Madam Secretary Season 3

DVD Wholesale Quick Overview:

This is the first time I have ever reviewed a program or book on Amazon. The quality and importance of Madam Secretary is so unusual that I felt I had to make some effort to draw attention to its virtues. I have not seen a program that impressed me so much since the first four seasons of The West Wing. It is my job to worry about threats to the security of American and its close allies where cyber attacks are concerned. In addition to cyber security, this has made me well acquainted with many parts of the international relations and intelligence communities. When I see any of these subjects treated on television series, I am usually appalled, not just by all the details that are wrong, but by the fact that the writers and other creative people involved seem to have no feeling for these subjects, no intuitive understanding of how affairs in these areas are conducted, and, especially, no sense of the kind of people who work to defend our country by means other than military. Our lives are more exciting than most people outside our fields would ever imagine, but also extremely stressful, usually thankless, and often extremely demoralizing. When we have triumphs, they are often simply very bad things that we made much less bad, and we usually can’t talk about them. The way our work is treated in most television programs is shallow and often insulting. The miracle of Madam Secretary is that it not only portrays the non-military defense of America in an entertaining way, but also gets so much of it right. There are some episodes that most viewers probably think are pure fiction, but that are startlingly close to real-life events that were never made public. My colleagues and I have often wondered whether the writers of this series have remarkably well-placed inside informants or whether they are just extremely good at guessing things. I suspect it is a mixture of both. The portrayals of cyber attacks and their strategic implications are unusually good. The writers’ recognition of the way profound cultural differences affect our efforts to achieve international cooperation and security are even better. But more impressive than its journalistic accuracy is the way Madam Secretary portrays the personalities and motivations of the people who choose to tackle these problems. Many of the characters, including some of the ones that only appear briefly, are remarkably like security and foreign service professionals I know who are dedicated to protecting America and its vital interests. Even the slightly comic portrayals of nerdy experts and analysts are the most accurate I have seen on television. Madam Secretayr needs to distort reality by shaping it into relatively tidy stories that have beginnings, rapid developments, and resolutions in the running time of each episode. But these stories often correspond to sequences of events that could actually take place in a less dramatic, messier way over a considerable number of months. The amount of real-life material that this program weaves into its stories and the way it captures the flavor of many activities is truly remarkable. What’s more, instead of making the family life of the main characters something that interrupts the main action, Madam Secretary shows the way family life is affected by these kinds of work and the way the work is, in turn, affected by family life. It is, altogether, a remarkable achievement.

-Scott L. Borg

High production values, sharp dialog, topflight acting, coupled with a writers’ commitment to finally allow for character development of the roles of President and Chief of Staff. The female star is totally convincing in a role that makes much of her character’s wit and productive incisiveness. The male lead delivers great performances, and the two onscreen together deliver what looks more like reality TV than scripted drama. Like Commander-in-Chief, and West Wing before both of these dramas, Madam Secretary is a great escape from real politics where we get to enjoy good people working hard to get the right things done. All of the Secretary’s office personnel and the McCord’s family members also deliver consistently topflight performances — complementing well the sharp dialog and personalities they are given to work with.

– Frederick

“Strong female characters” doesn’t even begin to describe this show. The storyline is gripping. A great mix of tense action and drama without graphic blood and with virtually no sex. The storyline revolves around the Secretary of State and her family and involves international affairs and diplomacy. (Season 1 was mostly episodic but still great) The family is both real and… good! Who knew there could be parents who set good examples for their kids, who talk about real issues and instill values in their kids on television?! And women are portrayed as smart, capable, and handling positions of power as well as– or better than– the men. (No men-bashing. Just solid women who exude self confidence.) There are discussions about how “being pretty” is nice, but it’s not who you are– not in a preachy way, but in a mom-talking-to-teen-daughter-about-life way. When issues arise with the teen son and how he talks about girls, his parents handle it beautifully.

– Rebecca G.

DVD Wholesale Main Features :   

Actors: Geoffrey Arend, Téa Leoni, Erich Bergen
Format: AC-3, Box set, Color, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Language: English
Subtitles: English
Region: Region 1
Number of discs: 6
Rated: NR Not Rated
Studio: Paramount
DVD Release Date: September 19, 2017
Run Time: 991 minutes
ASIN: B072ZD4T49