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12 out of 18 people found the following review useful:
A brilliantly original concept despite Soderbergh's maddeningly pretentious direction, 4 February 2006
Author: liquidcelluloid-1 from www.liquidcelluloid.blog.com

Network: HBO; Genre: Docudrama, Reality; Content Rating: TV-MA (profanity and suggested sexual content); Available: DVD; Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 - 4);

Seasons Reviewed: Complete Series (1 season)

They say politics is Hollywood for ugly people. In an age where the line between news and entertainment has been crossed and 24-hour cable channels find their dramatic narratives, heroes and villains in Washington politicians, Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney's Section Eight production company flips around the mirror and blurs the line even more. "K Street" is not entirely successful, but at only 10 episodes, it is too unique a show to have such a short run.

A happy side effect to the reality show fad is that it has given people that do have imaginations an opportunity to play with the expectations of our reality and our TV reality. "Street" is brilliantly original - difficult to figure out and even harder to describe. A seamless mix of reality and fiction, film and television, done in a way stranger and more brazen than other improv comedy/reality show hybrids to date.

Set in the summer of 2003 amidst the Democrat presidential primary and the birth of a CIA leak scandal, "K Street" follows political pundits Mary Matalin and James Carville inside their image consulting firm Bergstrom Lowell, fictitiously taking us behind the scenes of actual political events. Looks and sounds like a documentary so far, but mixed in with their reality are characters and story lines of pure fiction. Matalin's aid is the professionally effective, but personally pathetic Maggie Morris (Mary McCormack, given a cleverly unfold character arc about her personal life). Carville's aid is Tommy Flannigan (John Slattery, "Ed") who has his own problems at home. All of which are suspicious of their newest employee Francisco Dupre (Roger Guenveur Smith), a character who seems to defy every possible human label. Elliot Gould makes a few appearances as Bergstrom, a reclusive oddball who wastes Dupre's, and our's, time.

Shot on the streets of the nation's capital, "Street" shows us slivers of the D.C. lifestyle. We see parts of conversations between Morris and Flannigan and politicians playing themselves such as Rick Santorum and Tom Daschile. In the first episode, "Week 1", Carville and Paul Begala coach Howard Dean for the primary debate. Say what you will about his politics and approach, but Carville is a hilarious character and the banter between Washington's most unlikely married couple is entertaining. At one point Carville stops the coaching because the bus boy passing through might be bugged. Another funny moment is Carville's tirade over the telephone to Matt Drudge's answering machine. This guy deserved his own show.

In the cookie-cutter medium of TV, it is rare and refreshing to watch a show that you aren't quite sure how they put together, and I was somewhat flummoxed and excited wondering how "K Street" was pulled off. No doubt Clooney has a stock pile of massive resources in Washington that allow him to get these big-name cameos. On the other hand, when has a politician not jumped at the opportunity to be on TV? "Street" is probably not as grand a magic trick as it first appears.

But the mechanics behind what pulls "K Street" off are more interesting than the happenings in the show itself. Maggie is slapped with a restraining order, Tommy sees prostitutes and the company is under FBI investigation for their involvement with a group suspected to aid terrorists – that's pretty much it. The dialog is improvised, with the same pauses, repeated sentences and awkward verbal mis-steps that reflect the way people really talk, the drama in the lives of the fictional characters is pretty uninspired. The show puts a lot of focus on the personal lives of Morris and Flannigan to the detriment of the political discussions it does well.

Every single episode of "K Street" is directed by acclaimed film director Steven Soderbergh and co-executive produced by Clooney. It looks like a Soderbergh movie. It sounds like a Soderbergh movie. It is dry, banal, static, self-indulgent and shot with a shaky camera. Soderbergh's style is not what you'd call a crowd-pleaser. The show is equal parts engrossing and maddening as Soderbergh spends time beyond the point of annoyance on characters sitting in silence or something like the image of feet running across a pavement. Soderbergh's movies have the luxury of being buoyed into public consciousness by a nation of critical praise, but on the pure democracy of TV, where there is rarely a real-time critical campaign for any show, even a big-name talent like him has been left out to dry.

"The West Wing" is considered by most to be the gold standard in fair, insightful, political-minded entertainment, but as a different take behind the Washington sound-bytes, "K Street" will be worth a look for die-hard "Wing" fans although very little of substance is said. As frustrating as it can be, Matalin and Carville make it worth watching. It's good, but not great.

This is Soderbergh's first effort at parlaying his cinema success on TV, but without a strong theme behind the material (as all his films, particularly "Traffic", have) this is all just masturbation. It is hard to suppress the "what the hell" from your throat as the pretentious silent credits cut in signifying the end.

* * ½ / 4

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Liars liars everywhere, 14 March 2010
5/10
Author: ncfdyson from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I just watched the series in two sittings. I would have been totally lost if I'd watched one episode a week.

Every one on the show is a liar. They lie to themselves, to their clients, to their work mates ... lying is what they do. They manufacture truth to fit the situation. They can get you what you want, no matter what that is.

Friends lie to you as you lie to them. Enemies look like friends.

Perhaps in the world of politics it is all a game and a job, pays well, gives you face time on TV and means nothing.

The puppet master in his cave keeps it all going.

