Uncancel this show.
No? Okay then I'll continue. Wyatt's two season HBO docuseries is like the holy grail of formats for me - being a semi-sarcastic, searingly investigative and wholly constructive look at pragmatic solutions to societal problems. The first season is dedicated to policing (which turned out to be quite prescient and is hardly going to get less relevant as time goes by) and the second education. There's a notable attempt to be more overtly comedic in the second season as well, which is welcome but didn't help it much. The overall vibe is all wood-pannelling, gentle flute musical interludes and the perpetually laconic Cenac who seems to have an easy rapport with everyone he talks to.
I can see why the thing didn't necessarily take off - but it felt so specifically crafted for me that frankly I can't quite believe it exists in the first place. I learned a huge amount from this - it can be easy to see the US from the outside mainly negatively but in going and talking to the empathetic passionate people on the ground, educators, activists, craftspeople - and doing it in a warm and slightly silly way the show opened a whole other side of that country up for me. It's sad that the show has gone, but that the humans it highlighted persevere somewhere is a lovely thought.
