As a film fan, I knew nothing about Reagan's career as an actor, and as a European, I knew nothing about his political career before the presidency catapulted him onto the world stage
So the early episodes of this series were an education in both, revealing his political journey as following the same path his party and a significant percentage of his generation took, towards identity politics and adopting the ideology of the market (and its corollary, limited government) as a sort of second faith
Although the insights into how his wife's adoptive father's extreme views influenced Reagan's early political development are illuminating, editorial attempts to cite her taste in decor and fashion as symbolic of hypocrisy when contrasted with the administration's welfare cuts are tendentious
The role of Reagan's wife in his career appears to have been that of most women of her generation - supportive but ultimately passive - which renders the premise of the series as a whole (a biography of the couple, rather than Reagan himself) redundant
Although I'm essentially sympathetic to the criticism of the Reagan administration's idolatry of the market and raising deregulation to the level of a belief system, I can't argue with reviews on this page from politically biased commentators, which describe this documentary as a hit piece
I think it's perfectly valid for film makers to adopt a critical tone when interrogating their subject matter, but this series approaches every single topic with the aim of demonstrating that Reagan was wrong about absolutely everything
Maybe the film makers feel the contemporary narrative around the Reagan presidency is too hagiographic and needs to be countered, but producing an act of propaganda as a counterweight seems an ineffective way to address this imbalance
Since those who most need to hear a countervailing version of history are unlikely to stay with such a nakedly biased piece of propaganda long enough to hear any truths it contains
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