How Seriously Should You Take The Threat Posed By State Of Affairs?

What Is This Thing?

Charleston "Charlie" Tucker is a CIA field agent-turned-President's daily briefer. But will the lingering horror of a terrorist attack that killed her fiancé affect her professional judgment, and thus endanger the lives of ALL AMERICANS?!

When Is It On?

Mondays at 10 PM on NBC.

Why Was It Made Now?

Apparently, all the networks are trying their own take on Homeland this season (see also: Madam Secretary), so here's another series about a blonde in the White House, keepin' it real with an improbably accommodating President.

What's Its Pedigree?

The series creator credit goes to Alexi Hawley, formerly of MOR procedurals Castle and Body Of Proof -- but also on board as executive producer is Joe Carnahan, who wrote the feature films Narc, The Grey, and The A Team; he's also an executive producer on The Blacklist. If you knew anything at all about the show before you pulled up this story, it was probably that it stars Katherine Heigl, slinking back to TV after striking out with feature-film failures from Killers to New Year's Eve -- and notably not in any of Shonda Rhimes's current shows, for reasons that are now on the record. The President is played by Alfre Woodard, and the cast is rounded out with James Remar (Dexter), David Harbour (Manhattan, The Newsroom), and Dawson's Creek's Gayoda himself, Mr. Adam Kaufman.

...And?

It's not as boring as Madam Secretary, partly because it splits the lurid difference between that and Scandal. Heigl and her fellow briefers have a very natural camaraderie, and when she guffaws with laughter at their jokes at the new guy's expense (that would be Kaufman's guy, Lucas), it seems like she might actually be kind of cool sometimes.

Also, I feel like this country would be better off if Alfre Woodard really were president. Maybe someday, friends.

...But?

"Less boring than Madam Secretary" is still pretty boring. For all the drama and stakes that surround Charleston's job (and while we're here: "Charleston"? GOD), what it functionally boils down to is working on a shared Google doc with a bunch of other nerds and then taking it to a meeting. A montage of the briefers editing the President's Daily Briefing is especially cringey, no matter how much red Sharpie gets scrawled all over the drafts. You're on your way to sit with the leader of the free world, Charleston: for god's sake, DON'T SPLIT YOUR INFINITIVES.

Because it's not enough anymore for a White House show to just be about how hard it is to run the U.S. government, there's also a shadowy conspiracy that isn't fully revealed until the last moments of the episode -- but before we even get there, we get briefed (heh) on how much Charlie has at stake. Omar Fatah -- the terrorist who launched the attack that killed Aaron, her fiancé -- is still at large, and his capture is still a priority for the President not just because...like, he's a terrorist, but because Aaron was also HER SON. So when an American doctor who bears a striking resemblance to Aaron is kidnapped, will Charlie prioritize his rescue for personal reasons instead of a more than 80% chance at Fatah? And also...would this decision really be left in the hands of one person who is clearly not objective about it? I feel like no.

I'm not crazy about a scene that uses the threat of waterboarding as a hilarious joke, but it's not as annoying or offensive as all the business around how Charlie is numbing the pain of Aaron's loss with self-destructive behaviour of the sort we always see on these shows: drinking, and sex with strangers, I guess because none of the producers of State Of Affairs read this masterful takedown of Black Box, which did the same dumb thing -- although, if it's taking Homeland as its inspiration, that's something its protagonist does too. Sometimes women have sex with strangers because they want to and it's fun, not because they're all fucked up, but you'd never know that from watching TV. (At least Bad Judge was right about that, if not about anything else.)

Anyway, if you're going to sleep your way through DC, try to be a little cool about it and not steal punchlines from Phyllis Diller's scratch pad.

Therapist: Charleston. Always going out, drinking, partying -- I don't think any good can come of that.
Charleston: Well, good doesn't have to come. I do.

Grrrrrroan.

...So?

It's not so terrible that it wouldn't be okay to leave on if you're in a hotel unpacking or something. But it's not so good that you need to make it part of your TV diet, and I doubt you'll get much of a chance to, anyway.