The Girls on the Bus: Full Season
April 11, 2024 6:47 PM - Season 1 (Full Season) - Subscribe
Follow along as a bunch of reporters follow political candidates along the primary trail and wait for the drama to unfold.
The Girls on the Bus is supposed to be based on a book written by a journalist who covered Hillary Clinton’s campaign, but this isn’t about that political ride. This is all fictional, except when it’s not.
And when isn’t it?
Well, for starters some of the candidates look awfully familiar. There are stand-ins for a small-town mayor making his first entrance onto the national stage (à la Pete Buttigieg—albeit a straight one) portrayed by Scott Foley, a lefty-socialist firebrand reminiscent of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez played by Tala Ashe, a very, very elder politician who has been around since the dinosaurs roamed, an action hero actor (Mark Consuelos) who has jumped into politics, etc.
The titular “girls” are reporters for a variety of media outlets. Melissa Benoist is Sadie McCarthy (are the viewers supposed to ponder about her last name—who knows?) the main character, a reporter with lefty sympathies who wears here heart on her sleeve and who “sees” and “talks” to the ghost/idea of Hunter S. Thompson. (Sadie, you need better role models.) Melissa plays Sadie with pretty much exactly the same energy and approach she did Kara/Supergirl in the Arrowverse.
Carla Gugino is the very put-together, very professional, been-there-done that long-time pro (and nepo baby) Grace, who isn’t quite as good a mother as she is a reporter. Christina Elmore is Kimberly, the Black conservative reporter working for the show’s Fox News counterpart while trying to juggle wedding planning. Natasha Behnam’s Lola is the very-sponsored TikToker and Instagrammer who is trying to change the world by reaching directly to Gen Z, ignoring the old white men and looking down her nose at the corporate hacks.
Greg Berlanti (master of the Arrowverse) is the top executive producer, which is why I really wanted my summary to be something like the following (although knowing it would show up on the main FanFare page, I figured I had better save it for the “more inside”):
Kara (Supergirl) Danvers decides to get serious about her career as a journalist at CatCo and gets assigned to cover a contender for the Democratic Primary. But there is something evil lurking behind the political scenes (is it Lex Luthor pulling the strings?) that is going to threaten American democracy itself. Cue a team up when Kara bands together with a bunch of misfit heroes (fingers crossed Zari feels like participating in the crossover and doesn’t sit it out as Legends sometimes do) to join hands and pray that Beebo’s love and friendship can save the country. (Guest starring one of Aquaman’s distant relatives.)
And no, I had no idea about the Arrowverse connections until I started watching it, despite having watched almost all of the Arrowverse episodes, I don't go seeking out people associated with that universe.
The Girls on the Bus is supposed to be based on a book written by a journalist who covered Hillary Clinton’s campaign, but this isn’t about that political ride. This is all fictional, except when it’s not.
And when isn’t it?
Well, for starters some of the candidates look awfully familiar. There are stand-ins for a small-town mayor making his first entrance onto the national stage (à la Pete Buttigieg—albeit a straight one) portrayed by Scott Foley, a lefty-socialist firebrand reminiscent of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez played by Tala Ashe, a very, very elder politician who has been around since the dinosaurs roamed, an action hero actor (Mark Consuelos) who has jumped into politics, etc.
The titular “girls” are reporters for a variety of media outlets. Melissa Benoist is Sadie McCarthy (are the viewers supposed to ponder about her last name—who knows?) the main character, a reporter with lefty sympathies who wears here heart on her sleeve and who “sees” and “talks” to the ghost/idea of Hunter S. Thompson. (Sadie, you need better role models.) Melissa plays Sadie with pretty much exactly the same energy and approach she did Kara/Supergirl in the Arrowverse.
Carla Gugino is the very put-together, very professional, been-there-done that long-time pro (and nepo baby) Grace, who isn’t quite as good a mother as she is a reporter. Christina Elmore is Kimberly, the Black conservative reporter working for the show’s Fox News counterpart while trying to juggle wedding planning. Natasha Behnam’s Lola is the very-sponsored TikToker and Instagrammer who is trying to change the world by reaching directly to Gen Z, ignoring the old white men and looking down her nose at the corporate hacks.
Greg Berlanti (master of the Arrowverse) is the top executive producer, which is why I really wanted my summary to be something like the following (although knowing it would show up on the main FanFare page, I figured I had better save it for the “more inside”):
Kara (Supergirl) Danvers decides to get serious about her career as a journalist at CatCo and gets assigned to cover a contender for the Democratic Primary. But there is something evil lurking behind the political scenes (is it Lex Luthor pulling the strings?) that is going to threaten American democracy itself. Cue a team up when Kara bands together with a bunch of misfit heroes (fingers crossed Zari feels like participating in the crossover and doesn’t sit it out as Legends sometimes do) to join hands and pray that Beebo’s love and friendship can save the country. (Guest starring one of Aquaman’s distant relatives.)
And no, I had no idea about the Arrowverse connections until I started watching it, despite having watched almost all of the Arrowverse episodes, I don't go seeking out people associated with that universe.
If you're curious about the book it's based on, it's Amy Chozick's Chasing Hillary: Ten Years, Two Presidential Campaigns, and One Intact Glass Ceiling, which the NYT describes as 'The Devil Wears Prada meets The Boys on the Bus' (this is intended as a compliment).
posted by box at 9:18 AM on April 12 [1 favorite]
posted by box at 9:18 AM on April 12 [1 favorite]
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It’s not genius, prestige peak TV. It leans pretty heavily on soap-opera elements. Everybody has dramatic back stories that keep revealing themselves episode after episode. Scandals pop up like dandelions in a green lawn after a summer rain. There is political intrigue. There are cliched bits that I guess are supposed to be played for jokes such as Sadie’s editor being shown eating pretty much every time she calls him.
There are also some really odd fantasy/dream sequences that are doing their absolute best to single-handedly balance Hollywood's objectifying women : objectifying men ratio. (Seriously, these feel really jarring and out of place when they crop up.)
But there is a pretty honest (as these modern TV things go—I mean, it’s no Lou Grant) discussion about journalism, how it works today, what it means to be a journalist, journalism ethics and related topics. This is the show I’m here to watch (including the anonymous source plot that leaves the characters to joke about Deep Throat and following the money).
I’m really not interested in the big, secret, threatening politics as we know it conspiracy (and I’m not letting the cat out of the bag with this detail, the show pretty much starts there and flashes back, thanks to a voice-over-narrative).
So far, I'm along for the ride and I have no intentions of calling for an early bus stop.
posted by sardonyx at 6:52 PM on April 11