, with

the russian plane being shot down

. I presume it's filmed months earlier - if it is the script writers should be doing the lotto numbers or something as they are uncanningly accurate - first Jihad Jed and then this.

squonk · 01-12-2015 10:15am

They've really jumped up a lot in quality this season with the writing. Not that last season was low quality but they've really nailed it so far this season. I thought some of the family sub plots weren't too interesting last season but they've pulled back on that more now and there's much more substance to everything. Great show!

bnt · 18-12-2015 9:55am

If you're not up-to-date, with Ep.10, Spoilers follow - you have been warned!

So we have a RPG round fired at one of the presidential limousines, but we don't know which one - the Russian or the American? The American one can probably keep its passengers alive, don't know about the Russian one. We're supposed to think the Ukrainians are behind that, but their threats ("you'll regret this") could be a red herring.

As for the Russian kid, Dmitri Petrov - I don't think we've seen the last of him, even though he's basically been thrown under a tank at this point. Henry & his DIA buddies will surely concoct some scheme to get him out. I know this show tries to show RealPolitik in action, but it is an American show, after all. They never leave a man behind ...

I still have an ongoing issue with how the show portrays Europe and Europeans. They're shown as basicaslly passive and incompetent, always needing America to "get things done". I don't believe that a Swiss banker would just roll over and hand confidential records to the USA, just because the SoS throws a few harsh words in his direction. :rolleyes:

mel.b · 18-12-2015 11:04am

bnt wrote: »

If you're not up-to-date, with Ep.10, Spoilers follow - you have been warned!

So we have a RPG round fired at one of the presidential limousines, but we don't know which one - the Russian or the American? The American one can probably keep its passengers alive, don't know about the Russian one. We're supposed to think the Ukrainians are behind that, but their threats ("you'll regret this") could be a red herring.

As for the Russian kid, Dmitri Petrov - I don't think we've seen the last of him, even though he's basically been thrown under a tank at this point. Henry & his DIA buddies will surely concoct some scheme to get him out. I know this show tries to show RealPolitik in action, but it is an American show, after all. They never leave a man behind ...

I still have an ongoing issue with how the show portrays Europe and Europeans. They're shown as basicaslly passive and incompetent, always needing America to "get things done". I don't believe that a Swiss banker would just roll over and hand confidential records to the USA, just because the SoS throws a few harsh words in his direction. :rolleyes:

I think we are meant to have the impression it was fired at the Americans. The russian president has more to lose if it got out she murdered her husband, so she's trying to prevent that (thats my take on it anyway). How they will get away with it/who they put the blame on without it becoming WW3 though i have no idea!

One discontuinity issue though - the scenes filmed in Switzerland, supposedly at Xmas time...the trees where still of leaves znd just starting to turn/fall. I know it has been a mild winter but not that mild!

bnt · 18-12-2015 11:59am

The dynamic between the US & Russia is interesting, considering (spoiler alert) that they were incorrectly blamed for the attack on Air Force One. So the USA was the aggressor, in one sense, thanks to the President taking the Gung Ho advice from the former NS Advisor. Yes, Russia has designs on Ukraine, but Ukraine is not a member of NATO and the USA had no obligation to get involved at all (as in real life). So the whole affair has been a monumental cock-up on all sides, which adds to the sense of realism.

squonk · 19-12-2015 12:27am

Yeah I do think that Europe is poorly portrayed and I do think that it's one of the poorest points of an otherwise great show. I suppose though we are talking about a US show and perhaps the perception still lives on that they bailed Europes collective asses out in WW2. Besides, with the Russians and the Middle East generally able to find more compelling story arcs to run with, I don't think The EU will ever really figure prominently in the story.

That being said, the episode with El Pres lecturing the EU and pointing out various faults, including notable mention of our bailout was actually quite offensive in my opinion. I do suspect the show isn't really written for a non-US audience.

MrJones1973 · 04-01-2016 11:11pm

Just watched first two episodes. good cast but has the usual American thing of solving a major event in 20 minutes. Is it worth pursuing?

stargazer 68 · 05-01-2016 8:45pm

Just watched episode 10. According to cider space the next episode is shown Jan 11th. Is that right?

Madam Secretary [CBS] [** Spoilers **]

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Madam Secretary [CBS] [ Spoilers ]