JSG25

This series gives important firsthand accounts from people who lived through this hellscape. Their actual experiences are important to document! And the documentation of their stories are why this gets a 6/10.

On the other hand, historical events go through different eras in regard to historical analysis. The first is the journalistic era (the initial media portrayal). The second is the orthodox era (the first academic analysis). This series begins what we call the revisionist era, albeit very early in historical context.

This is exemplified by every official interviewed in this series allegedly knowing what should have been done, or they did everything in their power to help, and did their best to get everyone else to do what was right... allegedly.

The problem with these officials is there is always another proverbial "they" that should have done more. Everyone in this series points their finger towards another unknown, unnamed, boogeymen that didn't do, or didn't care to do, something that could have mysteriously saved the day. It is an hours-long version of the three Spidermen meme, where all three are pointing at each other.

This series is fairly accurate in its portrayal of Wall Street history. However, there is a clear bias in the narrative crafted; Wall Street and banks are evil and the federal government is the good savior. They rightfully highlight unethical business practices by bankers but fail to show any of the corruption of the political elite who were just the other side of the power-struggle coin. The series promotes the Roosevelt/SEC as the white knights who save the day, yet ignore the decisions by both that prolonged the Great Depression by seizing control and retarding markets.

There is then a convenient time-jump that ignores decades of political ineptitude (40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s) in an attempt to jump straight to Ronald Reagan's presidential term, and then vaguely allude that Regan was responsible for some relatively unknown criminal Wall Street players in the 80s. This series starts off really well, before delving into tired apocryphal narratives.

To be clear, there is no direct fabrication in the series. What they show is factual. There is just a very clear bend in the story-telling that feeds a popular post-modern theme.

Jim Gaffigan has always been a reliable and hysterical laugh and this was just not it. He took a couple mediocre bits and absolutely rode them into oblivion. It really seemed like he either fell into the "they'll laugh at anything I say" trap, or he thought he could completely change his style. If I didn't know any better, I'd say he witnessed the meteoric rise of Joe Rogan and his band of edgy comics and decided to try and tiptoe that way too. We chuckled a few times and watched the whole show but it didn't have the same punch any of his other shows. I'm rooting for his next set to get back to funny Jim.