For years, my wife Carol urged me to watch “Madam Secretary.”
I kept saying I’d get around to it, but kept failing to do so, until recently. Whereupon I learned, yup, just how good it is. I’m two seasons in, and loving it.
The series, which ran from 2014 to 2019, tells the story of Téa Leoni’s Elizabeth McCord, a former CIA analyst who unexpectedly becomes Secretary of State after her predecessor dies in a plane crash.
Costarring Tim Daly as McCord’s husband, Henry, a theology professor and former Marine aviator, “Madam Secretary” is smart and suspenseful in its depiction of the complex geopolitical environment Elizabeth has to operate within. It’s part pressure-cooker, part chess match, and the same can be said of the fierce office politics she has to cope with in the White House.
So why did I drag my feet when it came to watching “Madam Secretary”? Was it because it aired on fusty old CBS?
Had I internalized the idea that a show on a broadcast network would inevitably be too formulaic to hold my interest, that the real action and boundary-pushing immediacy was to be found on premium cable channels like HBO and Showtime or on streaming platforms like Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, and Apple TV+?
I don’t think that’s it. Snobbery has never been an element of my viewing habits. It makes no sense when it comes to television, a medium with a vast and varied menu.
Moreover, the broadcast networks have been at this a long time, and they know what they’re doing, at least once in a while.
Consider the superb new version of “Matlock” on CBS, which stars the great Kathy Bates as a lawyer determined to identify those she holds responsible for her daughter’s death, and is providing Bates with the late-career showcase she deserves.
Or “Tracker,” also on CBS, which stars Justin Hartley as the lone wolf Colter Shaw, who finds missing people for reward money. The series allows Hartley to demonstrate his action-adventure chops after six years playing the more emotive Kevin Pearson on NBC’s “This Is Us.”
What was more likely at play was my reluctance to commit to a multi-season series (and the broadcast networks tend to have more episodes per season than cable or streaming platforms do). As consumers in the attention economy and the demand side of the supply-and-demand equation in an era of infinite supply, that’s a factor a lot of us have to consider these days — at least those of us who are compulsive completists.
The universe of shows worth watching just keeps expanding. We’re so constantly bombarded with new series that FOMO has become our common condition.
I still find it hard to give up on a TV show. As with novels, I need to see how it ends, and whether it gets worse or better along the way. When I told my nephew that I had (by that point) “hate-watched” about 60 hours of Showtime’s “Ray Donovan,” he replied: “If you’ve watched 60 hours, you’re not hate-watching. You’re just watching.’’ A fair point!
I still have several more seasons of “Madam Secretary” to watch. Will it fall off a cliff, quality-wise, as onetime faves like “The Good Wife” and “Suits” did after a few stellar seasons? Or will it continue to reward my high hopes and expectations all the way through, like “Breaking Bad” did?
I guess I’ll find out. In the words of the immortal Elaine May, “The only safe thing is to take a chance.’’
Also? When someone whose judgment you trust gives you advice, take it.
“Madam Secretary” is available for purchase on Prime Video and Apple TV+.
Don Aucoin is the Globe’s theater critic and an arts-critic-at-large.
This week’s TV: Elizabeth Banks in ‘The Better Sister,’ Mike Birbiglia’s special, Jesse Armstrong’s ‘Mountainhead’In the era of reboots, what does a great series finale mean?
Comment count: