The G Word with Adam Conover

The show should be taken in the spirit it is presented- an attempt to reestablish a sense of civics and duty in common good (of a nation).

It presents an inside view of both the good and the bad - the episodes on money and future I found particularly striking for their day-to-day unheralded and unremarked impacts

The fundamental conclusion is that government isn't good nor bad, it is simply a necessary function of any organized society (nation). It is capable of both great good and great evil, only because it's great in scope. Our engagement or lack thereof will dictate what it does. It's a good message to internalize.

It's a slightly flawed, slightly shallow, but ultimately accessible insight into an important topic. Some reviewers seem to have not understood the core concept that government is inseperable from politics because government is the exercise of politics - its people and power. Inseparable.

The sad reality is that the people that seem to need this the most are the same people least equipped to receive it.

The series has the great intent of discussing the government on a less one sided way. It tries to introduce us to the everyday aspect and necessity of the government while also investigating the drawbacks and screw ups which is a much needed level headed approach but they fall between two stools. The show's pacing is much calmer and less energetic than what we are used to in Adam Ruins Everything yet it isn't informative enough to be a "real" deep documentary and stood more on the entertainment side.

It feels like a 101 for people who know nothing about politics or the government and doesn't really care about it anyway but tries to make them care trough this entertainy nature but without the snarky, calling you out on your mess style that made ARE great. It doesn't have that shock value that we got used to and not because of the subject. The exaggerated acted out parts are still done in a visually interesting way but they are out of place in this series since between them we don't get the energetic, snarky Adam, but a more serious one who tries to convince us that this isn't a joke, we should take this serious, which is a good thing but:

The series is not deep enough to be taken seriously. It introduces important topics, real problems, pros and cons, but we only scratch the surface. Obviously it is hard to do more in less then 25 minutes yet the episodes still feel dragged out. Vox could state the same in a 7 minute video with greater impact. We spend a lot of time chillin' instead of laying out hard facts and truth. The parts with Obama are a total waste of time. Seems like the only reason they were added is to make him look like somebody who cares yet the only thing it achieves is to remind you to the political leaning of the series which can be felt in many places.

All in all it is a slightly informative and slightly entertaining series without the boldness or thoroughness to leave a mark.

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.

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.

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.