By Butch Freedman
Yes, it’s escapism. And yes, I probably do too much of it. But I won’t apologize for my tv viewing. I, in fact, claim it as (mostly) time well spent. If you haven’t been paying attention to the tube lately, you’ve been missing out on some excellent shows, all with great acting and dialogue. Before I dive into the three I want to point you toward, I offer a brief defense of television as a conscious work of artistic merit, equal to or in some cases better than the books they are often based on. (Of course, there’s a lot of dreck out there too, but I trust you’re smart enough to avoid the worst of it—Dr. Pimple Popper anybody?) With a good cast and a smart script, television dramas can sweep you into the world they portray in a way other art forms sometimes miss out on. You can put a good book down, you can’t turn away from a great tv series. Like all legitimate art forms, the goal of tv is the same, to allow the viewer to “suspend disbelief” and move fully into the immersive experience of other lives and places. In short, to take us away.
These three shows all are well-acted, well written, and move quickly, then leave us wanting more. The first is “Slow Horses,” a British spy thriller television series streaming on Apple that follows a dysfunctional unit of disgraced MI5 agents. Though it can be described as a thriller or an action drama, it is more than that. Now in its seventh season, the characters, led by Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb, the dissolute leader of a group of off-beat, dismissed agents, find themselves enmeshed in the lives of each other and in the complicated workings of the British spy world. Over the length of the show’s run, all of these characters have deepened and evolved their characters in a way that is both thoroughly believable and often humorous. The action is at times violent, but not in an overbearing way.
Another show that depends heavily on smart characters and even sharper dialogue is “The Diplomat,” a political thriller that airs on Netflix. The premise is that career U.S. diplomat Kate Wyler (Keri Russell) is unexpectedly appointed ambassador to the United Kingdom during a massive international crisis after a deadly attack on a British warship. Yes, it’s a show about the internecine complications of politics, but even more so the show is about relationships, and how those relationships survive (or don’t) under the enormous pressures of being on the public stage. Though there are many interesting characters, the major focus is on the role of Kate, the diplomat, and her husband, who by the current season, holds the title of VP. Although this is a portrayed world that few viewers have any personal familiarity with, we are brought into that environment as if we were long a part of it all, and a confidant of the players. There is never a moment that rings false.
Finally, I’d like to recommend a show with two of my favorite actors, “American Hostage,” with the brilliant Jon Hamm in the lead role and Giovanni Ribisi playing the part of the anti-hero. Streaming on MGM+, the show is set in the 1970s and inspired by true events, the story follows beloved Indianapolis WIBC radio news director Fred Heckman, who is thrust into a life-or-death crisis when former used car salesman Tony Kiritsis takes his mortgage broker, Dick Hall, hostage and demands to be interviewed live on air. Chaos follows. One of the many things this show does well is to sustain and build tension. The viewer never knows what happens next, and there is an ongoing struggle both on the screen and in the viewers’ minds about what defines right and wrong. Like all good art, there is a moral and ethical component and it’s up to the watcher to decide where the truth lies.
In a time, when we all need temporary escapes, good tv dramas can provide entry into worlds where we don’t have to think about the sometimes-troubling realities of our own. I’m going to keep on watching and hoping that these writers and actors continue to provide enthralling works of art. I’m also not about to give up on the quiet joys of reading.
