Show Me A Hero: Don't Doubt David

Put David Simon, Oscar Isaac, and HBO together, and it's really
hard to go wrong. Show Me A Hero proved this.

 "Your people need a leader. I'm not asking you to make peace to save your skin, I'm asking you to make peace to save your people." - Jon Snow, Game of Thrones, S05E05




Over the past month or so, HBO's new offseason miniseries, Show Me a Hero has premiered, only lasting six episodes, yet packing quite a punch with each new edition. The show was created by The Wire's David Simon, along with fellow journalist William F. Zorzi. And, although it bore many of the same Simon-isms from Treme and The Wire, as with all of his projects, it was fantastic.

The Ben Linus of Judges.
Though the premise of the 1988 housing crisis in Yonkers New York may have been a bit of a dull one, in the end, the story of Nick Wasicsko and the residents of Yonkers ended up being quite compelling. Essentially, our story starts when Judge Leonard Sand (Bob Balaban,) in a lawsuit from the NAACP, orders 200 units of low income housing to be built in the more high class areas of Yonkers. Sand commissions the city of Yonkers, headed by Mayor Angelo Martinelli (Jim Belushi,) to build such houses, only for it to be met with furious responses by the richer residents of the city. Thus, our charismatic lead, the aforementioned Wasicsko, played wonderfully by Oscar Isaac, rises to the occasion and takes over as mayor of Yonkers in a huge upset. From there, we see him come to the realization that the housing will be built no matter what, deal with the hate from the city, lose the re-election, see the fall of yet another mayor, and then be screwed over politically by Zaleski, the next mayor, finally ending in the suicide of Wasicsko. The story, despite being rather mundane in actual action, is riveting, half due to the terrific performance of Isaac, and half due to the ever-intelligent writing of Simon. This was the part of the show that I really cannot praise enough. As one of the only characters that was featured in every episode of the series, Isaac made his character come to life. He was confident and young, leading to his hotheadedness in the beginning, but also a pragmatist, realizing when he had to cut his losses and screw someone, when he had to accept the judge's orders on the housing, or when he was ineluctable at the end. This was really the lifebeat of Show Me A Hero, and the part of the show that held up best in retrospect.

The Atia of the Julii of outspoken older women in the 80's.
Over the course of the series, though we examine Wasicsko and his political dealings for the most part, we also spend a good deal of time exploring the residents of Yonkers themselves. We follow several  minority women, from a Mexican mother of two to an African American nearly-blind grandmother to a teenager accidentally knocked up by a less-than-trustworthy man. We see their rather uneducated viewpoint of the housing situation, the living conditions of the lower class, and the divide between the minorities and whites of Yonkers at the time, more born due to class than due to race. We also follow Mary Dorman (Catherine Keener,) a rich, educated white woman who is incredibly active politically. She has one of the more interesting plotlines throughout the season, going from being hotly against the housing to eventually being turned around and supporting it once she associates with the residents who will be moving into the 200 units of housing. She is helped along by the ever-awesome Clarke Peters, playing Robert Mayhawk, a man put in charge of integrating the new residents of Yonkers with each other. These plotlines, though a bit cloudy in the first couple episodes due to the similar plotlines and situations of the women, eventually came together to form an impressive look at the inner-workings of Yonkers, as well as from the political side of things.

What's most impressive about Show Me A Hero is the understanding that the viewers can come to reach after watching just one or two episodes. Though it may seem overwhelming at first, much like other Simon projects, we understand the plight of our characters, the political situation involving such characters as the love-to-hate-able post-Wasicsko mayor Hank Spallone, the friend and later enemy of Wasicsko, President of the Council Vinni Restiano, or the Pete Smith, the housing authority director, played by Oz's Terry Kinney. All of these rather micro-characters have their personalities fleshed out well, even among all the difficult-to-understand plot and other, more major story-lines happening at the same time.

There's no real comparison for Spallone other than a
conglomeration of different Scorsese characters. 
However, if I had one bone to pick with Show Me A Hero, it would be the repetitive nature of David Simon projects. I'm an enormous fan of The Wire, Treme, Generation Kill, and Show Me A Hero itself, but all of these shows and miniseries have a huge commonality in both character and theme. All of these deal with a certain area, usually a city, their minority residents, the clash of cultures in said city, the politics of said city, and are heavily driven by fast, well-written dialogue of which the viewer must accustom themselves to. I'm not necessarily saying this is a bad thing, as Tarantino has been making similar movies since his genesis and I still love them as much as always, but it's interesting to track Simon's career like this. As one of the best television writers of today (or really ever,) it'd be great to see him have another long-term show where he gets to spread his wings a bit, but would the project end up just being another copy of The Wire-like TV? One could easily see an in-depth look at Philadelphia, Washington D.C, inner-city Chicago, or even parts of New York City as a new Simon show. And again, I reiterate, this would not be a bad thing, but would we ever see Simon helm a more small-scope Breaking Bad type character-centric show? I'm not expecting a sci-fi/fantasy creation out of him, but with the skill-set he has, it would be interesting to see him take on a new kind of project at some point in the future. Also, not to nitpick, but as we are in that type of paragraph, the title, Show Me A Hero really could have been better. I know it's based off the book of the same name, but still.

In an overall sense however, Show Me A Hero was undoubtedly the best miniseries of the year thus far. Now, with Fargo on the horizon, that title may not last, but when compared to Wayward Pines, True Detective, or Texas Rising, the answer is quite clear in terms of quality alone. And, though I doubt we'll be seeing another Simon project for a little while, it'll be interesting to see where he's going next. Be it a show about inner-city politics and crime, a miniseries on children in low-income areas, or even a network comedy about three friends living in New York, I'm sure it will be masterfully done.

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