Praising Kelsey Grammer’s political series Boss, Prospero sets the gritty, Chicago-based thriller against the more polished and presidential House of Cards:
“Boss” is a grand, operatic tale. And yet it plays out within the modest confines of contemporary city politics. [Mayor Tom] Kane’s epic quest is not to conquer another country, amend the constitution or avenge a terrorist attack. He just wants to add some extra runways to O’Hare airport. This is very much a municipal melodrama. …
In “Boss”, small-ball is hard-ball.
The mayor and his enemies bring buckets of guile and gumption to bear on their un-presidential struggles. Municipal showdowns motivate titanic clashes, deadly conspiracies and orotund speeches. The success of the show is that it makes all this seem entirely fitting. Of course the mayor’s encroachment on the bureaucratic turf of a local housing authority must be resisted like a fascist invasion. Of course a runway expansion must stand as a monument to man’s will to imprint himself on the world. The show makes you believe that the last mile of politics is the only mile that matters. Kane can stroll through parks he has built and trespass on ghettos he has neglected. His political achievements and failures are tangible, visible, inhabitable. If politics is the “slow boring of hard boards”, then city wrangling is where the gimlet pierces the wood.
The Dish 