Hollywood is yet again trying to take Washington to task, and this time it involves space bugs.
CBS premiered “Braindead” on June 13, and based on the pilot, it might be the most unusual attempt yet to parody partisan gridlock on Capitol Hill.
The show follows Laurel Healy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a documentary filmmaker whose brother Luke (Danny Pino) is a Democratic senator and whose father (Zach Grenier) wants her to work on the Hill so badly he offers to pay off her college tuition for a year of her life.
Laurel goes to work as a case worker for her brother, dealing with the problems of Luke’s constituents, who bombard his office with complaints. One such complaint comes from a woman whose husband has been acting strangely after making contact with a mysterious extraterrestrial object.
Said alien rock was carrying tiny ant-like creatures that make their way to D.C. and soon start infecting Washington bigwigs, like Republican Sen. Red Wheatus (Tony Shalhoub). He was a drunk with little regard for politics before the space bugs got to him. But after they literally forced his brain out of his body, he immediately became motivated to regain control of Congress from the Democrats (who initially hold the majority).
This is not a show that is interested in subtlety. The central metaphor in “Braindead” mirrors the show’s title: Congressmen are practically zombies anyway, amirite? Will anyone even notice if a few are under the control of space bugs with an unclear agenda?
Portraying the movers and shakers in Congress as mindless (or soulless) is nothing new on the small screen.
Frank Underwood blackmailed, bullied and murdered his way from the Hill to the White House on “House of Cards.” Shonda Rhimes must have had some nasty experiences with politicians, because every congressman on “Scandal” has a closet brimming with skeletons. On “Veep,” every interaction Selina Meyer has with a lawmaker in or outside the White House generally devolves into an expletive-heavy shouting match.
“Braindead” comes from the team behind CBS’ “The Good Wife,” a show about how politics can sully even the most pure of intentions. In this case, that loss of innocence is portrayed through aliens rather than cheating husbands and scumbag lawyers.
It is focused less on the dirty underbelly of politics, and more on examining why it seems to take so much effort to get anything of substance done, with or without some otherwordly help.
One of the first big challenges Laurel faces in the pilot involves organizing a meeting between her brother and Wheatus to avert an impending government shutdown (sound familiar?). Her brother receives the invitation with more than enough time to act, but decides not to avert the shutdown just to make his Republican colleagues look like the enemy.
Later, a little wheeling and dealing between Laurel and a Wheatus aide (the aide was promised a $48 million earmark for autism research, a plot point directly stolen from a “West Wing” episode) led to a sit-down between Wheatus and Luke to end the shutdown.
“I never talk to Democrats anymore,” Wheatus lamented over drinks.
After the bugs infected Wheatus, his tone changed from conciliatory to aggressive. “You like gathering the Democrats and having to beg for every morsel of legislative clout?” he asked his aide before throwing out the deal he made with Luke and making a power move to simultaneously end the shutdown and strengthen his party.
That sort of partisan thinking has been frustrating lawmakers and the public alike ever since the relationship between the Democratic White House and Republican Congress seemingly fractured beyond repair.
President Obama spoke about his disappointment with this state of affairs during an address on his administration’s efforts to fight the Islamic State two days after the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history occurred at a nightclub in Orlando, Fla.
“Sadly, we’ve all become accustomed to this kind of partisanship, even when it comes to battling extremist groups,” he said about the constant struggle to make any meaningful legislative headway.
The show doesn’t make any sweeping generalizations about which side of the aisle is at fault for this mess. In fact, “Braindead” bends over backwards not to offend either party.
“‘Braindead’ … is aggressively apolitical,” wrote The Atlantic’s Megan Garber. “It avoids political alienation by way of, you know, actual aliens. It navigates the paradox of partisan TV by mocking partisanship itself.”
One episode in, “Braindead” seems to be most concerned with raising a simple question: Can the partisan gap in Congress be bridged only by brainwashing the major players into action?
Joshua Axelrod covers the intersection of entertainment and politics for the Washington Examiner.
