Political elephant enters the room
Two TV dramas go where others fear to tread: impeaching A U.S. president
On both the left and the right, the possibility of removing the U.S. president from office has become the elephant in the room. The issue has been sneaking warily into pop culture, too. The recent Kingsman: The Golden Circle casts Bruce Greenwood as a corrupt and sinister U.S. president who’s led off in handcuffs — on Fox News, no less. Director Matthew Vaughn has insisted any parallel to Trump is coincidental.
But two hour-long dramas are directly addressing the issue: Madam Secretary (on CBS) and The Good Fight (on W Network), each of which draws frequently from the issues of the day.
In early January, on an episode called Sound and Fury, Madam Secretary had Secretary of State Elizabeth McCord (Téa Leoni) gather other members of the Cabinet to discuss invoking Section 4 of the 25th Amendment, which declares the president “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” and passes power to the vice-president. And a on recent Good Fight, the series’ law firm considers legal approaches to the impeachment question.
How do you satisfy public curiosity over impeachment or the 25th Amendment without alienating Trump supporters?
For Madam Secretary creator Barbara Hall, a potentially galvanizing episode like Sound and Fury comes with the territory. “We just take things that are already in the atmosphere and if we find them interesting in terms of a civics lesson, we show you what it would look like. We’re not campaigning for it. We’re not politicizing it, really. We’re just saying, ‘Here’s what the process looks like.’”
One of the compelling implications of Sound and Fury, which Hall wrote with David Grae, is how the 25th Amendment might actually play out. Unlike impeachment proceedings, which are probably led by political foes, the 25th is invoked by the vice-president and the Cabinet, so Hall portrays that mutiny more as an act of protection than betrayal. In this case, Dalton responds erratically and drastically to a Russian sonic attack on the U.S. Embassy in Bulgaria and the Cabinet steps in temporarily to prevent a tragic escalation.
The Good Fight takes place in a world where Donald Trump not only exists but where the characters’ lives are affected by him. The episode titles for the new season cheekily reference the number of days Trump has been in office, and the priorities of his Justice Department trickle down the system. In Day 450, a DNC representative (Margo Martindale) includes Reddick, Boseman & Lockhart among the liberal firms “auditioning ” to bring impeachment charges against Trump. With Democrats primed to win majorities in midterm elections, the show posits, the DNC is working ahead to find the right tack for congressional investigations.
Could this be a Democratic fantasy in action? Not so fast. The showrunners, Robert and Michelle King, who created The Good Wife spinoff with Phil Alden Robinson, see it more as a satire of liberal hysteria. The audition, for one, devolves into a screaming match over whether obstruction of justice, Russian collusion or violations of the emoluments clause are the best means to a desired end.
“It’s comical sometimes how intense the conversation can get,” says Robert King. “We wanted to satirize that while (being realistic) about how Democrats, in our imaginations, are preparing to prosecute it.”
The Good Fight, which is set at a mostly African-American law firm in Chicago, doesn’t try to softpedal the political conversations animating the office where nearly everyone (with one major exception), voted for Hillary Clinton. The very first episode of the show opens with its lead character, Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski) looking aghast over Trump’s election, and the new season started with a highlight reel of first-year Trump moments.
“It’s very directly linked to this particular administration,” says Michelle King. “With previous administrations, people might disagree with (policies) but they would try to, I think, be a little more balanced. I think now there’s a sense of things are so far askew that you can’t hide your thinking.”