Adam Conover & The G Word
Created by Adam Conover, Jon Wolf & Jon Cohen
Inspired by The Fifth Risk
Written by Jonathan Braylock
Directed by Nneka Onuorah & Jon Wolf
Executive producers Priya Swaminathan, Barack and Michelle Obama
Producers Zachary Halley & James Burns
Cinematography Charlie Gruet
Editors John Cason & Michael Schultz
Production companies A24, Fair Point, Higher Ground
Back about eight days ago, I was talking about the weather with this one fellow. He was talking about getting out in the local woods for the Memorial Day weekend. I said to keep an eye on the forecast, since they are talking about a 40% chance of rain for the next Friday. “Where are you getting your information?” he demanded.
“NWS,” I replied. The National Weather Service.
“Oh,” he said. “The government one. I don’t waste time with that. I use Accuweather. They say it’s going to be sunny and warm.”
“Um, you know that Accuweather get nearly all their data from the government service, right?”
He didn’t have an answer for that. He should have known what I said was true, but he absolutely hates to admit that there are things the government does better than any private company.
Had he stuck around, I would have told him about how Accuweather pressured politicians to make NOAA and NWS data availably only to Accuweather, which they could then repackage and sell at a profit. They do that now, of course, since the government weather data, including forecasts, are free to everyone. But Accuweather resented the fact that people were getting for free the same data that Accuweather was getting for free, and wanted to get rid of the competition. You want to track a hurricane, get a tornado warning, get a frost advisory? Accuweather will be happy to let you know—for a price.
So what did the weather actually do this weekend? We got a trace of rain—more in other locales in the region—and temperatures were about 15-20 degrees below normal. No forecast eight days out is particularly reliable, and Accuweather isn’t more reliable than NWS. But they like to claim they are, and make preposterous daily forecasts for up to 60 days out. That, combined with glittery packaging, persuades people they are more accurate than that stodgy old government agency. Why, don’t they have the word “accurate” in their name? They must be better! How can something they give away for free be as good as the same stuff they charge you for?
The G Word is six part documentary that takes a hard, if comedic, look at the role government plays in our lives—both the good and the bad. It notes the monumental contributions government plays in keeping our banks and food and travel safe, and the failures, such as the COVID response or the allocations of bailouts in the wake of the 2008 home loan crisis. It also details how private interests have undercut and curtailed some of government’s most vital functions.
The show reminds me quite a bit of a similarly-themed documentary from some 30 years ago: TV Nation, with Michael Moore. He, too, confronted a steady steam of disinformation and misinformation and did so in a humorous, but hard-hitting fashion.
The highly bingeable series is in six half-hour segments, as described by Wikipedia:
1 “Food”: Adam unpacks the origins of the USDA, the ways in which it keeps food safe, its challenges, and how it’s directly responsible for stuffed-crust pizza.
2 “Weather”: How’s the weather? The answer could mean life or death. Adam meets with those tasked with predicting the weather and handling its fallout.
3 “Money”: From bank bailouts to stimulus checks: Adam digs into the ways in which the government keeps people in the black – or shortchanges them.
4 “Future”: “Hey, Siri. Who created GPS, drones, Roomba, and you?” “A military defense agency responsible for some amazing – and awful – advancements in tech.”
5 “Disease”: Adam examines the U.S. government’s helpful and harmful approaches to sickness and finds that incompetence and indifference are all too contagious.
6 “Change”: A disillusioned Adam visits Barack Obama to see if the man who made “hope and change” a thing can explain how to make an actual impact in government.
The series is fair, and takes a surprisingly nuanced view of the problems and solutions that government presents in our daily lives. Government is big, it’s powerful, and at times it can be evil and threatening. But without it, there’s no such thing as “America.”
One of the most important documentaries you will see this year.
Now on Netflix.