I like some of the USA Network fare — it’s solid, escapist, and entertaining television that can be watched in the background while you’re doing something else. What kind of annoys me about many of their shows, however, is their insistence on adding serialized elements that will never actually wrap up. I stopped watching “Burn Notice” because I got tired of waiting around to find out whether Michael would get his old job back, and at a certain point, it became tediously irrelevant. Yet, the show continued to play those serialized elements up, trying to convince us the show was something it isn’t. There’s always some series long mystery in these shows that won’t resolve until the end of the series, and since the USA Network never actually cancels anything, there’ll never be any damn resolution.
“Political Animals” is different: It’s a six-episode mini-series with a defined story to tell and no loose threads. It also stars Sigourney Weaver and, perhaps more importantly for our purposes, Carla Gugino. It looks OK. Like the kind of mini-series you’d find on The USA Network. Nothing wrong with that. I wish they weren’t airing it on Sunday nights, up against “Breaking Bad” and Sorkin’s new show, but that’s what DVR’s are for.
Oh, and there’s definitely a glimpse of a sex scene with Carla Gugino in this trailer. What? Did I bury the lede?
