This photo released by Netflix shows Robin Wright as Claire Underwood in season 2 of Netflix's "House of Cards." (AP Photo/Netflix, Nathaniel E. Bell)
If you pay attention to politics, you may have noticed that former secretary of state Hillary Clinton ate some steak this weekend. (Or "cooked" some pre-cooked steak.) If you would like to know the symbolism of said steak, I would direct you elsewhere on the Internet, where the philosophical ramifications of masticating cholesterol-laden foods in the Midwest has been documented at length.
If you wanted to avoid learning more about Clinton, however, it's not quite clear where you should turn. Even television shows have been overtaken by the 2016 presidential election and the profile of its presumed frontrunner. Two shows in particular -- one featuring a female secretary of State, the other featuring a woman president -- have had people making connections like crazy.
Madam Secretary
The Los Angeles Times: "In what may be TV's most explicitly Hillary-inspired series to date, CBS will have "Madam Secretary" with Tea Leoni making her return to series television as Elizabeth McCord, a happily married, former CIA analyst who's settled into the quiet world of academia.
The Wrap: "One current event that the “Madam Secretary” producers don't seem particularly interested in broaching: Whether former secretary of state Hillary Clinton will run for president. Asked whether there was any talk about possibly titling the show 'Madam President,' given the buzz about Clinton's possible 2016 run for the presidency, executive producer Morgan Freeman was adamant. 'No,' Freeman insisted. 'I mean, none that came past me.'"
Entertainment Weekly: "CBS orders pilot about a female Secretary of State -- surely based on nobody in particular"
National Review: Another new Hillary imprint, titled Madam Secretary and portraying a “take-charge” secretary of state, premieres on CBS September 21. It could also be running when a former embattled secretary of state declares her presidential intentions in January.
The New York Times: "For some reason, Mrs. Clinton is embedded in several new fall dramas, most obviously 'Madam Secretary,' a new CBS drama with Téa Leoni playing a take-charge secretary of state."
American Thinker: "Evidently anticipating a Clinton candidacy in 2016, one of the many propaganda outlets of the Democratic Party, CBS, has decided to give her a boost with a new show titled 'Madam Secretary,' due out this fall."
Politico: Those behind the show say McCord is no Olivia Pope (from ABC’s “Scandal”), Claire Underwood (from Netflix’s “House of Cards”), or even Hillary Clinton even though the former Secretary of State does serve as some inspiration."
Deadline: "CBS‘ new drama series Madam Secretary, in which Tea Leoni plays the Secretary of State, came about because of Hillary Clinton and Benghazi, exec producer Lori McCreary told TV critics today at TCA Summer TV Press Tour 2014."
State of Affairs
National Review: "On November 17, 2014, NBC, the unofficial propaganda arm of both the White House and the Democratic party, is scheduled to premiere its new weekly drama, State of Affairs. ... Usually network shows run for a 13-episode season. That means State of Affairs has an excellent chance of airing through mid February 2015. Last week Hillary Clinton stated that she will announce her presidential intentions 'after the first of the year.'"
The New York Times: "There are also imprints of Mrs. Clinton on an NBC show, 'State of Affairs,' in which the president is a woman (Alfre Woodard) and her most trusted adviser (Katherine Heigl) is a bold C.I.A. analyst who daily assesses — and almost single-handedly averts — national security threats."
However, the reporting on these two shows fails to recognize the truth that all television shows are about Hillary Clinton -- although many that make that point explicitly known, like the CNN and NBC biopics proposed last year, have not survived.
Just as the doctors on "House" always thought that their patients might have lupus before landing on the correct diagnosis 40 minutes later, all television shows in the past few decades have had to discuss Hillary Clinton and what it all means for her future political career before being able to move on to other plots and themes.
This is the only topic Americans have ever been able to talk about.
In the words of Milhouse Van Houten: "We're through the looking glass here people."
Political Animals
The Washington Post: "Although the world is not yet clamoring for a strictly biographical Hillary Clinton miniseries (since the story is clearly unfinished), the time is definitely ripe for some fictional workout. At its best, "Political Animals" delves deeply into the unknowable: Why would a first lady remain with her husband after his Lewinsky-like dalliances in the Oval Office lead to permanent shame?"
Scandal
The Atlantic: "Even the once innocuous Quinn Perkins, Pope & Associates junior-most fixer, has cultivated her own strain of high-functioning sociopathy. Josie, however, is an ideal. She is the best parts of Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, and Kirsten Gillibrand amalgamated from what we've seen so far."
