The G Word with Adam Conover

First of all, I loved "Adam Ruins Everything", and I am writing this having watched the first series and having listened the Factually episode related to this show.

Is it bold? Yes.

Is it bold enough? No.

Is it bolder than I expected or than "Adam Ruins Everything"? No.

However, I watched and enjoyed it.

The editing was slower, but it is a common issue after pandemic, and I do not know why.

I have written my takes on the episodes that I so deemed.

For the future, though, Mr. Conover, you may want to look into: (1) US foreign policy; (2) US international policy; (3) How US does not recognize the Human Rights Courts in Hague; (4) and how Paris Agreement is meaningless.

Even has the Alton Brown doppelganger, wonder if he sued for his likeness and shows formula being copied. The skits and dumbed down explanations of more complex workings of what is being discussed is uncanny. It's more entertaining when the subject is how to cook chicken wings or sourdough bread though.

This miniseries presents some very interesting facts about the US government, packaged as comedy. It currently has 6 episodes of about 30 min each.

It is interesting to see the reason behind some of the services that the government offers, such as USDA, FEMA, the National Weather Service, FDIC, etc. Only the very basic principles are explained though, and not always in correct English. For example, in the first minutes of episode 2 ("Weather"), it is painful to hear Adam Conover saying "me and my parents were huddled in a basement during hurricane Gloria". Even a person like myself, for whom English is not the first and not even the second language, knows the correct form is "my parents and I". Adam Conover's only comment after listening to interviewees is always "awesome". It would have been funny to do it in the voice of the Lego movie character who keeps repeating "everything is awesome" :)

What I gathered from everything that was presented is that "those who have, will get more". We live in a mutated, monstrous capitalism, where the fair rules of competition no longer apply. Instead, large corporations are getting the lion's share. And while ordinary people are fighting over race, gender, vaccines, and so on, the mega rich get richer (See episode 3 entitled "Money").

The comedy part is extremely silly and annoying, with facts dumbed down too much, and silly skits like a child's lemonade stand that are meant to illustrate how buying/selling works. The style of this series is that of an ABC-learning show for toddlers, except Adam Conover cusses even when he's supposedly amazed.

I understand that nowadays people's attention span is that of a goldfish, and the average person's comprehension dwindles after a few minutes, but the facts presented are very basic, and do not require the kind of childish, inane parody this series attempts to pass as humor.

Despite the negatives, some of the facts presented in this series are eye-opening, so I urge my fellow Americans to watch it.

The show in general has some interesting sections, and communicates well by introducing people that run/deal with the specific sectors the show covers.

However, a lot of these sections have more to them than the show let's on, but this is par for the course of trying to make things digestible for the masses. (Hopefully it pushes people into reading, and learning more about these subjects)

The worst thing about this series isn't the subjects, the presenter, or its simplistic approach, which overall work fairly ok...the problem is the iffy humour and acting.

Comedy is different to everyone, and I acknowledge that going in, but there is always a point of trying too hard to make someone laugh, that it becomes so in-genuine , of which this show is guilty.

The show uses humour to soften the hard subjects, but the acting mostly can't sell the awful jokes they're supposed to deliver. Although not all the time, I'd say about 80-90% of the time I was cringing, to almost eventually turning it off at point...just wait for the Willy Wonka parody, you'll see what I mean

Overall, and above average documentary on a wide variety of subjects, dragged down to average by its bad humour and iffy acting.

I think mainly what's missing (compared to ARE) is the dynamic of the fast-talking smartass know-it-all vs. The average dumb-dumbs getting all those hard-truth bandaids ripped off. Adam is a lot more humble in this show, less know-it-all, and waaaaay more "glass half full" Polyannaish (specifically towards our government - but when Obama is the producer, I guess I can't expect Adam to go full anarchist anyway, but this show has no teeth, no claws... I wish Bernie had produced it!)

Seriously, though, read the room, Adam. (That's right, I'm pretending Adam is reading this.) Now was not the time for a "give the government a chance, they're not that bad" show. We wanted you to turn our world upside in tiny ways, not attempt to restore our faith in the US government. That's not gonna happen right now. You and your people are smart enough, ya'll could have figured out how to inspire your demographic to take an active role in US government without fellating Uncle Sam right in front of us. And what's with that mother-reading-to-her-infant tone you take whenever you say something even remotely critical of our government? Ew, Adam!