The new fall season is replete with the usual escapist fare, but mostly this season it's a case of art imitating life.
It begins, alas, with the five-year anniversary of 9/11. The worst single terrorist attack in world history has necessarily spawned many TV shows that will air in the next few days. Some are worth watching, others are definitely to be avoided. The one that infuriates us most has been promo-ed exhaustively on ABC: the six-hour miniseries The Path to 9/11. (Sept. 10, 11)
We have been a fan of Harvey Keitel for decades, but we question his politics after his major role in this re-writing of American history. ABC promos tell us that Path is "based on the 9/11 Commission Report," solidifying its presumed basis in fact. But the so-called facts are inventions of a pro-Bush, anti-Clinton bias. Hillary may have been correct about that vast right-wing conspiracy after all.
Just in case you didn't read the 9/11 report (we did), the report does not say that President Clinton was some kind of sex-crazed Nero who diddled on terrorism while America burned. Nor did the report say that Clinton ignored the threat of Osama bin Laden because he was spending all his time getting blow jobs. In fact, Clinton went after bin Laden repeatedly, it was the Republican Congress who focused all their attention on Monica Lewinsky, accusing Clinton of "wagging the dog" for trying to shift attention to the threat of terrorist attack. Path tells us that Clinton caused 9/11. The promos feature the ominous intoning, "For eight years the threat was building and ignored." It's a translation even the most dull-witted of Bush supporters can discern: 9/11 was Clinton's fault because for his eight years, he ignored everything but sex.
We are all for the concept of the parallel universe, and since January 20, 2000, we have wished we could project ourselves into one. But The Path to 9/11 has as much to do with the actual path to that hideous event as does the yellow brick road. It takes about as long to read the actual 9/11 report (which does not let the Clinton Administration entirely off the hook) as it will to watch this piece of vilely revisionist history.
A couple of 9/11 pieces are worth seeing. Inside the Twin Towers aired on Sept. 3 and will replay throughout September on the Discovery Channel. It's hyperrealistic and acutely painful, but not voyeuristic or even really sensationalistic. The film approximates the terror, unimaginable errors (that cost hundreds of lives, like fleeing workers being sent back to their offices to die) and also amazing heroism that occurred in New York that day. Tales from survivors are juxtaposed with re-enactments based on phone transcripts. It's perilous viewing, but perhaps the best story of what we can take from that awful event: that government can and should learn from its mistakes, and that in the worst of circumstances, some people rise to unimaginable heights of heroism. You will find yourselves on the edge of your seats, even though you know the ending.
Another superb piece is Dust to Dust: The Health Effects of 9/11. (Sundance, Sept. 11; also available on DVD.) In case the title of this amazing documentary makes you want to skip ahead, stop. The dying from 9/11 is still going on, and not only the deaths of our soldiers in the misbegotten war on terror. We are talking about first-responders, rescue workers and volunteers in the disaster of the WTC attack. Just as the Bush Administration has ignored those maimed by the war on Iraq, so has it ignored the first responders to and citizens living near Ground Zero.
When the twin towers collapsed, tons of debris were scattered over miles in downtown Manhattan, and dispersed into the air over the entire city. No one who saw the footage will forget the blackening of the area with thick layers of dust and debris. Workers and survivors were covered in the stuff, which they took home with them. For months, rescue workers and volunteers were sifting through that morass, first for signs of life, then for bodies, body parts and evidence. People who lived in the area were affected for weeks afterward as they returned to reclaim their property and homes, thick with dust. No one should have been allowed near the place for weeks, but the Administration revised the EPA findings of danger and let people in, to breath a toxic mix of asbestos, benzene, gypsum, mercury, lead and more.
According to Dust to Dust, asthma, bronchitis, chronic pneumonia and lung cancer are being found in those who worked at or lived near the site. Now, with the insult to injury that the Bush Administration is so good at delivering, these workers have been denied benefits or medical assistance, ignored by the government they served so arduously.
Then-newly-appointed chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality James Connaughton was the "heckuva job Brownie" of the 9/11 clean-up. His rŽsumŽ? Helping corporations weasel out of settlements with folks dying from whatever hellish environmental disaster had been wreaked on them in the name of big business.
Dust to Dust is enraging, activism-engendering viewing. The men and women who risked their lives to help give peace to the families of the victims were abandoned from the outset by the Bush Administration, then have suffered concomitant indignities at the hands of that Administration. There's one word for those men and women, heroic, and another for how they were treated: despicably.
