YMMV / Madam Secretary

• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • A line from the pilot: "No one misses Syria if it completely self-destructs."
  • "Catch and Release" ends with "Jihadi Judd", an American who joined ISIS, being killed in a drone strike on orders of President Dalton. His model, British-born ISIS member Mohammed Emwazi, a.k.a. "Jihadi John", was killed in a joint US-British drone attack four days after the episode aired.
  • The Ukraine arc? Yeah, the situation has gotten considerably worse since season 2. On the other hand, Russia performed much worse in the 2022 war than it did in the show's version, so it also arguably falls under Hilarious in Hindsight.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: Liz becomes President in Season 6. Skip to the 2020s, and Kamala Harris is now the first female Vice President. Maybe not the President, but still a huge step forward for women in the political sphere.
• Heartwarming Moments: During the three-way dispute between Russia, Ukraine, and the United States, the trouble the International Space Station ends up in still shows that the Russian cosmonauts want to rescue the trapped US and Japanese astronauts, even if they disobey direct orders from Mission Control on ground. It's a sweet reminder of how not everyone is wrapped up in the ground conflict and still want to cooperate despite it.
• The Scrappy: Stevie is by far the most disliked character in the show for her constant whining, calling out of her parents, and entitlement. She later got Rescued from the Scrappy Heap after she grew out of those traits.
• Stock Footage Failure: Military actions are frequently shown using Stock Footage that only vaguely resembles what it's supposed to depict. A "torpedoed minesweeper" actually depicts an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, and a sequence of US Air Force fighters enforcing a no-fly zone over Ukraine uses a mix of shots of live-fire practice against remote-controlled targets and bombing runs against ground targets (which is not happening according to the show).

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