Sam Smith - If you follow my strong advice and watch the series "Rake" on Netflix, you may wonder why an editor attempting to restore a bit of morality to American politics would watch such a stunningly amoral program. Well, you can include me among the quizzical. I have no defense other than that this stunning collection of Australians making bad choices also have subversive charm, which is one of the reasons they get into so many messes in the first place.
As Lauren Carroll Harris wrote in the Guardian, "Though Cleaver [the lead] longs to be a good man, he continues to self-sabotage:
he has messed up his marriage to Wendy, sets a terrible example to his
son, falls in love with his sex worker, carries on with the booze and
the drugs, disappoints his sisters and betrays his heroic best mate
Barney – the all-round good bloke Cleaver will never be – by sleeping
with his wife.
"The only thing Cleaver reliably continues to be good at is his job,
which most often involves defending terrible people. Maybe the insane
bastard’s greatest contradiction is that he really believes in his work
and in the letter of the law: for all his rule-breaking and associating
with organized criminals, he continues to defend the indefensible
because of his very traditional, very conventional and very democratic
belief that everyone – even the most heinous cannibal, the most corrupt
pollie – deserves a proper defense. Rake is about how to be good – and,
despite his notoriety, that’s what Cleaver longs to be."
It is definitely to be watched. But just enjoy and don't judge.
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