ROCK THE VOTE!
BEN PLATT As comedy drama The Politician returns, election rivalry dishes the dirt on the show’s bitter
The Politician
From Friday 19 June, seven episodes as a box set, Netflix
BE PREPARED FOR an election fight much dirtier than anything Donald Trump could come up with, as young aspiring politician Payton Hobart takes on veteran incumbent Dede Standish in the election to be a state senator in New York.
In the first series of comedy drama The Politician, viewers learnt that wealthy Payton always felt it was his destiny to become US President. After his shenanigans to be elected student president at his high school, the final episode of the series moved forward several years, with Payton turning his sights on proper elected office in New York.
Now, this second seven-part season follows the bizarre twists and turns of that campaign as Payton – again played by Broadway star Ben Platt – and his back-room team of mavericks devise ever more outlandish ways to get the better of Dede (Judith Light) and her scheming campaign manager, Hadassah Gold (Bette Midler).
CONFRONTATION
Dede has held the state senate seat for over 40 years, and neither she nor Hadassah can quite believe Payton has the gall to challenge.
‘This season is all about Payton going head-to-head with Dede,’ explains Platt, who recently released a Netflix concert special,
Ben Platt: Live from Radio City
Music Hall. ‘Payton and his childhood cohorts are now that little older, so this season allows for a bit of a sharper humour – and a little more raunchiness, which is fun.
‘We had so much storyline to set up in the first season, a world to create and backstory to tell, but now we really get to focus on the specifics of this election. And it’s taking place in New York, which we love. It’s all about Manhattan, and the aesthetic of the show is much more East Coast.’
Platt says he loved his scenes
with Midler and Light. ‘Judith is always spectacular, but it’s really special to see Bette Midler give this all-in comedic performance. She’s every bit as good as she always has been. There’s one musical moment in the show and both Bette and Judith are there. Singing with them present was really special,’ he says.
OPPORTUNITY
As the rivalry continues, both campaigns place spies in each other’s camps, and the first break comes Payton’s way when he learns that Dede lives with two men in a ‘thruple’ relationship. Since he is miles behind in the polls, will he gleefully spread the dirt to give his campaign the bounce it needs?
Payton’s own political problems soon arrive, however, from an unexpected quarter. His eccentric New Age mother, Georgina (Gwyneth Paltrow), has become a prominent environmental campaigner saving dolphins. She’s also fallen in love with a Game of
Thrones-obsessed billionaire, Alison, who persuades her lover to run for governor of California.
Thankfully, this second season of The Politician was completed just before the global pandemic shut down TV productions around the world.
‘We shot it from October through to about February, and luckily we got in under the wire,’ says Platt, 26. ‘There was one outstanding scene left to do, and that’s been turned into a very COVID-LIKE Facetime scene that works really, really well.’
The good news for fans is there’s a final third season to come, according to Ryan Murphy, who created the show with his writerproducer partner Brad Falchuk, the husband of Paltrow.
‘After the end of season two, what I would love to do is take a couple of years off, then have Ben Platt as Payton get a little bit older for his final presidential race,’ says Murphy. ‘That’s always what we had designed, and I think that’s what we will end up doing.’