Best TV Show/Movie Involving Politics (Fiction Only)

[Politico]

My favorite show/mini-series about fictitious politics would have to be Ian Richardson's House of Cards Trilogy (David Fincher and Kevin Spacey are currently working on an American remake, but it is unclear whether it will be set in America or England):

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098825/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108962/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111960/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1856010/

From the movie-end, I think Election (1999) is my favorite and the best of the bunch (the parallels with the 2000 Presidential Election are uncanny):

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0126886/

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Please share your own choices and discuss!

P.S. If there is a more appropriate forum for this thread, please move it there...

[Akno21]

West Wing for TV show, however cliched that response might be.

And I agree with Election; I just really like quirky late '90s high-school films. (Great Wikipedia tidbit: "Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand earned the nickname "Tracy Flick" within the New York Congressional delegation before her January 2009 appointment by NY Gov. David Paterson to fill Hillary Clinton's U.S. Senate seat, according to The New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd.")

[Paul Kemp]

The BBC miniseries "State of Play" was great. The American film wasn't that bad either.

I'm intrigued by the Clooney/Gosling film THE IDES OF MARCH, based off of the play "Farragut North" written by a former Dean '04 staffer . . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ides_of_March_(film)

The problem is that it's so easy for films and television shows about politics to become cliched. See: later seasons of  "The West Wing."

I might as well mention my favorite show "Mad Men." It's not a show about politics but it features it quite a bit. The principles of marketing and politics aren't that far apart anyway. 

[angus]

The sitcoms from the Golden Age were good for political debate.  My parents used to watch them when I was young, and I'd watch them too.  (Houses didn't have six or seven televisions back then, so we watch what our parents watched.)  M*A*S*H, which was ostensibly about Korea but was actually about Viet Nam, was incisive.  Government policy was routinely ridiculed, although few attempts at overt manipulation of policy were staged.  All in the Family was another good show, although it wasn't so much directly about policy as about attitude.  Good Times was another one.  It dealt more with the experience of being black in urban impoverishment in the 70s, but it also dealt with policy.  Remember Penny's abuse, and the response?  That was certainly an unveiled suggestion for state intervention.  Or when Sweet Daddy Williams didn't want to take Thelma's locket because it reminded him of his mama?  That was a metaphor for social policy, wasn't it.  And Michael was smart and overtly political.  A crusader always causing trouble in a system that set him up for failure. 

[Silent Hunter]

Yes, Minister.

[Edu]

The West Wing and Yes Minister/Prime Minister.
And does The Wire count?

[Lambsbread]

I feel like I'm gonna be made fun of for posting this, but I loved this movie.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1027862/

[You kip if you want to...]

The Thick of It.

[Insula Dei]

The Thick of It.

Quite enjoyed that one too.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Our Friends In The North or A Very British Coup, I think. At least in terms of things that are mostly about Politics.

[Politico]

I might as well mention my favorite show "Mad Men." It's not a show about politics but it features it quite a bit. The principles of marketing and politics aren't that far apart anyway.  

It really is an amazing show, huh? Definitely in my top five although I have to say that I found the most recent season not quite on par with the first three seasons. I am convinced that the show will end with the image of Don "celebrating" on December 31, 1969 in some broken down hotel room, on the run from the authorities for you-know-what finally catching up to him...no money, no job, no friends, his ex-wives and children wanting nothing to do with him...in a word, a man who had everything and lost it all. Oh, and Peggy will end up taking Don's place as Creative Director.

[Politico]

And does The Wire count?

Not sure because I have yet to watch it and do not know how it relates to politics (Ignored The Wire due to only enough time for The Sopranos and Mad Men after it), but I hear it is incredible and look forward to watching it sometime down the road.

[Lief 🗽]

The Wire is a very political show, but only the third season really focuses on politics.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

TV--The West Wing, though Roseanne covers the social issues of its era very well..

Movie--State of Play, Mr. Smith goes to Washington, V for Vendetta, W, and Oliver Stones Nixon are good.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I haven't seen state of play, though we have it.

I like the movies "Mr. Smith goes to Washington", "The Manchurian Candidate", and "The Best Man". Anyone seen "The Best Man"? Takes place in 1964 at a party's national convention. The two leading candidates are the former Secretary of State played by Henry Fonda, a liberal, and the more Conservative candidate, a Senator from somewhere out West, I believe. I think it was based on a play written by Gore Vidal. Fonda represents Stevenson while his Conservative rival represents John F Kennedy (who incidentally has his older brother running his campaign, himself a former candidate at one point or another). Very interesting movie.

Though it doesn't count non-fiction, I was entertained by "W." and "Nixon". Hoping to be able to see "Ides of March".

Probably leaving something out here.

Have there ever been any alternate history films made?

[Dancing with Myself]

TV- John Adams, what a great mini series. If you don't know much about Adams, give it a watch you will be amassed. Paul Giamati and Laura Liney were amazing

Movies- Mr. Smith, Primary Colors, The Special Relationship, W., or Dick.  For anyone has never seen it, Dick is a comedy about the Watergate scandal with Kristen Dunst, Michelle Williams, and Will Ferell. It is a really great and underrated comedy, and it does a good job being accurate with Watergate

[Politico]

Another decent political flick nobody has mentioned yet:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103125/

[Paul Kemp]

Another decent political flick nobody has mentioned yet:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103125/

Located right above your post . . . literally right above it . . .

TV- John Adams, what a great mini series. If you don't know much about Adams, give it a watch you will be amassed. Paul Giamati and Laura Liney were amazing

Movies- Mr. Smith, Primary Colors, The Special Relationship, W., or Dick.  For anyone has never seen it, Dick is a comedy about the Watergate scandal with Kristen Dunst, Michelle Williams, and Will Ferell. It is a really great and underrated comedy, and it does a good job being accurate with Watergate

[Politico]

Another decent political flick nobody has mentioned yet:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103125/

Located right above your post . . . literally right above it . . .

TV- John Adams, what a great mini series. If you don't know much about Adams, give it a watch you will be amassed. Paul Giamati and Laura Liney were amazing

Movies- Mr. Smith, Primary Colors, The Special Relationship, W., or Dick.  For anyone has never seen it, Dick is a comedy about the Watergate scandal with Kristen Dunst, Michelle Williams, and Will Ferell. It is a really great and underrated comedy, and it does a good job being accurate with Watergate

Really? Because True Colors (1991) and Primary Colors (1998) are completely different films with completely different titles.

[Paul Kemp]

Another decent political flick nobody has mentioned yet:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103125/

Located right above your post . . . literally right above it . . .

TV- John Adams, what a great mini series. If you don't know much about Adams, give it a watch you will be amassed. Paul Giamati and Laura Liney were amazing

Movies- Mr. Smith, Primary Colors, The Special Relationship, W., or Dick.  For anyone has never seen it, Dick is a comedy about the Watergate scandal with Kristen Dunst, Michelle Williams, and Will Ferell. It is a really great and underrated comedy, and it does a good job being accurate with Watergate

Really? Because True Colors (1991) and Primary Colors (1998) are completely different films with completely different titles.

sh**t. My bad man. I guess that's what happens when I post while doing work.

[Leftbehind]

The first series of The Killing heavily involves politics, but not exclusively. I suppose it'd have to be A Very British Coup, but I haven't seen many in making that judgement.