The Powers That Wannabe

The WB’s latest series, “D.C.,” should fit easily with the networks’ popular youth-oriented shows such as “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Angel,” “Dawson’s Creek” and “Felicity”--the cast is young, beautiful and buff.

“D.C.,” set in the nation’s capital, is an ensemble drama focusing on five young adults in their early 20s who are housemates in a Georgetown brownstone. It premieres Sunday and is the latest series from Emmy Award-winning executive producer Dick Wolfe of “Law & Order” fame.

Mason (Gabriel Olds), who has dreamed all of his life about coming to Washington, gets to as a congressional staffer. His best friend Pete (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) works as a low-level lobbyist for an environmental group. The serious-minded Lewis (Daniel Sunjata) is a Supreme Court clerk. His girlfriend Sarah (Kristanna Loken) is a junior field producer at a cable news station. And the vivacious Finley (Jacinda Barrett), Mason’s twin, has just quit graduate school and is on a voyage of self-discovery.

Wolfe says the network approached him about doing the series in the summer of 1998 when the Monica Lewinsky scandal was on everybody’s mind. “I sort of thought Washington would be a terrific venue and show that the government and public services were getting an incredibly bad rap,” says Wolfe.

“I knew it was a place where the best and the brightest were going,” he adds. “It seemed like it was really a great venue to take this WB demo which is sort of exemplified by ‘Dawson’s Creek’ and hopefully expand their audiences upward.”

But not too far up. “It is not a show that was designed to really attract 45-year-old hard-core cynics. It was designed to have these kids as role models for what can happen,” says Wolfe.

Co-executive producer and head writer James Andrew Miller spent seven years in Washington, D.C., eventually becoming a special assistant to Sen. Howard Baker when he was the majority leader.

“I’m always an outcast at dinner parties because I am incredibly cynical about the world,” Miller says. But he’s not cynical about Washington. “When I used to walk on the Senate floor, there was never a day where I didn’t take a deep breath and say ‘Wow. This is amazing.’ When you are in a place like that at such a young age and you have the opportunity to do things, I found it is mind-blowing. The other thing is that it stays with you forever.”

Besides the personal life of the ensemble, “D.C.” will explore hot-button issues such as gun control. “We had one period where one of the people in the house wanted to bring a gun in for protection,” Miller says. “Obviously, there were a lot of different opinions over it. We had an issue about parental responsibility of children with guns.”

Miller says that “D.C.” isn’t in competition with prime time’s other political drama, NBC’s acclaimed, “The West Wing.” “The ‘West Wing’ is a wonderful show,” says Miller. “But the characters are all franchised. The power is solidified, and it is about what they do with that power. Our show is about the people who really don’t have power. It’s about a very interesting niche in Washington. What you do without power in powerful town?”

The series breakthrough character is Barrett’s Finley. A former model, the Australian-born Barrett is known to MTV fans from the London cast of “The Real World” five years ago.

Barrett says she immediately fell in love with Finley when she read the script. “As the show goes along she’ll do something or say something and get people going on an idea that will set the ball rolling for the rest of the episode,” Barrett says.”She says things totally inappropriate most of the time. She’s sort of the fish out of water.”

The actress believes what sets “D.C.” apart from other youth shows is that it deals intelligently with the issues.

“I mean, some shows that you see now that are for young people are only about relationships,” Barrett says. “We have to deal with a lot of things in life--moral issues for example.”

Unlike most of her fellow flatmates on “The Real World,” Barrett says, the characters who inhabit the brownstone in “D.C.” are so driven they already have their futures mapped out. “I know most of my friends are like that too,” she says, “and I think they need to be represented on television.”

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“D.C.” can be seen Sundays at 8 p.m. on the WB. The network has rated it TV-PG-LD (may be unsuitable for young children with special advisories for coarse language and suggestive dialogue).

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