Wow, another night of Emmy glory for a stylized retro TV series that feels like an endless movie, reveling in existential angst and meticulous attention to cultural and jet-set scenery details. Why, it is almost as though USAmerica has some taste, and the cojones to celebrate it.
The obvious disconnect – between the way things were and now are – is part of the show’s appeal. Smoking was omnipresent, drinking almost mandatory, material acquisitiveness the central drive – stoked by advertising – even while the characters who pursue that American Dream are revealed as empty and unfulfilled. The women are in bondage, and not just the girdles and corsets used to render them voluptuous. The men are all the same color, look alike, dress alike, and act alike, save for the one guy who sports a beard and doesn’t balk at hanging out with Negroes.
What is it about this show that draws so few viewers, yet sets the bar so high for achievement that it is annually judged the best TV drama? Is it a history lesson? A cautionary tale? A Biblical parable? A Shakespearean tragedy? A chance to review our collective past through a prism both overly rosy and foreboding?
And, most important: what does it tell us about Glenn Beck?
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