When the governor of California appoints Bill Sterling Jr. to fill a Senate seat made vacant by a death, the do-good reformer, played by Josh Brolin, wants nothing to do with the heartless business that estranged him from former Gov. Bill Sterling Sr., his father. Junior tells his girlfriend, “I hate politics.”
Fortunately the writers of the new NBC drama Mister Sterling do not hate politics at all.
Once Sterling gets to Washington, and his self-righteous ardor is dented by Washington insiders and his own inexperience, the series kicks to life. The young senator may be the hero, but Washington steals the scenes. The show, which has its premiere on Friday night, revels in the quirks, personality clashes, entrenched traditions, quick fixes, divided loyalties, good intentions, dirty dealing, blame-shifting and thankless drudge work that make up the nation’s capital, lobbyists and all.
Mister Sterling is, OK, a political drama like The West Wing, so much so that it might more accurately be called “The Hart Building.” But there are differences beyond the move up Pennsylvania Avenue to Capitol Hill.
The young senator’s aides do not have the intricate psyches or jittery eloquence of “West Wing” staff members, but the Senate provides more room for entertaining rogues, from reporters and lobbyists to imperious committee chairmen. Created by Lawrence O’Donnell Jr., a former West Wing writer who in the 1990s worked in Washington as a top aide to Sen. Daniel Patrick Moyhihan, D-N.Y., Mister Sterling reflects O’Donnell’s intimate, amused knowledge of the legislative branch.
In his own real life, star Josh Brolin is the son of the actor James Brolin, who played the Republican challenger on West Wing earlier this season, and Josh Brolin’s rebellion is limited to telling reporters that he doesn’t watch The West Wing.
There are insider winks and cameos, of course. Chris Matthews plays himself as the host of the MSNBC program Hardball, and the Democratic Party strategist Bill Carrick plays the role of a Democratic Party strategist.
The debut episode is a bit stilted, with the burdens of exposition. By the second, the story fills out, adding more twists and setting up hoary television stereotypes for the mischievous pleasure of knocking them down.
Sterling is in awe of only one colleague, Thunder Hawk Jackson, a proud, noble American Indian senator from Arizona. Jackson cons his naive new protege into becoming a co-sponsor of some bad legislation, but in a third viewing the Arizona senator is painted as neither victim nor villain, only as a flawed but well-intended politician who nimbly plays the Washington guilt game.
Sterling’s aides are idealistic, naturally, but the character actors who play them are well chosen, and should give this new drama at least eight weeks of hope.
Official Mister Sterling site: www.nbc.com/Mister_Sterling
