When I first watched Season One of this series I was reluctant to write a review because I believed those ten ten episodes were simply a prelude to a more expansive study of the social and civil collapse of the United States.
I am glad that I waited. What we have here is a near-future examination of a society in free-fall, the fictional city of Kingstown standing in for a nation that has been corrupted by its own racism, inequality and avarice. Diane Wiest as Miriam McClusky is both the matriarch of the McClusky family and the voice used to delineate the roots of America's moral devaluation, Slavery and the Native American genocide. It is telling that as the series begins she is teaching the book, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee.
We know that we are witnessing the future because the death penalty in Michigan was abolished in 1963. At one point we are witness to the gruesome execution of a drive-by shooter, and we see the horror of state ritualized murder. At the conclusion of the killing, a member of the victim's family shakes his head while questioning: "Why didn't you warn me?
There is no respite from the desolation. There is no redemption. There is, however the understanding that when the bell does eventually toll, it tolls for thee.
I am glad that I waited. What we have here is a near-future examination of a society in free-fall, the fictional city of Kingstown standing in for a nation that has been corrupted by its own racism, inequality and avarice. Diane Wiest as Miriam McClusky is both the matriarch of the McClusky family and the voice used to delineate the roots of America's moral devaluation, Slavery and the Native American genocide. It is telling that as the series begins she is teaching the book, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee.
We know that we are witnessing the future because the death penalty in Michigan was abolished in 1963. At one point we are witness to the gruesome execution of a drive-by shooter, and we see the horror of state ritualized murder. At the conclusion of the killing, a member of the victim's family shakes his head while questioning: "Why didn't you warn me?
There is no respite from the desolation. There is no redemption. There is, however the understanding that when the bell does eventually toll, it tolls for thee.