House of Cards
Veep
New York Magazine: "She’s wearing an oversize white fuzzy bathrobe, Uggs, and Selina’s wig, which is the exact color and texture of Louis-Dreyfus’s hair, except cut and styled like Hillary-hair, circa 2008."
The AV Club: "In a nice touch of verisimilitude, Selina avoids a total meltdown. She merely chokes up a little—just as Hillary Clinton did in New Hampshire in 2008—but relatively speaking, it’s an enormous crack in the façade."
Commander in Chief
The Post and Courier: "Maybe it's just coincidence, but as the unofficial Hillary Clinton for president campaign gets into gear, ABC officially has announced 'Commander-in-Chief,' a new fall series about a woman who ascends to the presidency."
The Special Relationship
The AV Club: "Even better is Hope Davis as Hillary Clinton. It's easy to turn portrayals of Hillary Clinton into making the woman a shrieking harridan, but Davis makes her a loose and funny woman who is, nonetheless, not as comfortable with strangers or in front of the camera as her incredibly gifted politician of a husband is."
Top Chef
Grantland: "His menu seems to be the only one even attempting to adhere to the dress code: chilled cauliflower soup (h/t to Hillary Clinton for the recipe), a green-bean-and-orzo salad with mozzarella, and grilled chicken with peppers and kielbasa."
Borgen
The AV Club: "As an American, the person I keep thinking of when watching Borgen is Hillary Clinton—but not for the reasons you’d think."
Parks and Recreation
The New Yorker: "This is what happened with 'Parks and Recreation' and its boss character, Leslie Knope. The deputy director of the Parks and Recreation Department in Pawnee, Indiana, Knope was initially a bubbly dimwit, with dreams of running for President. There were photographs of Hillary Clinton and Margaret Thatcher on her wall; both served as role models."
Raising Hope
The AV Club: "Then there are the other rare, precious things, like rib ticklers about diabetes and foot amputations, and the sight of a baby playing Hillary Clinton in a wig and a pantsuit. Comedy, too, is a harsh mistress."
Breaking Bad
Friday Night Lights
The AV Club: "For Tami that also meant dealing with the unspoken sexism that Janine Turner's Katie McCoy talks around when she points out that "nobody likes an angry woman." In other words, there are avenues of getting one's point across that aren't available to women. (Or minorities. Maybe it's just that we're in the middle of the election as I write this, but I couldn't help thinking of the restraint Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have had to employ this year that a white male candidate would not.)"
The Good Wife
The New York Daily News: 'We're avid readers of this stuff. It's human nature,' notes Michelle. 'We've been pulling from the headlines, but lately they've been pulling from us!' The couple started working on the project soon after Spitzer resigned, but also drew inspiration from similar high-profile cases, such as Bill and Hillary Clinton and John and Elizabeth Edwards."
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
The AV Club: "The costumes that each arrestee wore was pretty great: Royal baby, the Hillary Clinton-Kim Jong Un makeout sesh, the giant baked potato, sexy robot."
Sports Night
The AV Club: "And I have no desire to resist Dan’s delight at meeting Hillary Clinton. 'That Dan Rydell is such a bright young boy, so much more than sports scores and highlights,' he imagines her musing. 'I think I’ll make him my gentleman friend.'"
The West Wing
The Guardian: "Pundits have speculated as to whether or not Abby is based on Hillary Clinton, but really, if Hillary had ever been this likeable, the nation would have lynched her low-down, no-good husband. Channing concurs (with the first bit, not the second): 'I wouldn't have known where to start, basing her on Hillary Clinton.'"
The Sopranos
The AV Club: "Sign of the times: Hillary Clinton is still seen as a shrieking harridan by many of the women at Carmela’s little dinner. On the other hand, the women are all pleased with the fact that she 'set up her own thing.'"
Community
Battlestar Galactica
The AV Club: "When one Six model resorts to killing another to break an impasse - because no one else could legitimately do it - it reminded me eerily of Peggy Noonan's column today on how to get Hillary out of the race."
Friends
The Guardian: "Aniston became famous in Friends as The Haircut, The Rachel with the 'Just-Got-Out-Of-Bed' look. Hers was the cut that launched the image revamps of Hillary Clinton and Cherie Booth - despite the fact that Aniston herself had outgrown it."
The Big Bang Theory
The AV Club: "Seeing Penny in a Hillary ’08 shirt reminded me of a comment I’ve been holding onto for weeks now and have never gotten around to making, namely that Penny seems to stay in her sleepwear pretty much all day when she’s not at work."
