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

JP Liz V1

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

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_

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

Agent Coulson

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

squonk

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

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

stargazer 68

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

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

rebel girl 15

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

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

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

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

mafaa

Season 2 will premiere on Oct 4, 2015

Mr E

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

pinkypinky

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

squonk

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

(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

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

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

stargazer 68

Just watched the first episode last night! Love this show

bnt

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ludo

Dovies wrote: »

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

Yep

squonk

Looks like Bess got out of that bother handy enough. I was surprised that Ostrova was outright killed however. I really thought her character had a bit more to give really. It's a little disappointing that it has afforded the writers the ability to cleanly wrap up the arc now with the new Russion President being a seemingly reasonable guy.

I'm betting Russel's heart woes come back to haunt him. Could be the next arc, or else they'll save that for the finalé.

I don't buy that Dimitry is dead. Seems like a great setup to have him reappear only as a double agent who eventually returns to the right-thinking American side after a pep talk from Elizabeth's hubby.

bnt

Still watching this. René Auberjonois just popped up as a snarky veteran non-proliferation analyst - now there's an actor who doesn't slow down at all, even in his mid-70s ...

squonk

bnt wrote: »

Still watching this. René Auberjonois just popped up as a snarky veteran non-proliferation analyst - now there's an actor who doesn't slow down at all, even in his mid-70s ...

Yup! I was delighted to see him! It's exactly the kind of show he'd shine in as well. I hope we'll see more of him in future!

In other news, it looks like they're scaring us with the prospect of Radioactive Man aka Mr. Secretary!

bnt

squonk wrote: »

Yup! I was delighted to see him! It's exactly the kind of show he'd shine in as well. I hope we'll see more of him in future!

Yep - René appeared again in the final episode of the series, which I just watched. Pretty tense stuff overall, with a nice little cliffhanger to boot. One thing that's much improved is that there's much less of the "Americans doing it all" attitude that annoyed me: the events of the last couple of episodes required a hefty dose of international co-operation and diplomacy. :cool:

bnt

Correction - Ep. 22 wasn't the final episode of the series after all, there was one more episode with a different sort of cliffhanger at the end. Let's just say that they aren't really following the Madeleine Albright book any more, if they ever were.

bnt

And it's back - S3 E1 "Sea Change" went out last week. I haven't watched it yet - that's tomorrow.

Icsics

bnt wrote: »

And it's back - S3 E1 "Sea Change" went out last week. I haven't watched it yet - that's tomorrow.

Excellent, when's it on TV?

bnt

Icsics wrote: »

Excellent, when's it on TV?

CBS, Sundays 9/8c. If you mean when it's on UK/IE TV, well, Sky Living is repeating the first season ...

This is different:

https://twitter.com/TeaLeoni/status/763026787974733824

and a trailer:

https://twitter.com/MadamSecretary/status/781609283326611457

bnt

This is even more different:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VvWH4bJGQ0

bnt

Season 4 started, and nobody noticed? Damn. I'm going to watch the first episode tonight.

bnt

Season 4 starts on Sky Living next Thursday. I'm enjoying this season quite a lot. It's a bit bonkers in some aspects, and probably not all that representative of the US State Department in 2017, but it's enjoyable overall.

Meanwhile, if you want catch up on Season 3, Sky Two is showing that starting next Friday.

bnt

I seem to be the only person here still watching this? Season 4 ended with a fairly terrifying episode, which I won't spoil, other than to say that it could have been the end of the whole show. It has been renewed for Season 5, but it if hadn't, it could have ended on a respectfully high note.

stargazer 68

bnt wrote: »

I seem to be the only person here still watching this? Season 4 ended with a fairly terrifying episode, which I won't spoil, other than to say that it could have been the end of the whole show. It has been renewed for Season 5, but it if hadn't, it could have ended on a respectfully high note.

Nope I watched it too. I think it needs to move along now - they have run out of countries to save from themselves!

rebel girl 15

Dovies wrote: »

Nope I watched it too. I think it needs to move along now - they have run out of countries to save from themselves!

I've watched it and from the ending on a previous episode - (think I've seen the last episode in the series) I can see where they will take it and then it may require a title change, or they will end up leaving it at that

bnt

Dovies wrote: »

Nope I watched it too. I think it needs to move along now - they have run out of countries to save from themselves!

One more series, at least: started in the USA in October, starts on Sky Two next week. My DVR's TV Guide is confused, says they're reshowing the 1st season on Sky Witness, but all the advertising for the new season has been on Sky Witness. Stunt Casting

Madeleine Albright has been on before, and in the first episode she's back and brings Hillary Clinton along for the ride too.

JP Liz V1

6th season will be the last

https://tvline.com/2019/05/15/madam-secretary-final-season-6-cancelled-cbs/