''The Politician'' is an American comedy-drama

streaming television Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as TV shows, as streaming media delivered over the Internet. Streaming television stands in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air ae ...

series created by Ryan Murphy,

Brad Falchuk Bradley Douglas Falchuk (born March 1, 1971) is an American television writer, director, and producer, best known for co-creating with Ryan Murphy the comedy-drama television series ''Glee'', the drama series '' Pose'', the horror comedy '' Scr ...

, and Ian Brennan and released on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

. The trio also serves as executive producers with Alexis Martin Woodall, Ben Platt, and

Gwyneth Paltrow Gwyneth Kate Paltrow (; born ) is an American actress and businesswoman. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Paltrow gained notice for her early work in films ...

. The series centers on the story of Payton Hobart (Platt), a wealthy Santa Barbaran, and each season revolves around a different political race his character is involved in. The first season was released on Netflix on September 27, 2019. The series stars Ben Platt,

Zoey Deutch Zoey Francis Chaya Thompson Deutch ( ; born November 10, 1994) is an American actress. She is daughter of director Howard Deutch and actress-director Lea Thompson. She gained recognition for her roles in the film '' Everybody Wants Some!!'', t ...

, Lucy Boynton,

Bob Balaban Robert Elmer Balaban (born August 16, 1945) is an American actor, author, comedian, director and producer. He was one of the producers nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture for ''Gosford Park'' (2001), in which he also appeared. Balab ...

, Laura Dreyfuss, Julia Schlaepfer, Theo Germaine,

Rahne Jones Rahne Jones is an American television actress. She made her television debut as Skye on Netflix's '' The Politician'' in 2019. She is currently a co-host on the new MTV reality show, "Help! I'm in a Secret Relationship!". Life and career Jon ...

and

. David Corenswet, Benjamin Barrett, and

Jessica Lange Jessica Phyllis Lange (; born April 20, 1949) is an American actress. She is the 13th actress to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting, having won two Academy Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award, along with a Screen Actors G ...

joined the main cast in the first season, while

Judith Light Judith Ellen Light (born February 9, 1949) is an American actress. She made her professional stage debut in 1970, before making her Broadway debut in the 1975 revival of ''A Doll's House''. Her breakthrough role was in the ABC daytime soap oper ...

and

Bette Midler Bette Midler (;''Inside the Actors Studio'', 2004 born December 1, 1945) is an American singer, actress, comedian and author. Throughout her career, which spans over five decades, Midler has received numerous accolades, including four Golden Gl ...

joined the main cast in the second season. Production on the second season started in November 2019, which premiered on June 19, 2020.

Premise

The first season is set at the fictional Saint Sebastian High School in Santa Barbara,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

. Payton Hobart, who has dreamed of being elected

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal gove ...

since childhood, is running for

student body president The student government president (sometimes called "student ''body'' president," "student ''council'' president" or "''school'' president") is generally the highest-ranking officer of a student union. While a student government group and a class ...

against the popular and athletic River Barkley. Payton, under the direction of his ambitious friends McAfee Westbrook, James Sullivan, and Alice Charles, chooses Infinity Jackson, a cancer patient and victim of Munchausen by Proxy disorder, to be his vice-president. Meanwhile, River, under the direction of his girlfriend Astrid Sloan, chooses Skye Leighton, a gender-nonconforming black classmate, to be his

vice-president A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...

. The second season is set in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

and

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York Ci ...

. Payton, now a student at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, ...

, is running for a seat in the

New York State Senate The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature; the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Its members are elected to two-year terms; there are no term limits. There are 63 seats in the Senate. Partisan com ...

against incumbent

Majority Leader In U.S. politics (as well as in some other countries utilizing the presidential system), the majority floor leader is a partisan position in a legislative body.

Dede Standish. Payton, under the direction of his former classmates and

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

activist Infinity Jackson, runs an ecocentric campaign. Standish, under the direction of her conniving campaign manager Hadassah Gold, runs a more conservative campaign. Meanwhile, Payton's mother, Georgina Hobart, is running to be

Governor of California The governor of California is the head of government of the U.S. state of California. The governor is the commander-in-chief of the California National Guard and the California State Guard. Established in the Constitution of California, t ...