Amazing races
The tragedy of 9/11 is only the season's opener. Other shows are sure to be differently mesmerizing. Survivor: Cook Islands (CBS, Sept. 14), is the most controversial round of the reality show to date, and it hasn't even started yet.
Why all the buzz? Well, we call this one Survivor: Helter Skelter. Declining ratings pushed the ever-inventive Mark Burnett to try something different. Divide the 20 survivors by race: whites, blacks, Latinos, Asians. Not quite a new idea, but an idea that in 2006 has certainly raised some eyebrows. But as they say, there's no such thing as bad publicity, and the hype has made this Survivor the most anticipated since the first round, which landed winner Richard Hatch (self-proclaimed "fat naked fag") in prison for tax evasion. (Not to get off-topic here, but explain to us again why Hatch got four years, and Enron's satanic leader Ken Lay got to go skiing in Vail after his conviction?)
Columnists have lambasted Burnett for making the decision; some have demanded that CBS pull the show. We have mixed feelings about the concept. We like the idea of more people of color on CBS, not exactly known for having much color in its casting. What we don't like is the idea of race war as game show.
In all Survivors, the teams eventually have to blend together, and this one will be no different. So people of different races will be forced to get along and create alliances. We're not sure that's how it will work out, of course (history, regrettably, is on our side), but it could end up being a feel-good social experiment. It's what happens prior to everyone becoming one team that concerns us. Survivor has consistently drawn blood, sometimes literally, so we'll have to stay tuned.
Likewise, the 10th season of CBS's The Amazing Race has profiled the controversial in its cast: a queeny gay couple, Tom and Terry; two Muslim brothers; and Barbie look-alike beauty queens Miss New York and Miss California 2005. There's also a one-legged Iron Man triathlon participant (with her athlete husband) who is definitely going to be a heavy favorite, especially since she also looks like the blonde Barbies.
There are six other teams, but we haven't seen them and won't until the show debuts Sept. 17. But we love the idea of dual beauty queens vying with queer queens on the same show as Muslim brothers who want everyone to know that just because they dress like what Bush calls "Islamofascists," they're just plain folks (replete with caftans, skullcaps and, amazingly, long ZZ Top beards).
Speaking of queer, on the sitcom side, CBS debuts The Class. Think Friends meets The Big Chill. A bunch of 20somethings who were all in third grade together have an intense bond that we doubt many viewers will relate to, but suspend disbelief for the laughs, which look superb. The buddies come together to see what everyone grew up to be, or if they grew up at all. Starring Jason Ritter, David Keith and a cast of relative unknowns. Sean Maguire plays the fab-looking, happily boyfriended queer character all the girls had crushes on. This one is worth a look. (Sept. 18)
One of the glitziest shows debuting this season is also one of the all-star vehicles. Smith has a clutch of high-caliber con men led by the mysterious "Smith" (think Charlie's Angels meets Sexy Beast ). A chameleon named Bobby Stevens (Oscar nominee Ray Liotta) decides to run a few more jobs as the FBI begins to close in, before he retires to spend more time with the family (Oscar nominee Virginia Madsen plays his wife). Producer John Wells (ER, The West Wing ) seems to have another hit on his hands. (CBS, Sept. 19)
Another we previewed and love is Jericho, which will have to serve as a replacement for our ill-fated fave of last season, ABC's Invasion (available on DVD, with the ending episodes that never aired because ABC canned it when viewers said the plot was "too complicated to follow." And we wonder why Bush is President.)
Jericho has a premise that melds the war on terror with Survivor. CBS's promo queries, "What if you lived in a small town and suddenly the entire town is cut off from the rest of the world? When a nuclear cloud is spotted, the town of Jericho, Kansas is led to believe the worst has happened and they may be the only people alive. Complete chaos ensues and puts the entire town in danger, not from the threat of the possible nuclear explosion, but from each other."
Yep, that sounds a lot like Invasion to us. It also sounds a lot like what's going on right now, as fear is drummed into us daily by Bush touting the threat from "out there," where the amorphous axis of evil characters live.
Jericho stars the ever-sexy/mysterious Skeet Ulrich, and Gerald McRaney, Pamela Reed and others. (Sept. 20)
Look for NBC's Studio 60 and sitcom 30 Rock, as well as ABC's The Nine. Don't forget to check out Rosie O'Donnell on the new version of ABC's The View, where she promises, according to TMZ, to never "have a scary gay haircut" again. Stay tuned!