# State of Affairs (2014)

> A grieving CIA analyst assembles the President's Daily Briefing while secretly hunting the terrorists who killed her fiance.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/54323

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 13
- Episode runtime: 60 min
- Status: Canceled
- Genres: drama, thriller
- Created by: Joe Carnahan
- Network: NBC
- Cast: Katherine Heigl, Alfre Woodard, Adam Kaufman, Sheila Vand, Cliff Chamberlain, Tommy Savas, David Harbour, Omid Abtahi
- TMDB rating: 6.3/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3489236/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: tense, pressure-cooker, somber, propulsive, paranoid

## What critics say

Viewers found the political thriller engaging in its premise and lead performance, though the mixed audience response reflects uneven execution and a mystery that did not fully land.

## Synopsis

State of Affairs (2014-2015) is an American network political thriller created by Joe Carnahan for NBC. Katherine Heigl stars as Charleston Tucker, a brilliant CIA analyst who assembles the President's Daily Briefing, the nightly list of the most urgent international crises for the commander in chief. Alfre Woodard plays President Constance Payton, a figure who shares a complicated personal bond with Charlie, once engaged to the president's son before a terrorist attack killed him. Charlie survived that attack and is determined to bring the perpetrators to justice, a private mission that runs alongside her public duties. The engine of the series is her grief-driven pursuit of the truth, which pushes her into boundary-crossing behavior while she walks political minefields and weighs life-and-death judgment calls with her team of analysts. Each episode is built around a new security threat, with a murder mystery threaded through the season. Set in present-day Washington and the intelligence world, the show carries a tense, pressure-cooker tone with a grim undercurrent of loss. Its single season of thirteen episodes was canceled before its central mystery was resolved. Fans of Homeland, 24 and Alias will find resonance in its blend of espionage, political stakes and a determined heroine.

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