Many of us living in democracies are getting tired of our governments tackling the pressing issues of our times, like climate change, rising inequality, banking bailouts, slow pandemic response and so on. We are wondering what are the various government departments really doing? Are they just a drain on our hard-earned money paid as taxes?. Unfortunately, we the public have little understanding of the functioning of our government bodies, like the role of the regulators for food, health, medicines, banks, stock market & others. Why do they exist? Normally, we find these to be boring and we are interested to discuss elections and elected representatives, who keep us occupied by playing to the gallery.
The G Word with Adam Conover on Netflix is a new documentary comedy, that was produced by the former President of the United States, Barack Obama attempts to throw some light on the various government organizations in America. The mini-series talks about the origins of the USDA (US Drug Administration), Weather department, Hurricane forecasting, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation that guarantees bank deposits, the wing of the US Air Force that maintains the GPS satellite constellation, CDC (Disease Control) and research, and a few others. This is an American show and talks only about institutions in the United States, but was still relevant to watch, as many of these organizations were pioneers and influenced similar ones that came around the world.
Adam Conover, who is a comedian presents the entire show in a humorous fashion that makes you think in many places. Except for the last (sixth) episode, I found the first five to be enjoyable. Instead of making a dull documentary, each topic gets presented with relief like a magic show, visits to the actual places, stunning animations, and acting skits. The editing especially the switchover from one scene to the next was brilliant. Check it out.
The G Word with Adam Conover
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