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.

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!

In today's more crowded than ever TV landscape it's easy to miss some rare gems airing on channels like Epix not known for their original programming. "Graves," starring Nick Nolte and Sela Ward is one of those gems. The setup is that Graves, played by a gravel-voiced Nolte doing the best work in his career, is a former two term Republican president (a cross between Reagan and George W. Bush) lauded by conservatives for his regressive, anti-immigrant, anti-gay, anti-environment - basically anti anything good, policies which have wreaked havoc on the country.

Now, twenty years out of office, he has an epiphany where he realizes what a genuinely horrible president he was. Wracked with regret and on a constant verge of a nervous breakdown, he embarks on a whacked out odyssey of redemption all to the consternation of his respectable Republican wife, played by Sela Ward also doing the best work in her career. Who knew she was that funny? This show is one of the smartest and funniest political shows to hit TV in years. Unlike Veep, which though funny is completely cynical and cold, Graves is funny AND filled with genuine emotion. The humanity and vulnerability of the characters in "Graves" make the laughs much deeper and more satisfying than anything Veep has ever done. Graves also has smarter writing and better acting than any other comedy on TV today. One would have to go back to the "All In the Family" to find a comparable show that combines politics, social issues and comedy in such a brilliant way.

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.

I only watched the first episode of this series, but I feel there's no reason to believe the show would get any better.

The basic premise is an ex-U.S. president regrets his actions in office and decides to rectify all the awful choices that make him a historically terrible president. (Graves seems to be mainly based on GW Bush, who certainly ranks as one of the worst presidents.)

First off, this is a very silly fantasy premise. Politicians are huge egotists, and they really feel qualified to make all these decisions. Certainly some presidents have looked back at some of their decisions with regret, but I suspect most of them would insist that at the time of those decisions it was a sensible option. I certainly don't think any president would do a 180 because pundits and historians were attacking him; after all, there would also be pundits and historians praising him - even Bush gets that.

But the first episode suggests the real problem with the series will be cowardice. Because the first thing Grave says he'll try and rectify is cutting funding for cancer research.

Is there any issue that is safer than saying, I'll do more for cancer research? As terrible as cancer is, it's very well funded and thus not struggling as much as a lot of other programs.

If this were a political satire, which it pretends to be, it would start off with something genuinely controversial. Voter-suppressive ID laws, immigration policies, abortion.

Perhaps the series is just warming up, but here's the thing; satire doesn't dip its toe in the water to check the temperature. It doesn't ease you in. Satire is cutting and savage and strikes out in all directions. Satire, in other words, is Veep. Graves is, well, not much of anything.

I wouldn't be as annoyed with the series cowardice if it just had the decency to be funny. But I didn't laugh once.

That being said, the acting is good, even if the characters are stock.