Outside the Bubble: On the Road with Alexandra Pelosi

... either Alexandra Pelosi is the best actress in the history of the world, or she truly does get it and needs to have a long talk with mom (Nancy Pelosi) and see if any of it can rub off. She starts off by mentioning that she comes from a part of the world (San Francisco) where women protest Trump and his policies by dressing up as vaginas and marching. It is encouraging that she realizes the rest of the nation probably sees this as tragically weird.

In a single hour long documentary, Alexandra Pelosi decides to go "outside the bubble" of her coastal eite enclaves and talk with people who feel differently than she does about current events and politics, and see if she can see why these people feel the way that they do.

She went to Sutherland Springs, Tx where a gunman had killed 26 people inside a small church there to talk about gun violence and ask if the loss had changed their minds on the issue. She went to Alabama to ask folks how they reconcile voting for Roy Moore with their religious outlook. She went to Pennsylvania and West Virginia to talk to coal miners who had recently lost their jobs and ask if they felt betrayed by Trump. She went to Charlottesville to talk about the Confederate statues and racism. She went to Port Arthur to ask the folks there, hit hard by Hurricane Harvey, how they felt about global warming, And finally she went to the California/Mexico border to talk to people about the wall and illegal immigration.

I don't think she was condescending or belligerent at all. She would ask an initial question and just let the subjects talk. I think I can summarize that when it came to the religious questions, if you didn't have the viewpoint of the people interviewed you were just not going to get it. However, the folks in Appalachia and Port Arthur did give relatable arguments. It boiled down to - "What do we care about global warming if we have no jobs? Employed liberals can afford to talk about this, we are just trying to survive". I think Pelosi did get this, because she repeated it a couple of times.

In the closing segment on the border, it was really hard to argue the point with the young Trump supporter about the Antifa. Either Pelosi filmed, or he had filmed prior, encounters with the ironically named Antifa where he was merely counter protesting - he never laid a hand on them. And they repeatedly responded by hitting him with a club until finally he was bleeding from his mouth and the top of his head. How brave of the masked men in black.

Pelosi mentioned at several points where she disagreed with what many of the people believed, but she had to admit that she was never short on invitations to dinner from folks who didn't have that much to go around.

I'm knocking a single point off because she didn't go to the Midwest and interview in the Republican strongholds there. But maybe that is just too much for one short documentary. I'd strongly recommend this one.

I was intrigued at the beginning of the documentary based on what I thought would be about -civil discussion/debate about our country between differing political views. I did not know who the documentary interviewer was until the very end.

During the majority of 'discussions' I found the interviewer condescending and at times disrespectful of the people she was interviewing.

The ending showed lack of professionalism in my opinion, by the interviewer publicly putting her minor children on a documentary show for the world to see. The guy being interviewed proved he could have a differing opinion than a democrat & be a "Trump Supporter" and he doesn't not treat the family of an opposing party with disrespect or hate.

Would I recommend this documentary to people to watch...yes because in the USA that I grew up in listens to others opinions respectfully & then makes up their own mind...Without dramatics(i.e. yelling, name calling, in your face tactics).

The general premise of stepping outside the leftist bubble and hearing from Trump supporters with obviously different lives and viewpoints could've been a fantastic documentary series/film. However, the way this particular example was executed was, well, horrible. Nearly every interview seemed to kick off with Pelosi being annoyed and yelling at them, then there was the editing. I get that there was probably a lot to try and fit into a one hour slot, but it came across as though it was Pelosi basically mocking their ways of life. Rather than hearing a true discussion as to what they believe and why, she was being belligerent towards them and seemed to only use footage of them that intended on portraying the subjects as dumb, poor, rednecks. Then, there was the whole "Nancy Pelosi's grandchildren" thing. I just don't understand the point of that other than for her to say, "Hey, I'm Nancy Pelosi's daughter and here are her real grandchildren" in a gotcha kind of moment that made no sense.

This should be a series, with each hour long episode covering a different topic, led by a more level-headed, rational, interviewer who can carry on a calm discussion with someone, rather than a belligerent, judgmental, short sighted interviewer. And it should be edited in such a way to give us more of a full picture of what they believe and why.

TL;DR - This felt like an arrogant leftists elite putting down, and putting on display, people she thinks are lesser than her. Much like the old freak shows/side shows/circus shows used to do. 2 stars for the premise, no additional stars for actual content/execution.

**I say all this as a liberal who is in full support of open dialogue**

The line right near the end "resurrect the idea of America as the world's the most stable democracy"... let me let you in on something Alexandra- never has been true- no one in the world ever believed that. My god sometimes you americans are so exhausting. Canada, Great Britain, Norway, Iceland, Sweden are all ranked higher if you want to actually somehow score something so ridiculous.

America does not and has not ranked best or greatest or whatever in many many many things ever, or for a long time, or how about this... it's all subjective when comparing to other democratic capitistic free etc etc countries.

This is part of your problem in the US. Everything has to be a competition... oh and you cheat at everything... hilarious that Russia was banned from Olympics, but US is the biggest cheater (do your research the US has the exclusive contract with WADA to provide the testing for athletes... so American athletes are always 1 step ahead).

And, stop invoking your children or flag or whatever to stall debates, just so you can feel indignant.

Oh my god- exhausting.

The rest of the world is hundreds of kilometres ahead of the US in education, innovation, culture, world knowledge... stop being that annoying bigoted bully that we all somehow tolerate, because you have the biggest gun.

I may not agree with the opinions of the people interviewed, but I have to respect where they are coming from. These people have been neglected and over looked for years as those in the the metro areas and Wall Street have prospered. We need to stop bashing these people and hear them out. That does not mean we have to agree, but we need to listen and respect their position. Until we all can listen to each other and truly respect their options and try to find common ground we will be doomed for more of the same divisions we have today. Congrats to HBO and Alexander Pelosi for doing this.