S01.E03: 2008

[Guest]

Airs July 14, 2019

Quote

With the election of Barack Hussein Obama, Roger and Fox News Channel have found the ultimate enemy -- one that will drive Fox's coverage as well as cement their ratings; what no one suspects are the hidden depths of Roger's secret world.

[Guest]

Watching this episode, and Ailes's brand of "patriotism," makes me believe even more that this man was the least patriotic person on Earth. The whole episode made my stomach churn.

Also, Gabriel Sherman lives tweets during the show and fills in some blanks:

Speaking of Beth, I am still amazed that's Sienna Miller in that role. She is really unrecognizable. Oh, and Naomi Watts looked skeletal. 

[atlantaloves]

Was his mistress literally throwing up in the hotel bathroom? Also, were those viagra pills falling out of her purse? Why does she look like she is stoned, is she on drugs? God, that was a great episode, even though it kinda grossed me out.   I don't really like Russell Crow, but he is killing it with this performance.  God, he was a total perv don't ya think?

[Lonesome Rhodes]

The show goes too far with the demon-in-waiting portrayal of Ailes' son.  The kid is even made-up a ghastly white, as a ghost (zombie?)!

Ailes, in his autobiography, wrote of the sacrosanct time cutouts he made for being with his son.  He repeatedly, and forcefully, wrote of his regret that he would probably die no later than the lad's early teens.  The trip to Warren served several masters and one of these was most assuredly showing his son his upbringing and the "real" America.  The book is filled with anecdotes about what a shit he could be - admissions against self-interest.  Yet, the thing he prized most was that his son become a real man with a superior understanding of how the world actually is.

Yes, he used power to bed women.  He was unfaithful to his wives.  He was often a dick.  No question.

Yet and still, I have little sympathy for the Laurie character.  We saw her in an earlier ep making a very considered calculation when Ailes came on to her.  The proverbial wheels were a spinnin'.  She made her choice.  She literally slept with it.  She made the choice to not go to Dallas, didn't she?  The choice to show Shine grabbing her suitcase as almost handcuffing her was rich. 

The Gretchen character is another like this.  She knew good and dang well how to play the game and what the game was.  She wanted fame.  There were others every bit as good, if not better, at presenting the news with Fox Attitude.  But, she played her political cards and she got ahead.  She was not ignorant as to how Ailes was to many.  The rampant scuttlebutt could not have been missed.  The decisions to hire women with a certain look on "his" networks was unmistakable.  Gretchen chose to join in.  

If one believes similar dynamics were not at play at the other places, I invite them to rethink.  None of it is right.  But, it takes at least two to tango.

I continue to find the most value in this series to be the Murdoch arc.  His treachery in going behind Ailes and the entire ethos of his largest moneymaker was quite something to observe.  I'm fine with the possibility that he decided the best way to make more money was to make peace with president-elect Obama.  I believe that Ailes was correct that this calculus was hyper-influenced by Wendi.  Given the returns in the succeeding years of Ailes in control, this appears to have been one of Rupert's few significant miscalculations.  If Rupert's thinking was that Fox needed a foil (highly doubtful), this show should have presented it that way.  Attacking our president and the Democrats paid off hugely. as Ailes insisted it would.  Still does.  

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Lonesome Rhodes said:

The choice to show Shine grabbing her suitcase as almost handcuffing her was rich. 

I'm fairly certain that was based on something that really happened. 

In the scene between Shine and Ailes where Shine boasted about tipping off Gawker to the dirt he allegedly had on Wendi, Gawker never bit. They chose to not to publish it (Jossip [now defunct] did), instead they ran a story about it with the headline, "Who's Behind the Campaign to Smear Wendi Deng Murdoch?" 

The whole network seems to have been run by evil, vengeful lunatics who, in the absence of evidence, created their own. See also: "Terrorist fist bump."

[Lonesome Rhodes]

31 minutes ago, Giant Misfit said:

I'm fairly certain that was based on something that really happened. 

I bet it did.  My remark was aimed at the Director's choices.  The angles and the super XO (close-up) of the hands and the bar.  It would be interesting to learn how it was blocked and how the production actually happened.  The character very likely felt imprisoned.  I'm just saying she entered transactionally.  She was also free to go to Dallas anytime she chose.

I was at a major network in NYC.  In my experience and my belief, they ALL (news divisions most definitely inclusive) were/are run by narcissistic megalomaniacs.  Sharks everywhere, talent most especially.  

Ailes, for all his pigness, won the game.  Heck, he destroyed rivals.  The tenor of this series is but one vengeful response.  

[tvisme]

On 7/15/2019 at 9:13 AM, Giant Misfit said:

Speaking of Beth, I am still amazed that's Sienna Miller in that role. She is really unrecognizable. Oh, and Naomi Watts looked skeletal. 

Sienna Miller's make up is amazing.... as well as her American accent.