News Satire Roundup: August 25th

Sunday, August 25 – This was a rough episode for me, on cruises. I’m not a big cruise person, but I’ve done a few that were half vacation/half professional workshops. Now, of course, it doesn’t surprise me that cruise ships are terrible for the environment, workers are criminally underpaid, and companies do everything they can to maximize profits, but hearing about all of it in detail was pretty harrowing. “Highlights” included the list of maximum compensation workers can get for lost body parts (don’t tell your server how much his dick is worth,) Carnival still not staffing their pools with lifeguards despite multiple children drowning, and the maritime-law sidestepping that allows cruises to all but ignore sexual assaults and only report deaths that they deem “suspicious.” Also, I loved Hasan calling Norwegian Cruise Lines (headquarters in Miami, flying the Bahamian flag for “tax reasons”) the “Rachel Dolezal of cruise lines.”

I recently commented on how The Daily Show has had an impressive number of Democratic presidential candidates on as guests. And it’s not just because there’s such a plethora to start with! So far (working backwards,) Trevor has interviewed Bill de Blasio, Michael Bennet, Marriane Williamson, Andrew Yang, Tim Ryan, Eric Swalwell, Kirsten Gillibrand, Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders, Jay Inslee, and Kamala Harris, and those are just the ones who appeared on the show after announcing their candidacy. There have also been appearances by Cory Booker, Julián Castro, and Amy Klobuchar in the past year, plus Trevor had Dr. Jill Biden on the show, in which she talked a little about her husband’s decision to run for president.

That’s eleven of the twenty-plus candidates, along with the spouse of another and three more who came on the show prior to announcing their runs. Again, this does in part just speak to the sheer volume of Democratic candidates in this bloated primary – plenty of the candidates who’ve appeared on the show have been those 1-and-2% pollers looking boost their numbers. But those aren’t the only ones who’ve come around. Of the ten candidates who qualified for the third debate, the only ones who Trevor hasn’t interviewed (yet?) are Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, and Beto O’Rourke. So the show has been attracting the heavy hitters as well as the long shots.

This makes me think back. Trevor took over the show in the fall of 2015, right in the thick of the 2016 that election cycle. Of course, that election had a plethora of Republican candidates and only a few Democrats, so it looked different than the situation now. And a few low-polling presidential candidates popped up – Chris Christie and Rand Paul for the Republicans, Martin O’Malley for the Democrats. Ben Carson appeared on the show sometime after withdrawing from the race, and Bill Clinton made an appearance shortly before the election. While Hillary Clinton eventually came on the show, it wasn’t until a year after the election.

That, to me, shows the clout and cred Trevor has reestablished for the show over the last four seasons. I think the revelance of The Daily Show under Trevor has pretty much always been recognized by Black people (so many interviews Trevor has with Black guests open on a mutual-admiration fest, with whatever Black artist/politician/entertainer/journalist/etc. he’s interviewing commending him on what he’s done with the show,) but it hasn’t always been recognized by all. Now, in this new election cycle, to see so many presidential hopefuls from a variety of polling ranges come on the show to talk to Trevor, it seems to demonstrate that people get it now, that The Daily Show still has something to say and is a worthwhile platform to spend time on.

The Visitor (2007, PG-13)

I first saw this film, Tom McCarthy’s second after The Station Agent, years ago, and while The Station Agent still holds the top place in my regard, I’ve always liked The Visitor. Seeing it again recently, I was struck by how much more heavy my viewing was under present circumstances (a few spoilers.)

Walter, a widowed economics professor, has been languishing in a rut for years, deeply unhappy but so numb that he barely recognizes it. When a conference takes him into New York City, he returns to his seldom-used apartment to find a young immigrant couple squatting there. To his surprise as much as theirs, Walter begins a shy friendship with the pair and starts to live for the first time in years.

The basic format of this film is very much in line with Tom McCarthy’s favorite kind of story (see also, The Station Agent and Up): softspoken loner is semi-unwillingly adopted by one or more vivacious balls of sunshine, and an unexpected little family is cobbled together. Walter just exudes the air of a man sleepwalking through life, and when he’s shaken up by meeting Tarek and Zainab, he initially resists but almost immediately begins giving in despite himself. That said, the turns the plot takes are its own, and even though Walter’s dynamic with Tarek and Zainab (and later Mouna) reminds me of Finn, Joe, and Olivia or Carl, Russell, Dug, and Kevin, the actual relationships have their own bent.

Seeing it again, I recognize that Tarek in particular might be something of a Magical Brown Person (or maybe a Manic Pixie Dream Muslim?) His position early in the plot is to pull Walter out of his listlessness, make him feel again, and introduce him to the beauty of the djembe (Walter has burned his way through multiple piano teachers, but he takes well to Tarek’s good-natured instruction on the African drum.) However, 1) Tarek is rounded out by the other immigrant characters, and 2) that isn’t his only purpose in the story. As Walter takes greater part in Tarek and Zainab’s world, he’s introduced to music, dishes, and culture that are new to him, but he’s also brought face-to-face with the realities of being a brown or Black immigrant in America, especially a Muslim after 9/11.

