The most head-spinning, brain-melting alternate-universe TV show of the year so far isn’t technically science fiction. In fact, its source material isn’t fiction at all. “The Girls on the Bus” kinda-sorta adapts Amy Chozick’s campaign memoir “Chasing Hillary,” about the writer’s experiences covering Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaigns of 2008 and 2016. In doing so, the series fictionalizes the book (“inspired by” is the preferred nomenclature of the credits) so that its story isn’t literally about Hillary Clinton or Chozick herself.
It’s an understandable decision that nonetheless forces a time-travel-like effect on the show’s whole world.
To construct a series of fictional characters covering a contemporary presidential race whose outcome isn’t already known, Chozick and her series co-creator Julie Plec must build out a whole alternate timeline.