Madam Secretary (TV Series) Another Benghazi (2014) User Reviews

2nd episode in and its already very formulaic.

[travinitrav · 8/10 · 18 November 2021]

Dont get me wrong, the writing and acting are much better than most one hour dramas on the cesspool that is American television. I did like the episode. Sadly it follows almost the exact same format as the first in terms of plotting and character development and of course things like camera work and establishing shots and obviously the subtle dramatic music cues.

Its a good episode, dealing with real issues in a mostly serious though overly emotional way. I dont know if other reviewers pointed this out but the show feels extremely similar to The West Wing except with slightly more politics and less personal drama. Its good, more than watchable, but may be an indicator the showrunners only know how to make one type of story and could just keep repeating it for a hundred episodes.

Worse than the pilot

[RyanCShowers · 4 October 2014]

I had a gut feeling "Madam Secretary" would improve with its second episode, however, my gut deceived me. ""Another Benghazi" is not making a convincing case for a long-term stay in this telling of Washington D.C. The areas where the show improved were in the generally pleasant look of the show; the colors appears more vibrant, and the ridiculous Tea Leoni makeover with her stylist from the pilot has proved visually beneficial. But the writers of the show clearly do not know what they are doing. The feminist symbolism they setup with the golfing gimmick was so transparent, no respect is earned in the artistic value of it. Do they really expect us to believe the secretary of state is able to manage her home life as equally as being shown, too? And they really have trouble building dramatic moments. The "bigger" moments in this episode were stereotypical, cheesy, or anticlimactic. "Madam Secretary" is aiming low in its target audience, but even that causal audience may find this show problematic.

Grade: C