Rave Pan

Every so often, a show comes along that shows you want it means to be a show. For the next several seconds, “The People” is just that show. Smartly, its producers haven’t waited for critics to praise it, instead they’ve sent out long-winded press released detailing precisely what makes it great, giving the public bullet points when convincing others to consume it. Why show when you can tell people like it is? 

Sitting down in my basement home theater, strapped to an antique movie seat is an experience fewer and fewer audiences appreciate. Watching TV isn’t meant to be pleasurable. It should be somewhere between hard work and a head cold. 

“The People” is not technically speaking a great series. Lines are flubbed, boom mics enter the frame, and gaffer’s tape covering an array of cords is seen in nearly every scene. But this isn’t a big deal. “The People” shows us our humanity. It’s a counterpoint to the rugged individualism at the core of our rotten culture. This is probably why the showrunners didn’t name it “The Person.” It’s not a great show or even a good show. What it is, is an important show. Where else can you see a gypsy mechanic speak an obscure Romanian dialect without subtitles for twenty minutes at a time? Every episode put a different character front and runner, sometime to the point of debilitating boredom. This is art in the twenty-first century. 

Most shows are lazy and predictable. The last thing entertainment should be is entertaining. It should be a call to action, a call to arms, a one-way conversation with someone much smarter than you. Or at least, louder than you. Shouting someone down gets your point across, even if you don’t have one. I don’t want to get caught up in plots and storylines, since those too often distract from the impact. 

“The People” may just be one of the worst shows ever made, but that’s immaterial to its ultimate legacy in the pantheon of broadcast television. It’s here to put other people in their place. You won’t laugh, you won’t cry, and if you tell anyone you don’t like it, your life will be ruined. There are two types of people in the world, those who like “The People” and bad people. Which one are you?