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The 20 Best Political TV Shows

A ranked list of the 20 best shows about American politics, including ‘SNL,’ ‘The Wire,’ ‘Parks and Recreation,’ and more longtime favorites

Collage of political TV shows

Left to right: 'Parks & Recreation,' 'The West Wing,' 'Scandal,' '24,' 'Veep,' 'Who Is America?' PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY MATTHEW COOLEY. IMAGES IN ILLUSTRATION: NBC, 2; ABC, 2; HBO, 2. AMANDA EDWARDS/GETTY IMAGES.

From fantasies like The West Wing and Scandal to satires like Veep to historical dramas like Mrs. America, the small screen has given us a wide range of shows that channel our political hopes, fears, disappointments, and outrages. If our real-life system of government has you on edge, these shows will help you find renewed reasons for optimism, or explain the failures of the present by examining the past, or let you imagine you’re a covert operative who can blow the whole damn thing up, or just make you laugh with a bunch of really obscene nicknames.

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3

‘The Wire’

Maybe the only reason The Wire isn’t our number one pick is that, while it was incredible in how it dramatized modern politics, it was also incredible at how it dramatized everything about life in urban America at the turn of the century. In fact, it wasn’t even until the third season of David Simon an Ed Burns’ HBO drama that we even began to spend time in Baltimore’s City Hall, where councilman Tommy Carcetti (Aidan Gillen) ponders the uphill climb of running for mayor as a white candidate in a predominantly Black city. From that point on, The Wire deftly and devastatingly showed how political good fortune can often have little to nothing to do with the merits of a candidate, how quickly idealism can turn into opportunism, and how hard it is to effect meaningful change in a system that from most angles looks fundamentally broken. —A.S.

2

‘Veep’

If this list included shows about countries outside of America, Armando Iannucci’s satire of the British government, The Thick of It, would rank very high. Luckily, after ruthlessly mocking his own government, Iannucci came across the pond to do the same to ours with Veep. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, in an all-timer comedic performance, plays Vice President Selina Mayer, who has what’s theoretically the second-most powerful job in the world, but in practice has no power, no influence, and no opportunity except to repeatedly make a fool of herself thanks to her own shortcomings and those of her staffers. Veep takes the position that everyone who goes into politics is at best self-interested and amoral, and at worst a dangerous idiot. This gambit could play as relentlessly bleak, but the cast and the writing are so sharp that watching Selina and her cohort fail at everything they try becomes addictive, and hilarious. —A.S.

1

‘The West Wing’

There have been more realistic shows about American politics than this Aaron Sorkin-created drama about the administration of Martin Sheen’s Josiah Bartlet. But Sorkin’s conception of a world where well-meaning idealists get things done simply by being smart and caring deeply is an intoxicating family, and one buttressed by the fiery oratory of Sheen and the spectacular work of an ensemble that won many, many Emmys for Allison Janney, John Spencer, Richard Schiff, and others. Spend more than a few minutes following a walk-and-talk on the way to the Oval Office, and you, too, will want to declare that you serve at the pleasure of the president. —A.S.