All the James Carville you never wanted to see and more.
Added 6/1/2009
All this HBO series serves to prove is that, despite its other great series that they also can make large mistakes.
This series really makes one wonder how thick the cataracts on Ms.Matilins heart, mind and soul are, as well as the obvious ones on her eyes!
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must have for political junkies
Added 11/20/2007
K street reminds me of the pain I suffered when HBO cancelled "John from Cincy" after just one season.
This is a great show for political junkies of all stripes since it is inside the beltway from both sides of the aisle.
You have to remember that this show was in production during all of the events it depicts and that it interacted with the political scene in a very post-modern way.
Some stuff from the show made it into the political debate and vice versa and it is often hard to tell what is scripted, what is not, if it is a real or fiction, etc.
--in one famous incident, Howard Dean actually used a line from the show in a debate!
Carville and Matalin are great, and every politician/lobbyist/lawyer plays their role well too...
I loved this show when it was on HBO and I just got the DVD and felt the same way.
My girlfriend--who has worked in politics her whole life--had never heard of the show and she was enthralled with the depiction of life in DC.
If you are at all a fan of Soderburgh and like his style as depicted in "Traffic," you will love this series.
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Added 7/1/2006
I liked Unscripted so I figured I could trust the previous work of the same creative team to be as good, but that turns out to have been a bad call. First episode was incomprehensibly dull. It didn't seem to be about anything, just a lot of dull, inane semi-comprehensible banter and forced laughing. It's behind the scenes political stuff, but only stuff that's so minor and inane that I can't imagine anyone actually caring about it or finding it interesting. I figured the whole series would follow suit, and be about the lead up to the 2004 election, so I was pleasantly surprised when the focus ended up being on other aspects of what the PR company does, and the next couple episodes were actually about something. Those things being the mp3 sharing copyright infringement issue, and whether the PR company should represent a Saudi Arabian organization. Episodes two and three stand out from the rest as being pretty interesting. After that it gets a bit convoluted again. A lot of the show is edited so you don't know what's happening while you're watching it, and you get to piece it together later to some extent when a later scene gives it context, but about a quarter, maybe a third of the content, never slots into place. The last episode is almost the most random of the bunch, giving very little closure to the fractured plotlines that had been building up until that point. The show, i guess, is very experimental, the experiment being how little can you show and how non-linear can your editing be while still conveying a comprehensible narrative, and in my opinion the result of the experiment is you can't push it as far as this show did. When half the scenes leave you asking "what was that about?" and trying to examine the details of what was said to work out which part was pertinent, that's more work than watching a tv program should be. I feel like trying to find some entertainment value in any episodes other than two and three was a waste of my time.
3 out of 8 people found this helpful.
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K-Street---A Sodderberg K-lassic
Added 1/7/2006
Those of us who like Steven Sodderberg's work will definatley love K-Street. The recent success of movies like Traffic and Syriana should show the viewed of any of his films or TV creations, that his main goal is to show the duality of man.
The characters in K-Street represent this Duality. Maggie Morris is a leader in the lobbying group with connections with the Bush White House. She looks like she has everything in control but her personal life is like a roller coaster. She is a lesbian and had a very turbulent relationship with another woman, this has quite an effect on her working relationship with others. Francisco Dupree, an odd man who has his hands in everything and knows many key players in Washington, is in reality nothing more than a political opportunist. In one instance he hires a photographer to take pictures of him with congressional and senetorial leaders. Tommy Flannegan at first glance seems to be a quiet well mannered lobbyist. Instead he sees a therapist with his wife because of his dark secret where he picks up prostitutes and makes pornographic movies. The final key point is that all of these members are essentially opportunists who conduct have internal wars with eachother.
K-Street features a cast of real life political hard ballers with James Carville and his wife Mary Matalin forming main characters. In addition there are apperances by James Dean, Tucker Carlson, Tom Daschle, Paul Begala, Al Hunt, and many more.
K-Street is quite possibly one of the best series on political lobbying and the infighting in Washington. I especially liked the Sodderberg form of filming, using interesting angles and filters.
While I enjoyed the way the creators had free-thought scripts, it eventually led to my main point of contention. The story had so many different plots and stories it went in a million different directions and kept the viewer off-guard and then unriveted.
As for the DVD I was hoping there would be much more offered. I had hoped that there would be interviews with political leaders or even George Clooney, yet there were no extra features. At the end of episode 10 there was really nothing that finished up the show. It just simply ends. To be honest when it finished I was getting into the story and I felt ditched.
I will give this 4 stars because while the DVD and some of the plot was lacking it is still a necessary addition for anyone who loves politics or very interesting intelligent television.
2 out of 4 people found this helpful.
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too bad they got canceled
Added 9/3/2005
I had no idea what this dvd was about but I was intrigued by James Carville and Mary Matalin. Anyway I didnt even know it was fiction. I read somewhere that there were actors but when I was watching it I couldnt figure out who was an actor and who was a real. Actually it was only in the second DVD when really weird stuff started happening that you knew it wasnt reality TV. It was incomplete, and I really wanted to see where all this weirdness headed. I was a little bummed that it got canceled because I found Carville really entertaining.
3 out of 4 people found this helpful.
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