Tudor City on Film: THE POLITICIAN

This chapter of Tudor City on Film focuses on The Politician, a Netflix series from ubiquitous producer Ryan Murphy.

The show tells the story of a wealthy, tightly-wound young man seeking political office. He has no moral compass and will do anything to win. In Season One, he runs for student body president; in Season Two, for a New York state senate seat. 

Reviews of the series have been withering, with critics calling it a "perplexingly stale glimpse into American politics". . . "hollow". . . "ridiculous". . . "pointless." Thus, you might want to skip directly to the Tudor City sequence: Season 2, Episode 1, starting at 45:32.

The sequence begins with the title character (Ben Platt) standing on the sidewalk of the Tudor City Bridge, on a street miraculously devoid of parked cars.

A stretch limo pulls up.

He gets in.

Inside the limo is the politician's rival, the incumbent NY state senator (Judith Light) and her cutthroat campaign manager (Bette Midler). They're not happy.

He gets right to the point, informing them he's learned that the senator is in a throuple relationship with two men, and threatens to leak this news to Page Six. "Drop out of the race and give me what I want," says he.

"Evil little troll" is the senator's response. He exits the car onto Tudor City Place. Lurch to next scene.

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Thanks to Molly Rushing for the sighting. Dear readers, this blog always welcomes story ideas.