Cast and characters

Main

* Ben Platt as Payton Hobart, an ambitious man who ran for student body president at St. Sebastian and later for State Senate of New York *

as Infinity Jackson, Payton's former

running mate A running mate is a person running together with another person on a joint ticket during an election. The term is most often used in reference to the person in the subordinate position (such as the vice presidential candidate running with a pres ...

who becomes an activist for the environment * Lucy Boynton as Astrid Sloan, Payton's rival and River's former girlfriend *

as Keaton Hobart (season 1), Payton's adoptive father * David Corenswet as River Barkley (season 1; recurring season 2), Payton's opponent for student body president and ex-boyfriend * Julia Schlaepfer as Alice Charles, Payton's girlfriend and later fiancée * Laura Dreyfuss as McAfee Westbrook, Payton's campaign manager and advisor * Theo Germaine as James Sullivan, Payton's campaign manager and advisor *

as Skye Leighton, River's former running mate who is now helping Payton with his New York campaign * Benjamin Barrett as Ricardo (season 1; guest season 2), Infinity's former dim-witted boyfriend *

as Dusty Jackson (season 1), Infinity's grandmother and former caretaker *

as Georgina Hobart, Payton's adoptive mother. *

as Dede Standish (season 2; guest season 1), the New York State Senate Majority Leader *

as Hadassah Gold (season 2; guest season 1), Dede's Chief of Staff

Recurring

* Ryan J. Haddad as Andrew Cashman, a former student with cerebral palsy at St. Sebastian who is now helping Payton with his New York campaign * Kobi Kumi-Diaka as Pierre Toussaint (season 1), the only Haitian student studying at St. Sebastian * Trevor Mahlon Eason as Martin Hobart, one of Payton's brothers * Trey Eason as Luther Hobart, one of Payton's brothers * Natasha Ofili as Principal Vaughn (season 1), the Principal at St. Sebastian who is registered deaf * B.K. Cannon as Kris * Martina Navratilova as Brigitte (season 1), a horse trainer who is also Georgina's lover * Dylan McDermott as Theo Sloan (season 1), Astrid's father *

January Jones January Kristen Jones (born January 5, 1978) is an American actress and model. She played Betty Draper in ''Mad Men'' (2007–2015), for which she was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress – Television Series Drama and a P ...

as Lisbeth Sloan (season 1), Astrid's mother * Sam Jaeger as Tino McCutcheon (season 2; guest season 1), the Junior Senator-Elect from Texas. *

Joe Morton Joseph Thomas Morton Jr. (born October 18, 1947) is an American stage, television and film actor. He has worked with film director John Sayles in '' The Brother from Another Planet'' (1984), '' City of Hope'' (1991) and '' Lone Star'' (1996). Ot ...

as Marcus Standish (season 2; guest season 1), Dede's husband *

Teddy Sears Edward M. Sears (born April 6, 1977) is an American actor, known for his roles as Richard Patrick Woolsley on the TNT legal drama series ''Raising the Bar'', Patrick on the first season of FX anthology horror drama '' American Horror Story'' ...

as William Ward (season 2; guest season 1), the third in Dede and Marcus' throuple *

Jackie Hoffman Jacqueline Laura Hoffman (born November 29, 1960 in Queens, New York City) is an American actress, singer, and comedian known for her one-woman shows of Jewish-themed original songs and monologues. She is a veteran of Chicago's famed The Second ...

as Sherry Dougal (season 2; guest season 1), the receptionist at Dede Standish's campaign office

Guest

* Jordan Nichole Wall as Ivy (season 1), girl with Down syndrome on school bus * Rick Holmes as Cooper (season 1) *

Eric Nenninger Eric John Nenninger (born November 19, 1978) is an American actor, best known for playing Scott Braddock in the 2003 horror film, '' Jeepers Creepers II'', he had a recurring role as Cadet Eric Hanson on ''Malcolm in the Middle'' and Scott in '' ...

