Date Posted:11:58:52 02/15/03 Sat Author: By Tom Shales -- THE WASHINGTON POST Subject: ‘Mister Sterling’: The ayes have it
New political drama off to snappy, savvy start
Jan. 10 — Probably the last place to find reality on television is on one of the so-called “reality” shows. But a TV drama that is skillfully written, well acted and conscientiously produced can achieve an emotional and humanistic reality well beyond anything that “Survivor” or “The Bachelorette” can dish out.
AS A TERRIBLY CONVENIENT case in point there’s “Mister Sterling,” a new NBC drama about a realistically idealistic young iconoclast who suddenly finds himself serving time in the U.S. Senate. It may not sound all that promising, but “Mister Sterling,” premiering at 8 tonight on Channel 4, proves a smart, snappy and savvy surprise — an energized and amusing look at people in power.
Obviously it’s risky to launch yet another show about Washington and politics in prime time. “The West Wing,” also on NBC, would seem to offer enough make-believe capital capers for anybody.
In addition, the (first African American) president is a major character in Fox’s reckless thriller “24,” which is kind of a stylish update of such old Saturday afternoon movie serials as “Daredevils of the Red Circle.”
“Mister Sterling” is a different kind of Washington show, just as its lead character, William Sterling Jr., is a relatively rare bird. Played with crisp, casual conviction by an admirably engaging Josh Brolin, Sterling is the son of a veteran politico (scene-stealer James Whitmore as a former California governor) and thus considered a natural to fill out the term of a senator who’s just dropped dead of a heart attack — even if young Sterling is fond of uttering such heresy as “I hate politics.”
NO MR. SMITH
True, the premise is not new. Frank Capra’s “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” is such a classic that any movie about a freshman senator, especially one thrust suddenly into the slimy limelight, is bound to be compared with it.
But where Mr. Smith was a tuba-playing hick from the lower outer banks, Mr. Sterling is a well-educated former assistant district attorney who runs a prison high school for inmates who want to earn their diplomas. He may have a lot to learn about Washington, but he’s a quick learner, and watching him master the art of the deal — without being corrupted by the city’s wicked ways — makes for very satisfying drama.
“Sterling” happily lacks the pomposity and pretentiousness of “West Wing”; it has a lot more zoom and zing. Lawrence O’Donnell Jr., who created the series and wrote at least the first two episodes, is a veteran of “West Wing,” but he seems to know just which aspects of that show to emulate and which ones to put through the shredder.
In the premiere, Sterling comes to Washington and shocks the pants off the Senate leadership — and the Democratic governor who appointed him — when he reveals that, oops, he’s not even a Democrat but rather a registered independent.
Everyone assumed he was a Democrat because his old man was such a pillar of the party.
Is this far-fetched? It sure isn’t near-fetched. But plenty of wackier things have happened in the dear old nation’s capital, and young Sterling has kept a very low, even nonexistent, political profile.
The second episode, airing a week from today, picks up where tonight’s leaves off, with Sterling making headlines on his second day in the Senate much as he did on his first, this time by refusing to answer a reporter’s question about whether he ever used illegal drugs.
Like sharks chomping chum, journalists gobble up nuggets from Sterling’s past, trying to find a smoking gun — or at least a smoking joint — that would end his political career just as it’s beginning. Sterling tells them he favors the “decriminalization” of marijuana but not its “legalization,” which confuses them further.
When the issue snowballs and Sterling is forced to hold a news conference and the question about drug use is asked again, his response is a gutsy, or perhaps nutsy, “It’s none of your business.” Yes, really. When reporters persist, he starts asking them whether they’ve ever used drugs. Finally he lectures them: “It’s a silly question, and this is serious business. . . . Maybe if you guys started asking better questions, we’d get better senators, and then maybe we’d get a little closer to making the world a better place.”
The whippersnapper! The jackanapes! The Pecksniffian dunderhead! Would a politician be able to get away with something like that? Actually, it’s sort of fun to think so — depending on the perceived integrity of the politician, of course.
