As I found myself bored, scrolling through the Netflix options at 1 a.m. during fall break, I stumbled upon a Netflix original, The Politician. The show first aired on September 27th, 2019. I was immediately drawn to the show due to the main character, played by Ben Platt. I had little to no background information on the show besides that. Platt plays a high school senior, Payton Hobart who is running for students body president. Payton has had the dream of being President of the United States since he was seven years old and being student body president seemed to be one small step towards his future, but boy was he wrong.
The first season of the series is eight episodes, each spanning from around 35 minutes to 58 minutes. Payton tries to do all the right things and make himself seem like the perfect candidate and the perfect person. Through this journey of campaigning, Payton finds himself in dangerous, scary, and controversial situations. He is forced to make choices that affect not only himself, but his friends and campaign team which ultimately make him question whether or not he is a good person, or he just wants to make his way to the White House.
Throughout his campaign his mother Georgina Hobart, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, is his biggest fan and number one supporter. Although he is adopted, Payton and Georgina have an unbreakable bond, one that Payton’s brothers and father could never understand.
After a new opponent joins the race with a running mate that is sure to get all the votes, Payton tries to find a running mate that will make him seem more relatable, as well as get him some sympathy votes. He decides that Infinity Jackson, played by Zoey Deutch, a girl with cancer, would do the trick. I don’t want to give any spoilers, but nothing is as easy as Payton thought it would be.
The Politician drew me in from the first episode, and it is easily one of Netflix’s new bingeable series. It is dramatic, funny, scary and even has Ben Platt singing. I mean, what else do you want from a show?
Season 2 is said to premiere in the summer of 2020.