Political Intrigue

This month’s paper mood is political intrigue, mostly a result of me spending early January watching lots of TV dramas (many screenshots below). The evenings are dark, the holidays are over, it’s time to man up and face the reality before us - in the form of sensationalist political thrillers. Drama at a distance; high stakes, but I’m not responsible for them.

I’ve broken this theme into a few visual categories - glamour, disaster, espionage. The classics.

Glamour

One of my favorite watches this month was the new season of The Diplomat. It indulges in all the glamour we want but there’s a sheepishness to it, as if we’re not supposed to notice.

For example, the protagonist Kate Wyler. No matter how sweaty and disheveled the show wants us to think she is (with her sniffing her armpits, and all the comments about her unbrushed hair), she’s Keri Russell. She’s perfect!

Similarly, the setting. Does Kate’s reluctance to be stuck at the U.S. Embassy in London (she would rather be roughing it a base in Afghanistan, we are reminded), give the viewer more permission to love these painfully pretty rooms?

the deep yellow banana, the minty green couch. A+

this office makes me feel more open to the color blue than I’ve ever been in my life

For a less self-conscious glamour, there’s The West Wing. Here the enchantment comes not only from the visuals, but the sincerity of the characters. They are doing important work, and they’re doing it well. It has a fuzzy, warm-lit glow in nearly every scene (literally and figuratively).

a moment for Ainsley's hair. Nothing more glamorous than a ponytail of perfect thickness

In honor of Rob Reiner I watched The American President on a sick day recently. It’s a delightful pre-cursor to The West Wing (same writer, same Martin Sheen, same glow). I especially love the first daughter’s pink bedroom.

and Annette Bening's outfits - LL Bean chic!!

In contrast to all this sincerity, I watched all seven seasons of Veep this month. Years ago when it was airing I thought it was too depressing in its cynicism; in 2026 it’s a total comfort watch.

I love the trope of the young, overly-serious white house staffer who has absolutely no personal life. In Veep, it’s Anna Chlumsky. She’s smart, she’s articulate, she’s on her fourth cup of coffee by 9am, buzzing with irritation and held-back opinions.

can’t not include this - a Veep scene shot at our very own Colombo’s! the perfect setting for some DC wheeling and dealing, screamed when I saw it

from my December visit to the Museum of the American Revolution

the Eisenhowers at Easter; their colors are perfect

from the December 1967 issue of Family Circle magazine: recipes from Kennedy’s WH; this Cherries Jubilee photo is divine

a favorite passage from Kennedy’s chef

Disaster

Over Thanksgiving break at my sister’s we watched A House of Dynamite, which takes place in the hour between the US government realizing a nuclear missile has been launched to hit Chicago, and the moment before it hits. (The watching experience played out very predictably: Kelsey and I were frantically devoted to every second, Christian was not impressed.)

love a room full of problem-solving screens

Churchill’s underground War Room, “a nerve center for operations”

The Greenbrier, a historic hotel and the site of a massive underground bunker that was kept stocked with supplies to shelter all of Congress in the event of nuclear war. It was decommissioned after a 1992 Washington Post article exposed it.

Threats of nuclear disaster got me back into all the old classics: 24, Covert Affairs, Designated Survivor, more West Wing, etc etc. This is the only way I want to see “disaster” done: overly earnest, hyper-competent men and women who do in fact save the day.

As a nervous flyer, I am drawn to aviation disasters like a moth to flame, though I prefer long-form articles or documentaries to avoid the whole “doomed passenger POV” terror.

William Langewiesche is the best source for thoughtful writing on any air disaster - he was a journalist and a commercial pilot. His article on the Malaysia Airlines MH370 mystery is a favorite, along with this one about Air France 447. I was hoping he would write about last January’s Black Hawk/American Airlines crash over the Potomac, but he died shortly after it.

I loved the documentary Challenger: The Final Flight

Just a couple of weeks ago a miniseries about the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland was released. I haven’t finished it but so far Colin Firth is as compelling as usual (see also: this amazing letter from a family in Lockerbie who cared for the body of Frank, a passenger who landed on their farm).

Colin with his investigation wall; fantastic colors

For a less devastating take on the airplane disaster movie, there’s Tom Hanks as Sully, about the January 2009 miraculous Hudson River emergency landing of a US Airways flight. There’s also a young Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck in Bounce (the plane does in fact crash in that one, but love finds a way).

perfect 90's vibes in Bounce

fascinating article from a January 1960 issue of LIFE; upon further research, this mystery was never solved definitively

Espionage

The political sub-genre that’s undoubtedly the most fun is the spy thriller.

The spy’s act of rebellion is the collection of information, which has a certain allure to an inert, non-confrontational homebody like myself. Close attention, faithful documentation, purposeful invisibility? Get me a Harriet the Spy composition book and sign me up.

real articles found in the possession of German agents captured in England, including socks “soaked in invisible ink to be extracted into glasses of water” + a chocolate bar (bottom row) containing a secret message

My favorite spy character will always be Sydney Bristow of Alias. While the show makes a lot of her many disguises, I love her most as herself, in the office debriefing a mission or at home drinking a glass of wine on her living room couch.

a warm cup of coffee after her near-death ice plunge the previous evening

While Sydney’s the BFF I dream of, in terms of visual intrigue, we’re back to Keri Russell, this time as Elizabeth in The Americans.

from the pilot: her outfit! the house. all of it.

amazing flashback scene in the office of a Russian colonel. that map!!

love the Russian tea spread here, and the decorative egg

The Cold War setting of the show is irresistible; the Russians really make the best enemy, IMO.

One of the most notorious CIA double agents of our time, Aldrich Ames, died just this month (he’s associated with the whole Robert Hanssen drama, whose face you will recognize). Unsurprisingly, both these men were motivated by money instead of any kind of idealogical loyalty to the Motherland - makes for a boring story. (Although apparently a stripper that Robert Hanssen spent a lot of time with later testified that they never had sex, he just kept trying to convert her to Catholicism. I’d watch that movie?)

As the month comes to an end and the real news gets worse, I feel my political thriller energy only growing. What’s the word for when you process a real problem by looking at a fake problem?

The Winter Olympics will be here to rescue us in a just a week; can’t wait to see the figure skating!