The Politician

The Politician is an American comedy-drama television series created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian Brennan and released on Netflix. The trio also serves as executive producers with Alexis Martin Woodall, Ben Platt, and Gwyneth Paltrow. The series centers on the story of Payton Hobart (Platt), a wealthy Santa Barbaran, and each season revolves around a different political race his character is involved in. The first season was released on Netflix on September 27, 2019. The series stars Ben Platt, Zoey Deutch, Lucy Boynton, Bob Balaban, Laura Dreyfuss, Julia Schlaepfer, Theo Germaine, Rahne Jones and Gwyneth Paltrow. David Corenswet, Benjamin Barrett, and Jessica Lange joined the main cast in the first season, while Judith Light and Bette Midler joined the main cast in the second season. Production on the second season started in November 2019, which premiered on June 19, 2020. A third and final season is in development. Premise The first season is set at the fictional Saint Sebastian High School in Santa Barbara, California. Payton Hobart, who has dreamed of being elected President of the United States since childhood, is running for student body president against the popular and athletic River Barkley. Payton, under the direction of his ambitious friends McAfee Westbrook, James Sullivan, and Alice Charles, chooses Infinity Jackson, a cancer patient and victim of Munchausen by Proxy disorder, to be his vice-president. Meanwhile, River, under the direction of his girlfriend Astrid Sloan, chooses Skye Leighton, a gender-nonconforming black classmate, to be his vice-president. The second season is set in New York City and Albany, New York. Payton, now a student at New York University, is running for a seat in the New York State Senate against incumbent Majority Leader Dede Standish. Payton, under the direction of his former classmates and climate change activist Infinity Jackson, runs an ecocentric campaign. Standish, under the direction of her conniving campaign manager Hadassah Gold, runs a more conservative campaign. Meanwhile, Payton's mother, Georgina Hobart, having also become a politician on a whim, is running to be Governor of California.