as Detective (season 1) *

Rudy Pankow Rudy Pankow () is an American actor. He stars as JJ Maybank on the Netflix teen drama series ''Outer Banks''. Early life Pankow was born and raised in Ketchikan, Alaska. He began his interest in acting and production in middle school via YouTube ...

as Other Kid (season 1) * Russell Posner as Elliot Beachman (season 1) *

Jake Tapper Jacob Paul Tapper (born March 12, 1969) is an American journalist, author, and cartoonist. He is the lead Washington anchor for CNN, hosts the weekday television news show '' The Lead with Jake Tapper'', and co-hosts the Sunday morning public a ...

as himself, a CNN correspondent and moderator for the gubernatorial debate. * Terry Sweeney as Buddy Broidy (season 1) * Robin Weigert as Andi Mueller (season 2) * Susannah Perkins as Jayne Mueller (season 2)

Episodes

Season 1 (2019)

Season 2 (2020)

Production

Development

On February 5, 2018, it was announced that

had given the production a two season order. The order came after a bidding war involving

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television seri ...

and

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...

. The series was created by

, Ian Brennan and Ryan Murphy, all of whom will executive produce alongside Ben Platt. Production companies involved with the show include Fox 21 Television Studios and Ryan Murphy Productions.

Casting

Alongside the initial series announcement, it was confirmed that Ben Platt would star in the series and that

Barbra Streisand Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand (; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment, and is among the few performers awar ...

and

were in talks to join as series regulars. On July 16, 2018, it was announced that

, Lucy Boynton, Laura Dreyfuss and

had been cast in main roles. On October 11, 2018, it was reported that Dylan McDermott had joined the cast. On November 4, 2018, Streisand revealed in an interview with ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issue ...

'' that she had chosen to turn down the series in order to work on her album ''

Walls Walls may refer to: *The plural of wall, a structure * Walls (surname), a list of notable people with the surname Places *Walls, Louisiana, United States * Walls, Mississippi, United States *Walls, Ontario, neighborhood in Perry, Ontario, Ca ...

'', and that

had been cast in the role she had been eyed for instead. On December 3, 2018, McDermott announced in an interview with

Sirius XM Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. It was formed by the 2008 merger of Sirius Sat ...

that

had been cast to portray his wife in the series. In March 2019, it was announced

and

would guest star in the series.

Filming

Principal photography for the first season took place on location in Fullerton Union High School,

Orange County, California Orange County is located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,186,989, making it the third-most-populous county in California, the sixth-most-populous in the United States, ...

, and

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

Reception

Critical response

The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

reported a 58% approval rating for the first season with an average rating of 6.74/10, based on 91 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads: "While ''The Politician'' can't uphold all of its tantalizing promises, it delivers just enough soapy satire in a sumptuous setting to keep Ryan Murphy fans invested—though its 'sic''unlikely to win him many new votes."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned the season a score of 66 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". On Rotten Tomatoes, the second season received a 40% approval rating with an average rating of 5.84/10, based on 20 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads: "Shallow and messy, but not in a fun way, ''The Politicians second term expands its political horizons but doesn't seem to know what to do with them." Metacritic gave the second season a weighted average score of 46 out of 100 based on 8 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Accolades

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Politician, The 2010s American comedy-drama television series 2010s American high school television series 2010s American LGBT-related comedy television series 2010s American LGBT-related drama television series 2010s American political comedy television series 2010s American satirical television series 2010s American teen drama television series 2019 American television series debuts 2020 American television series endings 2020s American comedy-drama television series 2020s American LGBT-related comedy television series 2020s American LGBT-related drama television series 2020s American political comedy television series 2020s American satirical television series 2020s American teen drama television series Bisexuality-related television series English-language Netflix original programming Political satirical television series Polyamory in fiction Television series about teenagers Television series by 20th Century Fox Television Television series created by Ryan Murphy (writer) Television shows filmed in Los Angeles Television shows set in New York City Television shows set in Santa Barbara, California