Normally, a subpoena from a committee investigating the uprising is something that can really ruin your life, or at least ruin your afternoon plans.
In case of Alex Holderdocumentary UnparalleledHowever, it was the best thing that could have possibly happened, at least in terms of visibility. So maybe it’s the best thing that could happen for Discovery+, which suddenly got one of the hottest offers of the summer – a documentary with supposedly so many exclusive access to Donald Trump and his inner circle that the government demanded a sneak peek.
Unparalleled
It comes down to
Subpoena? More like substandard.
Yes, Discovery+ now has a three-part series that is getting promoted from the halls of power, as if AOC tweeted: “But enough about the Green New Deal. How about Green eggs and ham on Netflix?”
It probably doesn’t bode well for Holder’s own documentary, which arrived on Discovery+ this weekend, preceded by enthusiasm that suggested revelations, a previously unseen glimpse of one of the most disheartening days in recent American history, and the kind of entry into the inner circle. from Trump that you normally only get when they have memoirs to promote. The actual documentary? Well, to use one of TrumpWorld’s favorite phrases, it’s a no-brainer. Unparalleled is three hours of ill-focused and repetitive dullness, with one or two moments of near-accidental insight into the Trump presidency as an elaborate branding exercise and zero shocking revelations.
And that’s no exaggeration. There was nothing in it Unparalleled that rose to the level of tangible new information or even compelling new perspective. It’s a waste of access, a waste of time, and the last support for my continued belief that there really is no such thing as a “three-hour docuseries” – just under-edited features or under-confirmed series.
Volatile Unparalleled entertainment comes from playing a two-pronged game: what were the documentary that Holder and the company wanted to make as they sought access to the immediate Trump family in mid-2020? And what did the Trump family think to give him access, however little enlightening it was in the end?
On the first, I think the answer is that Holder and company wanted to make an unscripted version of: succession, the story of three children who struggle for their father’s love and the chance to rise from business second bananas to heirs to a potentially dynastic political fortune. The answer to the latter is presumably that Donald Trump liked the idea of a documentary that treated his family like a dynasty – especially one that chronicled his presumed reelection and the completely smooth and smooth continuation of power in November 2020, a second straight. stunning upset victory that the mainstream media never saw coming.
At some point, Holder realized his access extended to the January 6 Uprising and correctly judged that unfortunate bit of luck would be a better hook than what appears to have been a 10-minute sit-down with Jared Kushner.
This is the problem, and this needs to be made very clear given the way Discovery+ is promoting Unparalleled: January 6 is not until at least 20 minutes into the third hour of Unparalleled, and once it arrives, the documentary’s former featured subjects fall completely silent. Donald Jr. declined comment. Ivanka declined to comment. Eric says – he doesn’t ask – that he’d like to skip the January 6 talk. That’s that. Donald Trump gives a standard one-sentence answer, saying that most people didn’t go to the Capitol during the Jan. 6 rallies and most people who went to the Capitol didn’t break in, but those who did were smart because the election is stolen.
A roster of journalists and academics continue to voice their opinions on the Trump children’s dissenting reactions – Ivanka reportedly wants her father to stop the post-election fraud talk, while Donald Jr. gladly picked up the fraud ball and ran away with it – with neither proof nor confirmation. There are not even denials. It will be Confirmation bias: the documentary†
Holder even had the amazing timing of sitting down with Mike Pence when he received the email resolution asking him to introduce the 25th Amendment.
“Yeah, excellent,” Pence says with a grin. “Tell Zach to print out a paper copy for the trip home.” Then he smoothly transitions to clichés and says, “I’m always hopeful about America,” while completely dodging the rest of the conversation.
The actual Jan 6 ground footage isn’t entirely enlightening, but if you’ve watched any of the recent documentaries on the subject or the Jan 6 commission’s public hearings, I assure you you’ve seen and heard more of it. that fateful day.
For all the nothing that comes out of the January 6 part of the documentary, you still have the various talking heads closing the series by announcing that this all proved the fragility of democracy – which of course happened, but how does it work? that cover the first two hours?
The first two hours are the three Trump children – Tiffany is in one scene but not interviewed, Barron is not even seen and Melania, not a child but still part of the family, is almost invisible – aggressively sticks to the party line . Ivanka is Stepfordian, impeccably put together and far more talented than her siblings at telling humanizing anecdotes. Donald Jr. is aggressive, off-the-cuff and willing to say almost anything as long as it fits the established family message. Eric is here. There is nothing revealing in their interviews with Holder, nor in the behind-the-scenes footage of their numerous appearances in the fall of 2020. There is no deep distraction as to why this level of election participation was unique to the Trump family and whether nepotism rule was. or should not be a concern.
The Talking Heads offer familiar truths about Ivanka as Trump’s favorite or about Donald Jr.’s brief waves of rebellion. or that anything one of the children does is for their father’s approval. But none of them have any particulars to share or personal connections, so they’re just making the same great statements from hundreds of columnists and documentary filmmakers over five years. Other than Pence and that one pointless appearance, none of the non-relatives from the Trump sphere are there to tell secondhand stories about the kids, so the choice is to either take the talking heads at their word or take the robot kids at their word. ; eventually neither group is convincing and things get repetitive between them.
It’s usually just a dull timeline of the end of 2020 and the rare attempts at doing something funny are structurally disappointing. The “Give a subject an iPad so they can watch other subjects being interviewed and respond” that played so well in The last dance, yields nothing, either because Donald Trump is not Michael Jordan or because the former president is extremely careful here. You watch Trump as he watches Ivanka and Donald Jr. and Eric at work and maybe a minute or two, you try to pretend Trump reacts differently to his different kids when the reality is he looks more bored than anything when asked to play this stupid game .
Maybe you can find a way to succession entertaining connections – Atli Örvarsson’s score, alternating shades of succession† The crown and maybe a hint of the good woman, expresses the series’ intentions better than anything else – but once you determine Ivanka is Shiv, Donald Jr. Roman and Eric Tom (or feel free to switch those two around), nothing really adds to the discussion. Without that January 6 commission subpoena, it would have been easy to ignore Unparalleled completely and after a day or two of curious rubber necking, will still with the discovery+ let go.