Who is America? - first look review: Sacha Baron Cohen's latest prank show is a patchy affair

As far as basking in the benefits of free publicity goes, it’s hard to imagine anyone enjoying a more satisfying week than the one Sacha Baron Cohen just had. When word began circulating  some seven days ago that Cohen was about to launch a super-secret new series returning him to the arena of pranking the prominent, the reactions were disparate but voluble.

First, there was widespread amazement that, in a leak-prone era like this, a performer of Baron Cohen’s stature could have completed an entire series without any of its participants giving the game away in advance. Secondly, there were howls of outrage from the high-profile Republicans seduced, manipulated and duped. In the past week, victims like Sarah Palin, Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Judge Roy Moore fell over each other in their haste to issue fuming denunciations of Baron Cohen. After all, being convicted of racial profiling or accused of sexual harassment is one thing, being made to look gullible crosses the line.

But while the Republican propaganda machine has been vigorously condemning Baron Cohen’s obvious bias, his new vehicle, at least on the evidence of this first episode, attributes the hopeless polarization of America to the delusions and prejudices of both the left and right.

Among Baron Cohen’s sextet of new prosthetic alter-egos is an NPR reporter who  apologizes for his white male cisgender status and regales a pursed-lipped-but-polite Republican couple with dinner talk about his wife cuckolding him with a dolphin. Another addition to his repertory company, an ex-convict attempting to re-enter society, shows the prison art he painted with feces and ejaculate to Christie, a California art gallery owner who has such a developed sense of empathy that she not only praises his unique vision but, when he shows her the paintbrush he decorates with the pubic hairs of famous artists, happily plucks out a few of her own. These are amusing, if overlong, pieces.

But, for all that Baron Cohen and his team set up both sides for target practice, the only completely successful, and certainly the most memorable part of the debut episode was the segment designed to get as many Republicans as possible to enthusiastically endorse the notion of arming toddlers.

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The best of Baron Cohen’s new characters, Erran Morad, is a former Israeli army colonel, happily entrapping gun lobbyists on board with his Kinder-Guardians project, that is designed to put heavy artillery in the hands of the unprotected 4-12 demographic. Former Congressman turned  conservative radio host Joe Walsh joined the likes of  current  congressman Dana Rohrabacher and former Senate Leader Trent Lott in a fake commercial demanding America arm its toddlers. Morrad even beguiled a former NRA spokesman into promoting the Puppy Pistol, a huggable firearm that soothes as it wounds. The way the Kinder-Guardian piece grows in absurdity and complexity will remind older audiences of Chris Morris’  Brass Eye.

However while Sacha Baron Cohen was previously plagued with the high-class problem of watching his characters blow up into pop-culture icons and immediately become obsolete, on  the basis of his new ones — there’s also an alt-right conspiracist based on, but nowhere near as deranged as InfoWars voice of doom, Alex Jones — he will not face the same problem. Thus far, all his revolving cast are catch-phrase free and intentionally unlovable.

Any random hour wasted watching Fox News could likely throw up as many individuals proudly giving voice to as many grotesque convictions as Baron Cohen elicits from his targets. The difference is, knowing they've been played for suckers seems to be causing them to experience actual human emotions like distress and mortification. For that alone, this series is already a success.

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