Surely it is no coincidence that right
after the OJ Simpson "not guilty" verdict electrifies America, we get an
episode of "Strange Luck" built around a racially charged trial, an Eastern
Jewish defense lawyer, and a white supremacist cop. There's a fine
line between being topical and being exploitative, and I am not sure but
what Strange Luck has crossed it.
Chance Harper is mistaken for a hitman and
finds himself very briefly in possession of ten thousand dollars in cash--before
a pickpocket steals it. His attempts to enlist police help fail,
and he must raise the cash in case the real hitman's employers come looking
for it. The real hitman is killed in an auto accident, and Harper
is determined to find out who the target is. All this takes place
against a background of a political trial in which three black youths are
being tried for the murder of a white boy, and three white supremacist
"skinheads" are arraigned for desecrating a Jewish cemetary. Underscoring
the theme, just in case we missed it somehow, is a Rush Limbaugh caricature
talk-radio lout, spouting every cliche ever attributed to the reactionary
right.
I don't mind the injection of politics into
what otherwise is usually mindless escapism on television. An honest
look at sensitive issues sometimes allows us an insight into human affairs
a straight-ahead documentary cannot. The classical play "Antigone",
either the original by Sophocles or the modern re-working by Jean Anouilh,
has eloquent and important things to say about the relation of politics
to
personal life, of the obligations of the individual to the State, and
of the different meanings justice has in different contexts. But
"Antigone" succeeds because it honestly portrays both sides of the debate;
it does not paint one side as all white and the other as all black.
And forcing us to look at events solely through the eyes of one man--Chance
Harper--is to force us to look through his convictions, as well.
This is not art, it is propaganda, and I resent it.
I am perfectly capable of rejecting racism
without being led by the hand. I don't need my emotional buttons
pushed to get me to root for justice over injustice. I am particularly
angry when I am deliberately manipulated like this--how stupid does writer
Melinda Snodgrass think I am? And the story is not even internally
consistent. What message, for example, am I supposed to derive from
the fact that the three black youths on trial, who have confessed to the
murders, are acquitted? This is reverse racism at its worst.
There was potential for great tragedy and
catharsis in this show, if the writers had bothered to address it honestly.
The white supremacist father, for example, might have been shown agonizing
over the fate of his son, caught in the toils of a legal system he does
not trust. Instead, we get a heartless one-track fanatic who offers
up his son on the altar of his political beliefs. While I believe
such people do exist, they do not make for good drama. One-dimensional
fanatics are boring, regardless of their politics. The villain who
acts out of admirable motives but whose choices are disastrously misguided
is considerably more interesting than someone who apparently exists merely
as a foil to the hero's nobility. Good drama does not emerge from
the conflict of good and evil, but the conflict of good and good.
Race is a complicated issue, and to oversimplify
it in this manner is dishonest. My sympathies lie generally with
Chance Harper's, which is why it is even more distasteful to have my own
views spoon-fed to me this clumsily. We didn't even get much of the
dry wit and self-deprecating humility that make this show so interesting.
Harper walked through this episode without doing much--he was mostly reacting
to
events like a pinball in a machine. Instead, we got long, not
very interesting, highly predictable, and deadly earnest conversations
between the shrink (Cynthia Martells) and Daniel (Devin Oatway) in the
jailhouse. Even the art direction was cliched. Come on--dressing
the bad guys in black leather? Why not just tattoo "villain" on their foreheads
and be done with it?
This story, with its echoes of Oklahoma City
and OJ Simpson, of Waco and Ruby Ridge, could have had important or thought-provoking
things to say about where Americans stand on issues like race, responsibility,
and freedom. Instead, it used these elements almost as sight gags,
to yank our chains
for a knee-jerk reaction that involves us but does not enlighten us,
or even challenge us.
Predictability will kill a show that depends
on unpredictability. Preachiness will kill any show, period.
I give this episode one lucky charm out of five.