A Review For Greatpods!
“Worse than Watergate, just not as interesting.”
This is how Charles Haden-Savage, played by the inner-circle hall of famer Steve Martin in Hulu’s podcast-inspired True Crime show Only Murders in the Building, describes the Iran-Contra scandal during a back and forth with his counterpart, Oliver Putnam. Which, sadly, is how this country remembers that disgrace. Personally, I think he’s half right. The intertwined plethora of human rights abuses, treasonous activities, felonious grand-scale lies and duplicitous deceptions for which almost no one paid the price, which has become jumbled in our collective conscious and reduced to a simple scandal, collectively called Iran-Contra, was indeed significantly worse than Watergate. But I don’t think it was less interesting. It was simply more nuanced. Unfortunately, American Scandal’s short series on the topic didn’t capture any of that and was, in a word, dull.
Presented by Wondery and hosted by the unfortunately named Lindsay Graham, American Scandal is not so much one show but a collection of short seasons all focused on one individual topic. From Enron to Waco to Three Mile Island, each miniseries tells its story in neat little packages, none longer than six episodes. Naturally, this doesn’t leave much room for nuance or detail. And in their series on Iran-Contra, which came out in 2018, there’s very little of either.
A little background on where I’m coming from here. I am, in a word, obsessed with Iran-Contra. I admit it and I’m ok with it. My wife is ok with it. A little worried maybe. But ok with it. What makes this story interesting to me, what opened the door for my obsession, is the third piece of Iran-Contra that doesn’t get discussed enough; the drugs. Yes, for those who don’t know me (why are you reading this?) my specialty is drugs. I’ve spent the last six years diving deep into the history of the War on Drugs (not just going back to Nixon, my research has extended to the 1800s) and connecting it with today. Because that’s what is interesting to me. The throughlines.
I’m not going to go deep into this here because this is a review of a podcast, not an essay on the drug running activities of the CIA and the Contras, but that’s why I chose to listen to this series. And I was sadly disappointed when the show made no mention of this important piece to the puzzle. I think that’s what really got me about this show. It was so beautifully done in the presentation. Beautiful production, great voice work etc. But on the facts? The bare minimum.
See, here’s the rub. To bastardize and paraphrase You’re Wrong About, which, in one episode did a better job of discussing this scandal than this entire season of American Scandal did, the way we discuss Iran-Contra is, simply put, wrong. Imagine you stole your mom’s car, sold it, then used the money to hire a hitman to kill your ex. And instead of focusing on each of these pieces, like honestly what the hell is going on in your life, all anyone focused on was “Did your dad know, and if so, WHEN did he know!?” That’s Iran-Contra in a nutshell. Each activity was, in itself, despicable. And the layers are like an Ogre, err an onion. Every time you peel one back, you find another beneath it. And the top one is bad enough. But when you really dig down, it’s shockingly awful. President Ronald Reagan should have been impeached. Multiple members of his cabinet, and his staff, should have ended up in jail including future President and at the time Vice-President George H.W. Bush, who admitted he knew about all of the activities. There are strong ties between actions taken during Iran-Contra and the growth of cocaine and its derivative, crack, use in our country’s Black communities. Various members of the CIA have admitted to these actions. I can’t say this any clearer, Iran-Contra is one of the most egregious examples in our country’s history of our government making this country, and the world, a significantly worst place for many, many people.
None of this comes through in this series.
Part of the problem is the length. Six episodes isn’t enough. Especially when the show does something I personally don’t enjoy in storytelling series like this: doubling back. I get it, I do. When I did my series, Choose Your Struggle Presents: Made It, Season 1: Stay Savage, I did a bit of doubling back. You have to do some to remind the listener of important points and those throughlines I love. Some is necessary. But for such a short series (I binged it in 2 days), this show does significantly too much doubling back. Roughly half of the episodes include at least a little doubling back. Which, when you are already trying to fit a lot of storylines into a short series, is a waste of time.
But worse is the choice the show made to focus on unimportant aspects and ignore others. I personally think the Contras are the most interesting part of this story. And we only get two of their NAMES in this series, forget the extended info. And again, no mention of drugs or other activities the Contras were involved in and how it shows that the U.S.’s policies often can be distilled down to the old saying “do what I say, not what I do.”
My biggest complaint about this show is that it is part of the problem. There is a reason that joke from Only Murders in the Building played so well (the minute or so gag where the two characters describe Iran-Contra and go back and forth naming random people implicated in the scandal has been called one of the most delightful in the show’s second season). It’s because our media at large has generally bought into and helped further that remembrance, much to the chagrin of some historians. Yes, I’m going to be that guy real quick. I hate to do it because in 2022 complaining about the “Mainstream Media” makes people look at you funny and wonder if you have a certain red hat in your closet. I promise I don’t. However, while I do support the free press, I wholeheartedly agree with historians that put some of the blame on the (clears throat) mainstream media for the eventual outcome of the Iran-Contra scandal. Because when we allow these outlets to continue to tell this particular version of this story, that the Iran-Contra scandal was sort of just ho-hum political insider dirty work like any other, it underscores the sheer world-changing impacts that these policies and actions had and continue to have today. Sadly, this show does that to a T. And for that reason, it’s part of the problem.
I give it a 2.5/5, because the presentation was well done, but the content was downright awful.
You can check out American Scandal: Iran-Contra on their website or on GreatPods!
This review was originally published on my website, JayShifman.com.
