‘Madam Secretary’ has had a great first season. It’s been exciting, mysterious and intelligent. The show makes you think about current political issues by having the Secretary have to encounter what’s going on in the real world. The season finale continued with that theme, but more controversially than most storylines have.
In the season finale President Dalton and the Iranian President signed a treaty, similar to the one that’s in negotiations in real life. In the show parts of the C.I.A. planned a coup in Iran and it almost happened. Elizabeth ended up right in the middle of it.
Now that the deal is signed, Elizabeth is questioning if they did the right thing. It was Jay that made her question everything they’ve done. He was fighting tirelessly to stop the stoning of a gay man in Iran. He came up with the perfect plan of a prisoner swap, but the Iranians wouldn’t sign off on it. They wanted the stoning to happen, because it was good optics.
Jay even got that thrown in his face when he tried to stop the protests from happening outside the White House during the treaty signing. It made him question, what they are actually fighting for? Why are they working with the Iranians?
Now Elizabeth is about to go into interrogate her friend and she’s afraid she’ll realize they made a huge mistake.
She told Jay that she had to weigh a nuclear bomb in the U.S. with that man’s life. That’s a hard choice to make. Even if you think it’s easy to just to pick saving more lives.
In the season finale Elizabeth was also faced with executing her friend and she had to lie to her friend’s husband in the process. Add this to her PTSD, it’s no wonder why she’s having doubts about the deal.
While Elizabeth has proven to be very smart and cunning, she’s also proven to be human. Her C.I.A. training has come in handy to get deals done. ‘Madam Secretary’ has been more of an intellectually exciting show than an action packed show, but it still proves to keep you at the edge of your seat.
This was a very interesting season finale because the mission and conspiracy since the beginning have come to an end. Sure there’s still Juliet to interrogate, but the treaty is signed and she’s in custody.
The cliff hanger doesn’t leave you wondering if someone is going to live or die. It doesn’t leave you wondering if the mission will be completed. It ends with Elizabeth questioning what they’ve been fighting for and it leaves you questioning the deal with Iran. Even if you still fall back on your current beliefs, you probably did question what you think about the deal in comparison to the show.
It’s a shame that younger people don’t watch this show, and I’ve said this before. The demographic for the show is older, but younger people should tune in too. It’s not a play-by-play narrative of what’s going on in politics today, but it does deal with the same issues that are being dealt with today. If you know what’s going on in the world, the show can make you think about it by giving you compelling storylines. If you don’t know what’s going on in the world, the show might prompt you to discover what’s happening. With the Presidential elections next year and the primary race already underway, there’s no better time to know what’s going on and to have an opinion about it.
‘Madam Secretary’ is a great way to introduce young people to politics. You’ve got a strong woman fighting for diplomacy, exciting storylines and real issues.
Here’s the preview for the season finale:
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhhvqZRIDFQ]