S01.E03: The Operative

[Tara Ariano]

A hostile reporter confronts Elizabeth, threatening to publish confidential documents that were leaked from inside the State Department. Meanwhile, Henry ends up in the middle of an international negotiation when his wife uses his job as leverage to broker a deal with Pakistan.

[Primetimer]

Answering the age-old question: is there such a thing as F-minus?

Read the story

[Morbs]

If I was Tea Leoni after reading this script I would be going nuts and trying to get out of my contract.  What an embarrassment for everyone involved. They must have drank during the scenes about the ethics class grade just to get through it.

 

Waiter, check please.  I'm done.

Edited October 6, 2014 by Morbs

[Latverian Diplomat]

I thought just being the scion of a powerful foreign official was a ticket to Harvard on its own. GPA is for the lower upper classes to worry about.

[Kris117]

Waiter, check please.  I'm done.

 

Same here. This show has not gotten any better. I think it has gotten worse. I saw some potential in the pilot, but I can't remember what that was now. And this is coming from someone who has watched every episode of Under the Dumb! 

 

I can't believe this episode spent several minutes talking about college grades. And how did the Russian plan to sell his change of heart to his own government? "Hey, comrades, everything is okay now, because my daughter is getting an incomplete!" Faugh. It would serve them all right if the daughter refused her incomplete and pitched the world powers into a confrontation!

[candall]

I love this show, but. . .I'm not sure about weighing the possibility of damage to your career as a religion/ethics professor against a man's life and coming down in favor of job security.

[sifar]

BRING BACK HOT MERCENARY!!! (Caps are so needed here)

 

Phew, now that that is out of my system, what the hell did I just watch? I think I'm done until he shows up again.

 

I thought just being the scion of a powerful foreign official was a ticket to Harvard on its own. GPA is for the lower upper classes to worry about.

 

Thank you.

Edited October 6, 2014 by sifar

[Tabbylover]

This must have been one of the dumbest plots I have ever seen on American Television, and I watch a lot of it so my suspension of disbelief muscle is pretty flexible.

If I would have rolled my eyes as much as I wanted to, I would have done permanent damage to my eyesight. I thought this was supposed to be a "serious drama", but it totally felt like "Yes, Prime Minister" and not in a good way. 

Edited October 6, 2014 by Tabbylover

[mrsdalgliesh]

Barbara Hall, writers, whoever: if you wanted the Sec of State's husband to be involved in her work (and I'd argue you could do this show without that happening), then you SHOULD HAVE GIVEN HIM A JOB WHERE THAT MIGHT HAPPEN. You didn't. So no, you can't. do. this. It's RIDICULOUS.

I'm shouting, I know, but I love Tea Leoni and her gravely voice and her one or two facial expressions, and I want to watch her on my teevee. Don't make it impossible.

[kaygeeret]

Allison Lowe Huff, I am on my knees bowing in your direction - - your recap was 2 THOUSAND times better than the actual episode!

I admit that I watched Brooklyn Nine Nine and then switched. I even had GUILT because I love Tea Leoni.

And then the whole grades vs. life and then the whole.....thing really.

Wow, just wow, who the hell wrote this, what the hell is the plan from the show runners?

Think of the acting talent here, Bebe, Tea, Tim - not to mention am absolutely top notch supporting group. And this is what the writers come up with?

Shame on everyone in production!

Brooklyn Nine Nine is now my priority and I will tune in to Madame Secretary around that. I still like the cast that much.

Geesch!

[sensorsweep]

I was pretty confused by the journalist. 

They acknowledge the Snowden leaks in-universe, Leoni seems to believe she is a legitimate journalist, but then they have her behave like a teenager writing for their high-school paper, reporting on their least favourite teacher's messy divorce followed by his night in the drunk tank after trying to swim laps in the fountain in front of city hall.

 

I don't think newspapers are allowed to out covert operatives. 

I'm pretty sure the 1st amendment doesn't cover that. 

I could only stomach 20 minutes of this episode, so maybe they address this (doubtful). 

 

And if the Russian is really that powerful, couldn't he just donate something to Harvard to grease the wheel? 

Or have a team of Russian hackers, change her grade a week after the term ends?

Edited October 6, 2014 by maraleia
capitalization please

[marsha]

Years ago, a friend told me that a friend of theirs said she had decided that everyone in her life was allowed four quirks. Once you tipped over into quirk number five it was so long, it's been good to know ya! Being someone who both fancied and feared they had a veritable trunk load of 'quirks' this way of handling one's friends and life both scared and kind of thrilled me too. It's not something I've consciously adopted for myself but, on the other hand, I never forgot it either.

 

So, that said: Madame Secretary is one of my new friends (not new 'best friend' as that would be Transparent). This episode, as much as I love the cast (especially Téa, Bebe and Zeljko) and still think is a decent lead-in to The Good Wife is officially: quirk one.

[Dowel Jones]

Showrunners, a little more (maybe a lot more drama) and a lot less Hallmark-happy-ending-every-time writing.  PLEASE.  If I were the SoS and running with that grade swap idea, I would just go to the school staff (they're probably ex-CIA too) and have them change the grade at the end of the semester.  Tell hubby about it afterward.  No need to poke holes in his precious ethics balloon.  And by the way, spying can be effected in many ways and places, Madam Secretary.  Such as long distance surveillance dishes aimed at an unsecured residence, so to speak. 

 

...reporting on their least favourite teacher's messy divorce followed by his night in the drunk tank after trying to swim laps in the fountain in front of city hall.

 

I take offense at that!  I don't know where you got that information, because that fountain is nowhere near city hall!

 

Ms. Huffy Reporter just lost her seat on the White House Press Corps.

[bros402]

It might be because I am sleep deprived and wasn't listening to a portion of the dialogue, but the episode was entertaining, but very... scattered.

 

The Viper plotline went from "wow this is the baby boomer's version of wikileaks" to "hey lol the guy behind it needs us to help him because he has a common third world disease"

 

that plot was big to the episode, but it didn't feel like it did much of anything except grease the wheels of the main plot, which was the CIA asset.

 

At least they didn't do another covert solution to solve a diplomatic crisis.

 

In response to someone above saying that the husband shouldn't be involved in her work, he can be, but i'd imagine more for things like people trying to get in the good graces of the SoS.

 

Or hell, have one of his students (who happens to be the child of someone at an embassy) get kidnapped while studying abroad, then he can be involved in the story tangentially.

 

Or maybe they'll just get in a territorial dispute with god and they need the help of the religion/ethics professor. Yep.

 

So far tonight, Homeland >>>>>>>> Madam Secretary

 

but i'm probably going to still watch this because it is a piece of media to consume and I am rather tired and I could not focus on anything else other than TV

[Beach Party]

Elizabeth needs to lose big sometimes.  The episodes are too sugary when they are wrapped up neatly in 60 minutes with her saving the day.  She mostly shows up that skinny short balding advisory character in the White House and that weakens his character.

[izabella]

I guess if I stop hoping this show will be more like West Wing, I'd like it better.  As it is, I think it's a waste of a good cast, especially Bebe Neuwirth. 

 

Benghazi, WikiLeaks, what's next?

[tom87]

Why do we have more development on her 3 kids then her staff?

 

Besides the underwhelming use of Bebe we have Tony award winner Patina Miller who has said 3 lines in 3 episodes

[Driad]

 

What are some current predictions on when this will be canceled?

 

In the mean time I'm with kaygeeret -- except when I watch Brooklyn 99, missing half of Madam Secretary is not a problem because I'm not really missing anything.

