I am spotting a bit of a theme in my January telly.
Fellow Travellers: this lush and steamy romance between two men over decades from the 50's to the 90s, is hidden away a bit at the moment on Paramount+ and I watched this on a free trial (which I then forgot to cancel of course!). Whilst the romance creates the heart of the story, it is a vehicle for looking at civil rights abuses and battles over the years. Hawk (Matt Bomer) is a war hero and a State department official, whilst Tim (Jonathan Bailey) is a congressional staffer working for Senator McCarthy. The story spends a fair chunk of its time on the McCarthy years, focusing on the persecution of LGBTQ+ people alongside anyone with slightly leftish tendencies as 'fellow travelers' of communism. The accompanying racism and sexism and bigotry of the time in general is brought to life through the secondary characters - what must it have been like to be gay and Black, and maybe also a woman? The kafkaesque departments created solely to investigate rumours in the most intrusive and nonsensical ways feel a bit too close to what is happening in plain sight in the US at the moment.
One fascinating thing I learnt afterwards was that Roy Cohn, McCarthy's right hand man during the 50's, and who features heavily in the series, was a mentor to a young Donald Trump before dying of Aids related illness himself. The series, based on the book by Thomas Mallon has a particularly clear focus on the damage this persecution did to individuals, who at the very least could be banned for life from working for the government but could also be imprisoned or locked up in mental
institutions. Alongside the mental anguish caused to individuals the series also shows very effectively how the damage also spread through the wives/husbands and children of those caught in the web. The continuation of the story right through the Harvey Milk and Stonewall riots, the Vietnam war, the blossoming of gay communities in the 70s and then the horror of the appalling treatment of people with Aids during the 80s are all given plenty of space, all with shocking abuses of civil and human rights. Over the decades, Hawk remains closeted and sometimes behaves appallingly through fear of losing his cover as a rich white man with a loving wife and children, whilst Tim eventually learns to accept his sexuality. This show looks gorgeous with lovely cinematography capturing the visuals of each decade beautifully. It's always entertaining watching characters being aged over decades, but I think it is fair to say that time was kind to pretty much everyone in this show apart from poor Tim! Full of tragic stories whichever place you look, but the lushness and soapyness of the romances helped to leaven the sadness of the story overall. Moving, frustrating and sad it also made me very angry that anyone would want to go back to this. (streaming on Paramount+)
I watched this 1984 documentary on Mubi, and it was a fascinating accompaniment to Fellow Travelers, with testimony from people of all genders some of whom who had been locked up in asylums for their orientations, along with those losing their jobs and families. The penalties of being anything but straight, even more so if you were Black or a woman were shockingly severe. Full of stories about harassment, official persecution but also the ways that people fought back, it showed that the fictional story covered in Fellow Travelers was a soft version of the reality. It made me glad that the inspirational people being interviewed stood up to be counted, but really, why should they have had to fight so hard? (streaming on Mubi)
As we watch Trump and his cronies tear up civil and human right protections for anyone not straight, male, white or rich, including those with health issues or disabilities, I really hope that we still have people willing to fight back, allies too, because as Fellow Travelers, history and that poem by Martin Niemöller make clear, eventually they will come for everyone.
On to some more dystopia, but this time in science fiction which feels like a bit of a relief.
Silo season 2: I loved the trilogy of books by Hugh Howey, and I thought
series 1 did a great job of bringing the first part of the story to life. Series 2 picks up where the last series ended on that perfect cliff-hanger. The narrative seemed to slow down a bit this series and I found myself on many occasions looking for a double speed function on my telly. It continues to look good though, with sludgy and grimy colours throughout as appropriate for an underground society, but with complicated sets which need to be coherent for the story to make sense, I imagine a large part of the budget is going on CGI too. We continue to see the rebellion underway in the Silo, but we also meet new characters to add to the already great ensemble as Juliette goes exploring and start to understand a bit more about how the Silos operate. A great commentary on autocracy, and a timely reminder of how convenient narratives can be used to sway the multitudes, this is still a mystery story as the reveal of how the silo came to be created and populated are still awaiting (hopefully) a third series. (Streaming on AppleTVplus)
It seems to have taken forever to get this back to our screens but it is still as weird with strange loops in the narrative as before. As before, the outside is always night/gloomy, whilst the inside of Lumon industries is blinding sterile white mixed with the odd bit of green The story picks up just after the events of
season 1 with the consequences still playing out. We meet the baby goats again, and there are huge vats of discussion to be found about the meaning of the baby goats online if you want to be submerged for days... Suffice to say, along with much of the series there is symbolism as well as narrative function in a lot that appears on the screen so it will be interesting to see what transpires. But, mixed in with the human drama here there's also the ongoing issue of an overbearing technology company, secretive and acting like a cult in many ways, with not so subtle implications for our current real world. We are not even half way through this series yet though, and Christopher Walken is not back in play as yet, which makes me sad, although it was great to see Gwendoline Christie join the cast. This is being released the old fashioned way, one episode at a time which is driving me slightly crazy, but I am going to see this one through (Streaming on AppleTV+)
Kevin can F*** Himself: This series has been around for a few years, but I have only just found it after being recommended. It's fab. Kevin (Eric Petersen) is a classic self centred child-man sitcom character with Annie Murphy (of Schitts Creek fame) as Allison, his long suffering wife. Whenever Kevin is on screen, we have a classic brightly lit sitcom complete with audience laughter. However, whenever Kevin isn't in the room we are in a completely different show with dark lighting and realistic sound, where Allison is struggling with her life choices ending up with this man. So carefully scripted and performed, this is both funny and bleak, reminding me a lot of Breaking Bad, which perhaps gives you an idea of how bleak it gets. The most annoying thing is that although season 1 is free to Prime users, season 2 is pay per episode. Yes, I understand how markets work but it's still very frustrating to find that I have fallen into the trap. Anyway, this is odd but gripping and I recommend it, despite the sneaky pricing! (Streaming on Prime)
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