Graves

First season was better than expected. Second season was pretty bad-tough to finish. A third season would have ruined it entirely. Thankfully they put it out of its misery. Overall: average.

Anything with Sela Ward gets a 10, and then you work backwards.

Nick Nolte has become a caricature of himself and the days of "Affliction" are long, long gone.

Think of Bill Maher writing a series of acts of contrition for George W. Bush, spend no time editing them or inserting irony and wit, and you have "Graves".

The stereotypical characters, including the cameos of "real life" politicians, make you embarrassed to watch, and if you are looking for some nexus or meaningful connection to the current election campaign, do not hold your breathe.

Hard to figure out why it was not so much better. A group of professionals phoned it in.

Former Republican President Richard Graves (Nick Nolte) is adored by his supporters, and reviled by almost everyone else. He starts to have doubts about his legacy. His wife Margaret (Sela Ward) is looking to run for office. Isaiah Miller (Skylar Astin) is his true-believer new body man. His daughter Olivia (Heléne Yorke) has a broken marriage. His son Jeremy (Chris Lowell) is bitter after four years in the army. Sammy (Callie Hernandez) is the new waitress at his local diner who opens up his eyes to a new outlook.

Nick Nolte sorta works as this burnt-out former man of power. He has the demeanor. The varying cast around him mostly work as individual characters. It's the interconnections and the plot writing that often falls down. The waitress is an odd character to get sucked into his world. She needs to be tied to the family a lot more securely. At a certain point, there are too many recurring characters. It needs to work on the relationships between the main characters. I like all the actors and Nolte does his good standard gruffness. The plot does keep drifting which gives the show an unhelpful instability.

I was apprehensive about another political series, but politics are not the focus here; life and maturity are. There are moments of pathos and moments of laugh-out-loud comedy. Nick Nolte has always been an underrated actor. He is fantastic!! Sela Ward is perfect as the strong matriarch. The entire cast are great actors and they work so well together. They are so comfortable in their roles. They are like those chance meetings of people in your life that turn into lifelong friendships. You look forward to spending time with the Graves family every week. The 1st episode didn't grab me, but I hung in there and I am so glad I did!

I usually like political satire shows, and this in a way is a great satire with a nice touch. Nick Nolte, which I never though much as an action actor, surprised me with a great performance. I had to watch the first episode twice to really appreciate the humor and Mr. Noltes performance. The rest of the cast is doing, OK, but it's Mr. Noltes performance that really shine in this show, as he should do of course. (Just that it's not every time that the lead star manages to do that though.)

In short: Funny show, with political satire. Best performance of Nick Nolte so far in his career.