TV Log

John Stossel last week had on his show on the Fox business network Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson and vice-presidential candidate William Weld.  These two candidates made sense in a way that the two major candidates do not, the Republican and the Democrat each being demagogic in their own way.  Two important issues that cause one to lean toward the libertarians:  they still believe in free trade, abandoned by the two major candidates, and they are extremely skeptical of foreign wars which, going back to Vietnam, have been one moral, physical and financial debacle after another.  Both candidates are former governors and neither is a rigid ideologue but both are progressive, inclusive and compassionate.  My own instincts have always been libertarian --though I still believe strongly in a single-payer health system, which I believe would be liberating -- and it looks to me as if the Libertarians are the most Burkean, least demagogic candidates.

Howard Gordon, producer of 24 and Homeland, has made Tyrant (on FX), now in its third season, one of the most interesting and involving shows on the air.  An American takes over an Arab country --the fictional Abuddin -- and tries to make it democratic.  The contradiction is that he has to use authoritarian methods to instill democracy and the country is soon riven by factions and the daughter of the American leader is murdered  by terrorists.  A new cast member this season is Christopher Noth as an American general, who extracts a high price for American military support.

Richard Price (writer) and Steven Zaillian (director) made The Night Of (HBO) into a gritty story about incarceration, lawyering, police investigation, trial, ethnic and generation divides.  Everyone is suffering from moral conflicts and personal difficulties, most of which are subject to compromises which make no one happy.  The eerie music of Jeff Russo adds to the downbeat mood.

Steven Bocho continues with the serialized police procedural he pioneered with Hill Street Blues(1981-1987)  and NYPD Blue (1993-2005) and the single case per season of Murder One (1995-1997) in Murder in the First (TNT).  He uses San Francisco locations effectively and has the two leading detectives in an interracial relationship that is broken up by the boss.  Bochco, as in his other cop shows and L.A. Law (1986-1994), emphasizes the personal difficulties of the job.