As an American political drama, 'Boss' has two obvious precedents: 'The Wire', and the real life political drama currently underway in Washington DC. 'The Wire' was written by a journalist who knew everything about Baltimore, and felt very real: it's politicians were often shown as corrupt and ambitious, but also trying to do their best for their city while held by overwhelming constraints. I mention real, national politics to make one specific point: that whatever the personal issues, the fight between the President and Congress is dramatic because it's not just a story of clashing egos: there is a huge ideological and policy gulf between Obama and the tea-partiers. And in this respect 'Boss' is very disappointing. For the "Boss" himself, a fictional Chicago mayor, politics is all about horse-trading, making deals, staying in power. But in spite of the fine (and false) sounding speeches the candidates make, there's little sense of anything being at stake beyond the careers of the characters; for sure, Mayor Kane is a Democrat (Democrats have Chicago sewn up in the real world); but after watching a whole series, I have little sense of what Kane is in politics to do, or the real world factors outside the political arena limiting his ability to do so. Indeed, the series portrayal of the real world in general is quite weak, it's a cardboard land occasionally visited by its political protagonists, a place they go to mine votes, but not somewhere a viewer can really believe exists. This wouldn't matter is the remaining element, the political deal making, was convincing, but it isn't. Some examples: (i) the mayor asks key people to deliver votes for him, but how they do this is never made clear (ii) the mayor is implicated in a pollution scandal, so his response is to publicise how much another city is suffering, so that he can appear its rescuer (iii) when the scandal doesn't go away, he regains popularity by deliberately arresting his own daughter (iv) when his aide is caught leaking, he has the aide murdered, virtually at the aide's own request. This is a fantasy version of machine politics, and the back-plot (the mayor has a terminal disease) is simultaneously unnecessary and underdeveloped. Add some over-tricksy direction (lots of scenes cut out of temporal order for no particular reason) and the result is a decidedly patchy drama: there's promise in the premise, but it's played out as sanctimonious soap opera.