By Dan Jewel
   So far, the mid-season shows have a certain soul-crushing sameness to them. But last week, amidst the spin-offs of “The Bachelor” (“The Bachelorette”), the rip-offs of “The Bachelor” (“Joe Millionaire”), and the knock-offs of “The Real World” (“High School Reunion,” “The Surreal Life”), an old-fashioned show with a rare thing called plot premiered.
   Not that “Mister Sterling,” which airs Fridays at 9 p.m. on NBC, is a sterling bit of originality. Created by Lawrence O’Donnell Jr., a top writer on “The West Wing,” it aspires to the NBC stalwart. But while “West Wing” is limping along these days, as worn out as Trent Lott after a sensitivity seminar, “Mister Sterling” has energy and enthusiasm to spare.
   Last week’s premiere was simply terrific, as bright a pilot episode as any of the fall shows presented. The show begins with the death of a sleazy, under-multiple- investigations California senator. The governor, who has to appoint a temporary replacement, has a single criterion: “We gotta find Mr. Clean.”
   Handily, the much-adored former governor, William Sterling, happens to have a young, handsome, achingly honest son. He’s not political, says one aide, but “he did volunteer for Dukakis in ’88.” In California, apparently, that’s a selling point.
   And indeed, Bill Sterling (Josh Brolin, son of James) appears to be a perfect specimen of humanity. When we first meet him, the former assistant D.A. is teaching high school classes to prison inmates.
   He’s naturally resistant to taking the job; after all, his father (James Whitmore, giving one of the richest performances on television) was the consummate politician who never had time for his family. On the other hand, there’s that dream of being able to do some good.
    And so Mr. Sterling goes to Washington.
   Thankfully, “Mister Sterling” immediately tempers its idealistic fervor with a healthy dose of cynicism. The moment he arrives in D.C., he’s immersed in a world of gloriously portrayed sleaze—from the parade of lobbyists who interrupt his first breakfast to the machinations of his Clintonian chief-of-staff, obsessed with polling and fund-raising.
    Of course, this is television, so our hero promptly fires him and replaces him with his press secretary, Jackie (stage star Audra McDonald, making an effortless transition to TV), who had selflessly offered to resign because she was associated with the old, corrupt regime.
   In other words, “Mister Sterling” is shaping up to be a battle between idealism and cynicism — which, of course, is the same battle constantly waged on “The West Wing.” (Senator Sterling is a junior President Bartlet, an anchor of self-righteous decency cutting through the Washington swamp.)
   The problem is that we know how the real political world works. We know that if a senator or president ever decided to ignore polling and fund-raising and simply follow his heart, he’d earn the respect of about 12 percent of the voters and be demolished come election time.
    Still, none of that really mattered in the premiere. The set-up (by the end of his first day on the job, he managed to turn the majority leader of the Senate into a sworn enemy) was thrilling, and the excellent ensemble cast smoothed over any moments of schmaltz.
   But that nagging problem—our knowledge of the real political world—threatens to pop up again and again.
   Tonight’s episode is far weaker than the premiere. At a press conference, Sterling stumbles when he’s asked if he’s ever used drugs. His staff, the press and the rest of the Senate promptly decide that his career will go up in a puff of pot smoke before election time. “By the time the press finishes with Sterling on the drug issue,” says the majority leader, “he won’t be able to run.”
   Doesn’t he follow the news? Bill Clinton smoked pot, however he parsed the word “smoked.” Al Gore worshipped the wacky weed, and won the popular vote. Newt Gingrich and Clarence Thomas have both admitted dabbling in doobage. Our current commander-in-chief all but admitted to having snorted countless lines of coke—and no one really cared.
   And since Sterling represents California, this is about as big an issue as finding out that a candidate once snuck into an R-rated movie when he was 16.
   But “Mister Sterling” still stands out among this season’s new shows, as an intelligent, wonderfully acted drama. For now, at least, it deserves your vote.

January 17, 2003© 2003 Media Life

-Dan Jewel is a senior editor at Biography Magazine in New York and a frequent contributor to Media Life.

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