The G Word with Adam Conover

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.

There is a lot of educational segments that show a bit of the behind-the-scenes in government, such as the hurricane one, which I enjoyed learning from. There's also a lot of "why this current thing exists - the reason is shocking!" segments which is very informative. I think Adam does a great job at playing to both sides - he mentions failures of both the Obama (drone strikes, social program cuts) and Trump (COVID19 handling) administrations, along with both Clinton and Reagan failures. However, his solutions appeared, to me, mostly "Big government will save us, give them more power" and blind hope.

In summary, I believe there were many great educational parts to learn from, and he tries to stay politically neutral with mentions of both parties failures. His "solutions" were disappointing - I'd say it's worth watching to learn more, but definitely do your research and think critically when he presents solutions to issues that come up.

• and yes, there is cussing. If you can't handle it, go watch a kids show, not a show for young adults about the government.

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!

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.

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.