“Women Help Women”: The Girls on the Bus Episode 1

Forgive my arriving late to the party for The Girls on the Bus, Max’s new show about a group of women reporters on the presidential campaign trail — the show is already five episodes into a 10-episode season and I am playing catch-up with these recaps. Until this weekend, I had little intention of even watching this show, but Twitter said I had to check it out, so here I am to carve it up like one of my Thanksgiving turkeys.

A better question is: “Jeremy, why are you recapping The Girls on the Bus?” Well first of all, I know a lot about politics and I’d like to offer some insights into the world this show depicts. But secondly, having finished recapping one of the greatest shows of all time, Succession, I wanted to recap a show that I think can be improved upon (to put it nicely) as an exercise in criticism. And boy, does The Girls on the Bus give us some meat to chew on.

Based on Amy Chozick’s book Chasing Hillary, The Girls on the Bus is titled after Tim Crouse’s landmark book The Boys on the Bus, which told the story of the 1972 campaign between Richard Nixon and George McGovern by analyzing the reporters who covered them, including R.W. “Johnny” Apple, Robert “The Prince of Darkness” Novak, and Dr. Gonzo himself, Hunter S. Thompson. Journalist Sadie McCarthy (Melissa Benoist), who grew up reading this book, idolizes Thompson…