Barbara Hall says there's a formula to how 'Madam Secretary' manages to tell detailed stories with strict time constraints.
Tea Leoni
The creator and executive producer of the political drama series - which stars Tea Leoni - has admitted that when covering complex issues, she tries to focus more on the storyline of the individuals involved.
Speaking to Variety, she said: "You sort of get into a rhythm of how much story you can tell. The A-story usually being some big international crisis or problem, and we want to devote an equal amount of time to their personal lives, particularly the family.
"Really by the first season you get an idea of what the division of story is going to look like. Sometimes we do pare down the big, crisis story so that we can tell a more personal story."
Barbara went on to explain that although they try their best to be accurate when delving into political issues, she occasionally has to rely on "wonky policy" stories.
She said: "Sometimes we also do these really highly, heavily plotted process stories, what we call the 'wonky policy' stories. And we'll put those in there every now and then because people have the appetite for it.
"But then we give everybody room to breathe and go back to telling more personal stories. So we just do it by feel ... and try to get it all done in less than an hour."