Show Me a Hero
The Wire’s David Simon made his triumphant return to TV, coming back swinging with Show Me a Hero. The HBO miniseries, done in conjunction with Crash director Paul Haggis, was an angry, melancholy look at the pitiful state of race relations in America, and its release could not have been more timely. Hero succeeded as well as it did thanks to a marvelous performance by Oscar Isaac, who was at times optimistic, delusional, weary, and eventually, suicidal.
Show Me a Hero was a bitter polemic, but it was not without its moments of grace, seen in the gradual reformation of Catherine Keener, never better as a racist who thought she wasn’t. In just six episodes, Simon and Haggis took viewers through the emotional wringer, evoking a visceral reaction the kind of which is all too seldom on TV these days.
Best episodes: “Part Five,” “Part Six”