In a great display of irony, Wendy Davis, who bombed in her bid for governor of Texas has become the topic of a new “dramedy” in development by NBC.
Davis herself will executive produce the combination drama-comedy alongside Jennifer Cecil, the as-yet-untitled show’s writer. It will reportedly follow “a female Democratic senator who, after losing the Texas governor’s race, gets her world turned upside down.”
“In the vein of The Good Wife,” Deadline’s report continues, “while she pieces her pride back together, she goes to work in the law firm of her best friend — a black male Republican — and discovers that with no political future to protect, she can unshackle her inner badass.”
This lead Jim Geraghty of National Review to say, “An NBC drama about Wendy Davis? That show will be lucky if it lasts a trimester.”
Geraghty’s comment is humorous at first glance, but it highlights the tragedy behind this comedy. Davis’s claim-to-fame is fighting for the right to dismember and kill babies–all the way up until they are born. This is hardly an inspiration for a fun series on a major network, though it might be an inspiration for a horror series in which Davis has the lead as the villain.
It’s a disheartening commentary on the societal culture of death that a woman who rose to attention because her greatest passion as a Texas senator was letting babies be murdered, could then parlay her infamy into network television with a self-glorifying series.
If NBC is desperate for a hit show, it’s barking up the wrong tree. Despite what abortion advocates would have people think about the nobility of Davis as a crusader for women, the fact is, she is anti-woman. She has done nothing worth celebrating as she argues for death. Her campaign for governor was a failure because she’s not a leader. She’s risen on a single issue that does not represent the national heartbeat. It does, however, represent the lack of heartbeat – unsurprising since Davis is in support of stopping beating hearts.
This series probably won’t have a very active heartbeat either. There is no entertainment in a biographical series where all the associations with the show are connected to death.
It’s a recipe for a ratings plummet, though.
