I had just finished watching the Netflix series, Lioness, the other day when I read your lament, Douglas Murray, in The Spectator about Ronan Bennett’s Day of the Jackal script: ‘Something started to niggle each time I clicked ‘next episode…’
‘The main one was that the British security services – diverse people of colour aside – were all portrayed in a rather negative light. In fact every arm of the state, particularly politicians, were portrayed in a powerfully awful light. As of course were all capitalists. Once it became clear that the other baddies were Northern Irish Protestants from a loyalist paramilitary group, I started to take notice of the credits. And there I saw it. Ah – the whole thing was written by Ronan Bennett.’
Don’t worry, Douglas, I know the antidote to Ronan Bennett written stuff on the screen … try Taylor Sheridan. Like Lioness. Or Landman. Or Yellowstone. (And more coming up, including The Madison starring Michelle Pfeiffer.)
As you say, ‘For anyone who is fortunate enough not to know about him, Bennett is a Guardian writer, scriptwriter for the BBC, and a lifelong admirer of the Irish Republican cause. A supporter of Gerry Adams and Jeremy Corbyn.’ And, ‘Once I noted the series writer, everything else fell into place. The wildly nasty portrayal of all British officials, the horrible portrayal of Northern Irish Protestants, the violence of the British state, the comic-book evil of all businessmen. Everything made sense.’
Of course, it’s not only Bennett… ‘One reason that I don’t regularly watch drama,’ writes Murray, ‘is that I am fed up with being preached at by scriptwriters and goaded by casting directors. Everyone has their favourite examples, but it is generally agreed that a high-water mark was reached when Netflix made their Anne Boleyn series (written by Eve Hedderwick Turner) and cast a black actress (Jodie Turner-Smith) as Henry VIII’s wife. Afterwards, all pretence that the viewer wasn’t being taunted in a, Go on, I dare you to… object fashion had to be dispensed with.’
You’ll get none of that in Sheridan’s scripts. There’s not so much as a token tick-box. There is no whining about green causes. You can just relax and not suffer preaching from the screen. So much so I wondered if Netflix was atoning for its Woke/lefty shows with the world of Lioness for 16 episodes. The latest episodes are not only up to date with – and in sync with – Trump world, the script has senior US political characters speaking bluntly about – for example – the mistake of open borders and other current issues. You’d like it, Douglas.
Four of the episodes are directed by Aussie John Hillcoat of The Proposition (2005) and The Road (2009) fame. Nicole Kidman co-stars as Kaitlyn Meade, a CIA Special Activities Division Chief supervising Zoe Saldana’s (starring) character, Joe, a Mexican-America from Los Angeles with a husband and two young kids. Another Aussie in the cast is a serene Jennifer Ehle in a senior role. Yes, Morgan Freeman (Secretary of State and CIA director Edwin Mullins) is black, but he is obviously a Republican with no time for foolish lefties. Dig it.
In Landman (10 eps), Billy Bob Thornton plays a down-to-earth Tommy Norris leads a cast whose centre of gravity is the Texas oil fields, where Woke is unknown. Honestly, it’s a blast to watch. Thornton tells his daughter there are two types of people on ‘the patch’ (oil fields). ‘Dreamers and losers. The whole country used to be like that … but there’s not any dreamers out there any more. Just thieves and fools.’
As he drives an insurance inspector lady past a pack of wind turbines, he explains how the concrete foundation of these monsters ‘goes down into the ground 12 feet … we use them to power the wells … no electricity out here. We’re off the grid.’ Inspector lady says, ‘They use clean energy to power the oil wells?’ Tommy corrects her, ‘They use alternative energy. There’s nothing clean about this.’ He then explains how much diesel is needed to make the wind turbines and how much oil it takes ‘to lubricate that fucking thing… On its 20-year life span it won’t offset the carbon footprint of making it. And don’t get me started on solar panels…’ But he goes on about how petroleum is the base of ‘every f-ing thing’. This show ain’t a Chris Bowen production. More like Ian Plimer.
You talk about Lockerbie: A Search for Truth. ‘Colin Firth is a lovely actor and masterfully plays Jim Swire, who lost his daughter on Pan Am flight 103 and campaigned for years to get to the truth of what happened. While the drama may drag at times, the acting and horrific recreations brought that awful terrorist attack back to prominence and managed to vaguely entertain as well as inform.
‘But somehow I knew what was coming. The wicked cover-up by British officials. The inevitably scheming and suspicious behaviour of the Americans. The sympathetic, lovable Libyan agents and their charming, caring families.
‘Then in the final episode we got it. The local Scottish journalist who has been alongside Swire all these decades as he searched for the culprits sums up the whole thing. Who did the bombing? ‘It was Libya, it was also Iran and Syria and the Palestinians. I don’t think we ever truly realise how much the West is hated. And no wonder. Look how we act. Look what we do. Look how we justify it. I mean – always someone else, never us.’
No, ‘us’ is always the guilty party.
In the Australian context, it could have been written by Adam Bandt of the Greens. That’s not a show you’d wanna watch, Douglas. Look for the antidote – Taylor made shows…
