Battleground

The first original scripted series from online content provider Hulu, Battleground takes a rough but ready approach to its half-hour mockumentary format. It features unknown actors that are able to shine within the loose production style; it seems likely that the "fake documentary" approach helps cover up any possible deficiencies due to a small budget.

What Battleground lacks in network polish, it makes up in wit and spirit, using its format to cleverly suggest the evolution of characters through a series of talking-head interviews that take place four weeks after the events of the campaign. Taking a page out of The West Wing's playbook, the show delves deep into the sausage-making behind every political candidate, depicting the heady mix of frantic energy, sexual tension, occasional brilliance, and frequent exhaustion that campaign employees experience. But like The West Wing, Battleground is also hopeful about American politics and government.