‘Good Wife’ creators’ follow-up is ‘BrainDead’ on arrival

Laurel Healy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is a young documentary filmmaker who is unable to get funding for her current project and is basically blackmailed by her rich father, Dean Healy (Zach Grenier), into taking a job with her brother, Luke Healy (Danny Pino), who is the Senate Democratic whip. Soon they’re romping around the crania of a couple of senators, a young chess player, a renowned scientist and a college friend of Laurel’s. “Not many people know about this, but bugs fart,” says Gustav Triplett (Johnny Ray Gill), who is obsessed with stopping the infestation. All of this is set against the background of a government shutdown caused by a far-too-familiar political stalemate between Democrats and Republicans. There are some humanizing, albeit predictable, subplots, such as the flirtatious alliance between Laurel and Gareth Ritter (Aaron Tveit), the boyish aide to Republican Sen. Red Wheatus (Tony Shalhoub), and her equally flirtatious relationship with FBI Agent Anthony Onofrio (Charlie Semine). [...] there are some gimmicky red herrings, such as a pair of FBI agents who turn up from time to time to share a candy bar, and the fact that the Cars’ song “You Might Think” seems to be on a perpetual loop everywhere in Washington. Granted, this year’s presidential campaign is exhausting and depressing, and we’re bombarded with political coverage on the media. [...] when it is smart and funny, it can help ease the agony of watching the “real” politicians. The Kings, of course, were the creators of “The Good Wife,” and Ridley Scott, who was that show’s executive producer, is on board in that capacity again. [...] every series has to be taken on its own merits, and even though the Kings created one of the best shows on broadcast TV in the last decade, you’d still scratch your head trying to find either a reason to keep watching “BrainDead,” or a space bug making a beeline for your ear canal. David Wiegand is an assistant managing editor and the TV critic of The San Francisco Chronicle.