Political Animals What Politics Does to a Family

Political Animals is a miniseries about the life of Elaine Barrish, played by the wonderful Sigourney Weaver, the former first lady and now the Secretary of State and her family.  The series has an amazing cast, Ciaran Hinds plays Bud Hammond the former President and Elaine Barrish’s ex-husband, this is not the first time he has played a ruler having played Julius Ceasar in Rome to great effect.   James Wolk and Sebastian Stan are Elaine Barrish’s two sons, Sebastian Stan who has played a tortured prince in Kings and a Mad Hatter in Once Upon a Time brings all that tortured charm to his role and finally to complete the family, Ellen Burstyn plays Elaine Barrish’s mother, Margarite Barrish, .  The shows main cast is completed by Carla Gugino, who plays Susan Berg, the journalist that revealed former President Hammond’s indiscretion and now through a new interview is the way we meet the family.  The show is created by Greg Berlanti and Laurence Mark, interestingly Greg Bertlanti was also the producer of another family drama Brothers and Sisters, which also had extremely complex characters.  

If this show is half as good as the previews make it seem it should be a wonderful drama to fill up the next few Sundays starting on the 15 July and ending 19 August.