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1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Brilliant Television, 13 April 2008
Author: Irish365 from los angeles

I have worked as a TV producer in Los Angeles for almost 18 years and this is by far one of the best series ever created. To start, Matlin and Carville are beyond fantastic in K Street. I realize it is probably very close to who they really are but they are still acting out fictional story lines and it is better than any of the real actors in the series - not that they are not good - they are, just not as mesmerizing. Next to TRAFFIC I have rarely seen a true environment depicted so authentically. In addition, Clooney and Soderberg need to be given credit for using no no score whatsoever to increase the documentary-style approach. While the Francisco Dupre character is over-the-top and out-of-place at times, it is Matlin and Carville's reaction to him that blow you away - they are thinking what we are thinking. All in all one of HBO's finest moments.

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1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Very well polished, but what was the point (spoilers), 22 June 2006
Author: bruce-129 from Bay Area, CA, USA

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I may have a skewed perspective on "K Street" because I rented it from the local video store who had filed it as a documentary. I started watching it and immediately thought "West Wing" from a different point of view.

The gritty and realistic surface aspects of this movie are engaging. The girl who is seduced by a lesbian woman and then dropped hard with no explanation and socked with a restraining order. The man whose father divorces his mother and re-marries with a prostitute what later sleeps with him (the son) and commits suicide in the motel room under FBU surveillance. The real life events of life in a lobbying agency on K street itself run by James Carville and Mary Matalin.

This movie seemed to me to be marketing some inside view of the government, how it really is from people who know. Clooney's name was on it, lots of politicians were in it, and the surface drama of the participants was heavy and sort of realistic.

Unfortunately, the whole movie revolved and resolved around the eccentricities of Elliot Gould's character who was a mad as any of them and whose main points where that he used to bring fake lottery tickets into his work and leave then around and then laugh when someone thought that they had won the lottery. So the whole plot revolved around hiding Bergstrom's/Gould's enjoyment of torturing the employees of his own company in Washington.

Seems to me if there might be more direct ways to express that Washington and the world is run by capricious madmen and madwomen that forcing us to sit through all of this very slick realistic and engaging melodrama because in the end I just felt as engaging as it was it was only a highly polished turd. A waste of time with nothing to say from people who ought to have some responsibility to use their money, power and celebrity for some positive outcome.

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1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
What as the ending about?, 26 December 2004
Author: rickyowei from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

**SPOILER**

**SPOILER**

**SPOILER**

**SPOILER**

**SPOILER**

**SPOILER**

Did anyone understand the ending? At first it seems simple enough: the firm was investigated by the authorities for a shady transaction and the firm's clients took off. This happens all the time and it's a pretty solid ending since it portrays adequately how many people are negatively effected by such a closing. But then there is a surprise ending in that Bergstrom shows up at the airport/train station and is picked up by a chauffeur. He is very well dressed and looks to be completely in control of his faculties (unlike before when he was dressed shabbily and watching old movies in his rundown Brooklyn apartment). Why was Bergstrom picked up at the airport under the name of Pierce? Was it a setup on his part to bring the firm down?

Also, were all 10 episodes shown on HBO?

Thanks, Ricky

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1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Original and excellent (some light spoilers), 8 November 2003
Author: Michael Casagrande (casagrandem@prodigy.net) from Tampa

*** This review may contain spoilers ***



The series has progressed to the point that the Carville-Matalin lobby firm has become the target of a Federal investigation. This story line brings immediate relevance to every show.

D. C. has long been the home of investigations that also have a political component. Art and reality meld perfectly here.

The form of the dialogue underlines the reality. The professional actors (and some real-world actors) speak as real people do every day ... stumbles, searching for the right word, umm, uh ....

I don't know about the numbers of viewers necessary to be successful on cable, but HBO has an aesthetic and stylistic winner here. I agree that following Beltway events is a big plus for viewers, but I would bet that the realistic dialogue patterns alone produce a breakthrough.

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1 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Good, but 10 Episodes Enough, 1 March 2009
8/10
Author: (Greatornot) from United States

This show is fusion... Curb Your Enthusiasm meets The West Wing. I think this was well done , but 10 episodes clearly enough. Basically ,this is a fictionalized account of DC , playing as the political version of Curb. What Larry David is to Curb, James Carville is to this show. Very intelligent though not quite as funny as Curb, the show is a fine depiction of how The inner circle of DC uses the media to get their message to the masses. I do feel the show could have used more humor but it is more of a fictionalized documentary , with roots of truth . I liked this show and ,surprisingly, I thought James Carville is a fine actor. Hmmmm , maybe that is telling in itself when it comes to our beloved public servants, but I shall digress. The material here is real and I like that the issues are more of light nature. One can easily enjoy this without taking on the somberness of the state of the world. The show is nonpartisan , so no side of the political aisle needs to be offended. Give this a watch and you will probably agree that it is a nice show and that 10 eps are just enough.

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13 out of 39 people found the following review useful:
Narcissism is so over...., 30 April 2006
1/10
Author: MarieGabrielle from United States

Sorry- I like Soderbergh and Clooney, and this idea was a good one. But, unfortunately, politics in the US is no longer a laughing matter.

This is a good idea which may have worked in the days of James Stewart ("Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"). That was 56 years ago. Recently, there was a televised champagne party wherein Dick Cheney was roasted by his fellow admirers and sycophants. I doubt this will be televised mass market, as most Americans will not find it mildly amusing.

Lobbyists and corporate lackeys are not mysterious or interesting;nor are they a source of amusement.

They are now the status quo, and anyone who isn't aware of this merely needs to tune in to Bill O'Reilly for the latest pablum bought and paid for by the PR spin machine.

This is sad, and the fact that even a creative innovator like Soderbergh cannot find a better creative slant to educate Americans is discouraging.

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