You know, Commander in Chief is turning into one good show.  It does an excellent job, unlike The West Wing, of balancing the politics with the family issues.  Last night’s episode was an excellent example of this.  One the one hand we have President Allen dealing with a possible attack on US schools during the Halloween celebrations.  On the other, we have the First Family dealing with the affect of that possible attacks and the nation thinking the First Gentleman is a wuss.  Great drama all around.

***SPOILERS***

The torture subplot was very interesting.  President Allen is getting advice from all sides about how to get information from a captured prisoner to avert the attacks.  Her Attorney-General wants to use torture, her new NSA guys wants to try other avenues, her Arab-American assistance sees no problem with using stronger measures ("let him boil") against someone who would attacks us, and of course the Republican Speaker of the House embraces the idea of enemy combatants.  In the end, President Allen chooses to invade a compound for information, but also tells the AG to use stronger measures, although she did not want hear that torture was used.  Of course, my first thought was she just cond0ned the torture of another human being, she just wanted to be able to deny she knew.

Of course, in the end the terrorists were thwarted.  Later, President Allen get a congratulatory visit from Speaker Templeton.  He tells her that he never thought she had it in her to make the hard decisions.  Allen is shocked because she now realizes the prisoner has been tortured.  When Allen confronts the AG, she realizes the power of the words she chose.  Realizes that her naivete about political speak just condoned the torture of a prisoner who is now close to death.  The interaction between Geena Davis and Leslie Hope was great in this scene.  Hope’s character, Melinda, has no remorse.  She sees no problem with what she’s done.  In her mind, this terrorists is than human and deserves none of America’s protective liberties.  President Allen comes back at her with both barrels.  She tells Melinda that what she’s done has opened the door for other countries to do the same thing to our citizens.  Great television.  In the end, President Allen fires the AG.  I was almost sad to see that plot point because I think Leslie Hope is a fantastic actress.  Someone needs to find this women a good show she can stay on.

What is starting to make CinC such a great show is that it’s tackling issues that affect us right now.  The West Wing never did that convincingly, still doesn’t.