Opinion: Nobody could really process the political and social whirlwind we’ve just been through. But from “Squid Game” to “Succession,” TV tried to keep up with the craziness
So how did TV grapple with these new political realities? Cautiously. Aggressively. Obliquely. Sometimes bizarrely. But at least, by and large, it dealt with them. Where the old network formula — Norman Lear notwithstanding — was to mostly pretend topical issues were as relevant to their creations as hovercraft to “Matlock,” the new TV reality sees creators jumping on and incorporating hot-button issues.
It was a universal hit, even though the show was made in South Korea and is better understood by reading the subtitles rather than watching the dubbed-into-English version. And even though it was shockingly dark, often to the point where the explicit barbarism overshadows the meaning.
But it was at the same time great family drama, as the series followed its typical pattern. What seemed flaccid at the season’s outset turned layered, complex and captivating by the conclusion. Oh, and did the Roys face consequences at congressional hearings over the sexist — and deadly — mismanagement of their company’s cruise line? Of course not. Friends in high places can calm the most turbulent seas.
If it’s fears of an impending theocracy that haunted your 2021 dreamscape, season four of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” on Hulu, was there to give you not comfort but validation. The show has long moved past the storylines of Margaret Atwood’s great dystopian novel, and this year, it regained some narrative thrust and logic, reminding us even as the Supreme Court seems poised to agree with those who want abortion to be illegal, that it can happen here.
“Staged,” on Hulu, brought us a second season of British thespians Michael Sheen and David Tennant, as versions of themselves, barely holding their mental health together via an erudite, contentious, oh-so-actorly and ultimately loving Zoom friendship. But its cast, also including Steve Carell as Aniston’s former co-anchor disgraced by #MeToo allegations, is outstanding. And the show gets at something human in Aniston’s efforts to understand and maybe forgive her former TV-show husband and close friend.
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