[xtwheeler]

This is one of those shows where they barely waited to air the first episode before proclaiming "One of Fall's Hot New Shows!" or whatever. They're trying to generate buzz, and I just don't think its working. I'm not a big Tea Leone fan, but I am enjoying her in this role. I agree that she's doing to much WINNING of everything, but I genuinely chuckled at a few lines (I especially identified with the "we spy because we love" conversation).  I also love that her husband is a Religion professor, having been down that academic path partway.  I was beyond annoyed at his refusal to save the actual life of an actual man because of "ethics."  There is no system of ethics that I subscribe to that places an academic's nobility above the lives of real humans.  I do get that "ethics means there are no exceptions" for him, I just don't buy it. Any real American ethics professor would have seen the parents on the news pleading, heard the stories, seen the sisters, etc., and I think been moved by the real (TV) life example of balanced ethics in practice, not in theory.  In my personal worldview, ivory tower ethics do not trump people's lives.

 

How on earth do they expect me to believe in this day and age that someone so apparently sinister as Carradine would be elected president? Isn't he king of the "Creepy Hey It's That Guy" kingdom?

[Texasmom1970]

I believe in free speech and all but I wanted to slap the hell out of the blonde reporter chick who was yelling and demanding things with Madam Secretary.

I might be petty but she would be getting lots of parking tickets or traffic violations after behaving lIke a petulant child with me!

[Tim McD]

Do all covert agents have GoPro cameras mounted to their dashboards so their bosses back home can enjoy their panicked expressions as they flee scary foreign would-be captors?

[tom87]

Do all covert agents have GoPro cameras mounted to their dashboards so their bosses back home can enjoy their panicked expressions as they flee scary foreign would-be captors?

Yes but cops can't get dashboard cams  at home.

Edited October 7, 2014 by tom87

[Aethera]

I don't even know where to start commenting on this episode; I'll just wind up in a giant rant. So I'll just say I'm done with this show.  Christ, that was absolutely horrible.  I'm going to go watch terrible Season 5 West Wing instead and find appreciation for something I took for granted.

[Tim McD]

What purpose does President I'm Easy serve here? He has about one line per episode which is usually either "Let's go with Elizabeth" or "Let's go with the bald guy."

[iMonrey]

I think the recapper pretty much nailed all the problems with this episode. I watched the pilot and liked it because the cast is so good and it was fairly easy to follow. I missed the second episode due to all the football, so this is my second episode and boy was it dumb. Just the idea of some top Russian government official willing to broker a backdoor deal to sell Pakistan some kind of dangerous weapon in exchange for an "A" for his daughter - wow. Just, wow. Whoever came up with this plot should be fired, and banished from writing anything more important than a grocery list ever again.

 

I'm not quite ready to give up, yet, this being only my second episode, but this show better get a lot better.

[TV Anonymous]

If the Russian Foreign Minister wanted his daughter to go to Harvard for graduate studies, why did he contact Prof. McCord? Why did he not contact, I do not know... The President of Harvard University? If he was the child of the "second most powerful man in Russia," surely Harvard can make accommodation. For those people, does undergraduate GPA really matter? After all, George Bush, jr. is a Harvard graduate.

 

Since when does the SecState have operational control of U.S. Military? That is the SecDef's job. Speaking about SecDef, three episodes about national security and the SecDef is nowhere to be seen? It seems even that the PMC head had more say in miltary operations than SecDef.

 

And what kind of reporter ambushed the SecState like that and lived to see the journalistic day? She and her newspaper basically burned all the bridges they have with the U.S. Government. And then still had the gall to demand stuff?

 

That is right, suspension of the suspension of disbelief indeed.

[seamusk]

I love the premise of this show and I actually really like the cast and I even find it entertaining.  But, there is a lot of tv out there, and only so much time.  And I think the grade swap for a defense system is just so stupid that I really do have better things to watch.  Yes, that means i'm choosing shows like Z Nation over this, because at least with Z Nation, I know it's meant to be a bit ridiculous.  I might return later in life via netflix but I doubt this show gets past a season or two anyhow so it probably won't be worth it.

[torqy]

"A sweaty, brain-damaged hippo"???

Sorry, I spewed soda the first time, and can't let go of it...

You'd think people in that line of work would know not to put anything in email but business...

