This is no West Wing While I never got deeply into West Wing whenever I watched it you can't help but love the intelligent plots, the snappy dialog, and the smart characters. This show appears to be missing pretty much all of that. Granted it's not trying to bill itself as West Wing but as I watched the first few episodes I couldn't help but feel like it was trying really hard to make me interested and make this a 'hard" and "realistic" portrayal of political life. But I don't buy it. There is some pretty top notch talent here. Carla is usually solid, although generally lacks dimension in her characters, Sigourney, well she plays the same thing in everything and rarely impresses, Ellen Burstyn is actually fun to watch but doesn't get a lot of meat to her role, so ultimately it's not that great, the greatest disappointment here is Ciaran Hinds. Personally I think he is an excellent actor. Everything I've seen him in he's done great. But here is completely wasted. Not only does a southern drawl not suit him well, but it's just not the kind of character he portrays usually. He plays the Bill Clinton-esque philanderer who is supposed to be magnetic. Instead he feels kind of slimy, old fashioned, and just uninteresting. Too bad, too bad. I think Ciaran would be better suited for a more intellectual and layered role, but oh well. Regardless the whole show to me just feels like it's trying too hard and really trying to be this hard political show when it's just another USA snoozer. USA puts out good stuff occasionally but ultimately it's usually unoriginal or unintelligent takes on better shows from cable networks like AMC, HBO, and Showtime. Too bad, I was curious, but now I have no interest.