That’s where the “under present circumstances” part comes in. Interactions with ICE are harrowing enough to see in this film, made in 2007 – the way any offense can make a person suspect in the eyes of the law, the baffling and callous bureaucratic process, the dehumanization of detention. Thinking about what’s happening now in 2010 to men, women, and children daily is heartwrenching.

All the actors do a fine job with the material. As with The Station Agent, the performances are understated but feel immediately specific and true-to-life. As Walter, Richard Jenkins is a quiet lead, affecting in his stillness. At the opposite end of the spectrum is Haaz Sleiman as the bursting-with-life Tarek (this was the first film I saw Sleiman in, and I’ve yet to see him in another role that makes good use of his talents.) It was also the first film I saw Danai Gurira in (Okoye!), who does well as Zainab, and Hiam Abbass is great as Tarek’s mother Mouna.

Warnings

Strong thematic elements, language, and some drinking.

The Book of Rannells: Glee: Season 6, Episode 13 – “Dreams Come True” (2015)

Like How I Met Your Mother, Glee was another show that I stuck with until the moderately-bitter end.  It was an absurd series that was sometimes hilarious, sometimes tacky, something beautiful, sometimes bombastic, and always insanely extra.  It had some seriously-lean years in there, although the final season did get itself together somewhat (similar to the end of Scrubs.)  Of course, season 6 could be wildly uneven as well, but when it comes to this episode, the series finale, I’m mostly satisfied with how it shakes out.

The episode opens on the climactic moment of Nationals 2015, with Will standing alongside the New Directions waiting for the results with baited breath.  From there, we move back and forth between the present and five years in the future, seeing various characters make their goodbyes and set their paths, then watch where those roads take them.  It all culminates, as everything on this show does, in the auditorium, for one last performance.

As is typical with Glee, plenty of the proceedings are absurdly over-the-top, with an inordinate amount of glee-club members rocketing to silly levels of fame in so few years.  (In some ways, though, it’s actually less over-the-top than reality, as the hypothetical 2020 features Jeb Bush running for reelection – not even a Ryan Murphy show could’ve dreamed up the satire that is real life.)  At this point, I’m pretty much used to it on this show and roll my eyes but don’t grumble.  It’s still fun to see what becomes of some of these characters I followed for six seasons, and as with any later-season Glee event episode, I like the glimpses of characters who left the show (hi, Mike Chang!)

Some good songs here.  Kurt and Blaine’s duet of “Daydream Believer” is lovely, performed in a goofy but very cute setting.  Will and Rachel both have beautiful goodbye numbers, “Teach Your Children” and “This Time,” respectively.  And of course, the big blow-out final number, OneRepublic’s “I Lived.”  Sure, the song choice is pretty high-school graduation, but it’s worth it to see all those characters singing together one last time.  Cameos from pretty much everybody who’s ever been through the New Directions – including Jesse, which delighted me (you can never have enough Jesse St. James in my book) – brimming with exuberance and catharsis.  Pardon the expression, but it was certainly a good note to go out on.

As for Andrew Rannells, he makes a brief cameo as himself in one of the 2020 segments, presenting at the Tony Awards.  Incredibly short, with just a few quick Best Leading Actress in a Musical jokes – I smiled at “Dame Maggie Smith in Miss Jean Brodie’s Second Prime,” and his enthusiastic delivery of “Anne Hathaway in her one-woman show Anne!, Exclamation Point!” cracked me up.

In itself, this is barely more than nothing to see, but it is a tiny bridge between Rannells starring in Ryan Murphy’s The New Normal in 2012 and being featured in the Murphy-produced The Boys in the Band in 2018.  In that way, I suppose it’s a little sign that, even though The New Normal was short-lived, Murphy still liked Rannells and liked working with him.  And I’m on record as flat-out loving Rannells’s performance in The Boys in the Band, so I’ll take it! Not to mention, Rannells is reprising his Boys role along with the rest of the cast in Murphy’s Netflix adaptation of the play and has been announced as part of Murphy Netflix adaptation of The Prom, so I think it’s safe to say the Rannells is now officially one of Murphy’s people.

Recommend?

In General – While I’d say this is a better-than-average episode of late-seasons Glee and a pretty good series finale, it doesn’t do much good to recommend just a series finale.  Paired with seasons 1-3 and maybe some of season 6 (you can mostly skip the middle,) I’d recommend it for folks who like silly shows about performing.

Andrew Rannells – Naw, not enough for him to do.

Warnings

Language, sexual references, and thematic elements.