Edited October 9, 2014 by torqy

[Kromm]

The funny thing is it wasn't even a bad episode (in many ways better than the previous ones) up UNTIL the ridiculous premise of "grades for weapons for spies' was introduced.  I mean it had Elizabeth actually doing the kind of work an actual Secretary of State would be doing, and even the Chief of Staff and his Mysterious Assistant Presidency didn't get in the way. THEN they had to ruin it with the shittiest plot device ever.

[shapeshifter]

My version of the plot resolution: Hubby Ethics Professor changes the grade, and then, as soon as spy guy is safe at home, Hubby Professor gives a lecture to his students in which he poses the scenario of changing a student's grade at the behest of a powerful politician father in exchange for a man's life.

The lecture, of course, is captured on a cell phone and goes on YouTube.

Then, either the Russian daughter (still in his class) makes them change the grade back to a C, and/or we flash forward to a meeting of Russian dad and Harvard admission officer in which Dad has to now sweeten the deal with a new wing to the Harvard ethics center.

I wanted the recovering wormy guy to have to meet and be offered to shake hands with the spy guy's hand with the freshly amputated finger.

ETA: I understand actors getting Botox to look better for us viewers, but they really should have shot the last 20 minutes after Tea Leoni's facial muscles recovered a bit.

Edited October 10, 2014 by shapeshifter

[FozzyBear]

Ok so much stupid that I'm not even going to bother with the A plot. B plot with the kid and the texts kind of made me chuckle. Mr & Mrs secretary do have pretty good chemistry together. I buy them as that type of yuppie parent that must exist all the hell over DC. But on another note, don't all parents spy on teenagers? Is this a debate anywhere but TV land? I mean my parents straight up told us we had no expectation of privacy in their house. None. Because we were kids and stupid and they were our parents and in charge of us.

Edited October 30, 2014 by FozzyBear

[Netfoot]

I mean my parents straight up told us we had no expectation of privacy in their house. None. Because we were kids and stupid and they were our parents and in charge of us.

 

Ditto.  And that we actually owned nothing.

[myril]

People sometimes are petty and have some political power and influence. But I agree, pulling strings to give away an high-tech defensive weapon system for a good grade for the daughter was czaristic, and what a coincidence that it was the Russian Foreign Minister, who happened to be on some unofficial visit or so in Washington. It made no sense and was so cultural cliche. Of course, Russia. Right is that the diplomatic situation with Pakistan is complicate, but brokering a deal with Russia like this? Not believable, too much stretching for some character development. It's sure fiction, and I am okay with giving some leeway if it comes to accuracy even in a more or less real world setting (maybe even more there), but this was too much of it.

 

But enjoyed the family dynamics.

 

And the starting point of the episode had something. I am conflicted about things like Wikileaks, As much as I am for much transparency as much am I aware some of it is a delicate matter. One can argue, the journalist only published, it was the government putting people at risk as operatives, and they could have gotten busted in other ways any time, individually or in numbers. But still, what purpose does it serve to make these things publish without giving at least a day or two to prepare, so government could have gotten their operatives out under the radar? One doesn't need to be such an ignorant angry jerk to get a take on more political  transparency, and even if government had time time to prepare and try to do some damage control beforehand, the material should have been explosive enough to make government sweat, otherwise it would have been probably not worth the effort in my view.

 

Had to laugh though, when McCord got the journalist riled up so easily.

 

"A sweaty, brain-damaged hippo"???

Sorry, I spewed soda the first time, and can't let go of it...

You'd think people in that line of work would know not to put anything in email but business...

 

Yup, should think they would, but people are sometimes amazingly dumb, not just in fiction.

 

 

 I mean my parents straight up told us we had no expectation of privacy in their house. None. Because we were kids and stupid and they were our parents and in charge of us.

 

Grew up differently and would do it differently if I had kids. As I respected, that my parents deserved some privacy, I was given my privacy. But different ideas of pedagogy. Call that yuppie parents if you like, to me it just makes more sense to show kids early respect, not assume they're too stupid to get anything, and trust them to grow into being in charge of themselves while guiding them on the way to it.