phd_travel A lot of things going on in this story based primarily on Hilary Clinton. They throw in so many issues from the token gay relationship to eating disorders. It's entertaining at least. There are some things taken directly from Hilary's life eg the Lewinsky scandal.Sigourney is the best part of the show. Her intelligent look is more appropriate than Geena Davis in Commander in Chief. That show took itself a bit too seriously.A few casting issues. Cirian Hinds is too frightening looking to be the ex President. He is more of a character actor for the villain or some Gothic character. Other cast members are good. Carla is quite well cast as the reporter. The story lines for her sons James and Sebastian seem a bit contrived.Overall pretty good hope it succeeds.

bkoganbing Political Animals which is a slightly worn valentine to the Clintons and their lives and times in the White House. It's almost a plea for Hillary Clinton to get back into electoral politics in 2016. No doubt that times were better then and despite the apoplectic fulminations of the religious right we enjoyed Clinton and his escapades in the White House. It would have been better even had we given a Democratic Congress to work in all eight years.Sigourney Weaver plays Elaine Barish formerly Hammond, former first lady and now Secretary of State to President Adrian Pasdar who beat her out in her try to be the first female president. Cannot get closer than that. Her lying, cheating, former president husband is Ciaran Hands who in his performance lets you know why Bill Clinton was called 'Slick Willie' in his youth. They have two sons, steady and reliable James Wolk who is his mother's right hand while keeping on decent relations with his father, not easy, he might have the diplomatic skills to be the Secretary of State. Then there's Sebastian Stan who is the best one in the series. In fact I believe he's one of the best young players around, something I've believed since I saw him guest star in a Law And Order episode several years earlier. He plays the gay second son and the pressure of being the first openly gay child in the White House was too much for him. He's a drug addict and a screw-up and causing one major distraction while Weaver and Hands as the presidential envoy are trying to deal with another hostage crisis in Iran.The whole series is narrated and seen through the eyes of Carla Gugino who is a news reporter who got some forced insights into the Hammond family covering up a story about Stan's suicide which got out anyway.This mini-series is interesting and no doubt topical. You'll want to see the next episodes as much as I do.

noel-428-261053 My mother and I were sitting down to watch TV the other night and were intrigued by the ads for the show Political Animals so we decided to check it out. We were enjoying the storyline and character dynamics in the show when we were suddenly shocked by the graphic content in the show. Our first shock was the naked sex scene between the former president and his new wife. We were completely appalled but, wanting to give the show the benefit of the doubt that it may be a one-time occurrence, we continued to watch... only to be mortified by the continued explicit content, not in language, but the visually graphic portrayals of bulimia, drug content, and repeated graphic sex. Shocked at what we saw, we quickly pulled up the show's info to check the rating and were even more surprised to see that the show was rated "PG" on USA!I assume that the raciness of the show is intended to grab the young adult audience, but as a 24 year old, I can tell you that that is exactly what turned me off! There are a lot of ways to insinuate such relationships and actions without showing them in their entirety.Aside from my disappointment with the content of the show itself, I am extremely disappointed in USA for airing it and without an appropriate rating at that! While it's appropriate to portray the reality of sex, drug addictions, and eating disorders- neither kids nor adults need to be given a visual "how to" lesson by a TV show!I count on USA for its' family friendly, but highly enjoyable, shows and have been a fan of several shows on the network for years (Psych, Monk, Burn Notice, Royal Pains).This show is NOT appropriate for children of any age!

texaggie71 At one point Sigourney Weaver's character tells another, "The American people aren't idiots." From what I observed in the opening episode of this miniseries, its creators and "writers" must believe otherwise. There is absolutely no valid reason for such vile language or explicit depictions of drug use and sex. While the actors seem to be giving it their best efforts, and the sets and production values are top-notch, there were almost no scenes that didn't beg unfortunate comparisons to "West Wing" or the movies "Dave" (which also co-starred Ms. Weaver as a disillusioned former first lady) or "American President." On the whole, I couldn't help but find it very disappointing.