by Michelle Willson, Feature/Entertainment Editor
“The Politician” is a comedy-drama series by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan – the creators of “Glee”, the movie that was recently added to Netflix.
The first episode simply starts with a statement: “People like to think of their presidents as characters we see on TV.”
This sets the tone for the series and the main character , Payton Hobart, played by Ben Platt (from Dear Evan Hansen).
A high school election taken too literally. Hobart, a rich kid, is determined to become president of the United States. He has studied the lives of all the past presidents and knows the best route to get him there.
His obstacle at the moment – the election for student body president.
My first thought was man this kid is way too dedicated. At my high school, the presidency was a popularity vote, so you always knew who was going to win as soon as they announced the nominees. Granted I went to a smaller school.
With that aside, the election was heating up and so was the drama. Hobart was against River Barkley, the popular boy at school that was destined to win.
Barkley’s campaign focused mainly on mental health and he chose Skye Leighton, a gender-nonconforming black classmate, as his running mate. Which gave him a boost in the voting.
Hobart goes on the defensive but can’t get anyone to agree to run with him because they felt he was asking just to get higher standings, which was not wrong.
Finally, after asking 3 times, Infinity Jackson, a cancer patient caved and said yes. This brought Hobart up in the polls. Until secrets start to unfold and a video surfaced of Jackson using a gay slur towards a news camera man.
A tragedy unfolds and Astrid Sloan takes Barkley‘s place in the race. Hobart starts to lose votes as Sloan kicks off her campaign. Hobart gets wait listed from the school he was hoping to get into and everything starts to go down hill.
Sloan goes missing and all fingers start to point to Hobart. Mostly because hours before she went missing he was heard saying, “He is going to kill Astrid.”
He gets acquitted for crimes once his ex-girlfriend passes a polygraph test, claiming that she was with Hobart that night.
Sloan shows back up and announces that she ran away but while she was under the radar she discovered what it was like to be poor and actually rose in the polls.
The series talks about some touchy subjects and sheds light on some real tough subjects.
It was nice to see a series that wasn’t afraid to talk about things like depression, suicide and privilege that other series would have shied away from.
It is drama filled and incising. The series holds your attention. You do not get attracted by other elements.
I give this series 4.5 out of 5 stars for the amazing acting and character development throughout.