Round Two: The Looming Tower

The Looming Tower: Season 1, Episode 2 “Losing My Religion” (B-)

Episode two of this show did nothing to change my feelings about it, which is that I’m still moderately interested in how it’s all going to play out, but I think that the focus seems to be all wrong on what’s important to the story. John thinking over whether to take communion with one of his three wives doesn’t add anything to the story, especially since he called his actual family when he said he had to leave the country for a bit while the other two women in his life probably have no idea that he’s headed to London. We’re running up against many more interagency conflicts, with John successfully arguing for jurisdiction over the case with the caveat that he himself didn’t go, and more potently, him expressing such fury at Martin when he found out that the embassy may have gotten a walk-in tip a year earlier about the Nairobi bombing. Martin does seem to have a systematic view of things rather than a moral or empathetic one, casually describing how up to one thousand casualties were acceptable in his book. It’s interesting to see how his reaction to Clinton preparing to testify in a criminal case was excitement that he would be seeking a distraction and therefore greenlight their takedown of Al-Qaeda, something that seems so far gone in today’s society since all the White House seems to do is release inexplicable policies that many argue are distractions from what they’re really up to but has yet to officially reach a real courtroom of any kind. Ali getting angry and shouting in Arabic at the owner of the fax machine was an intense moment that shows how personal this is for him, and Robert also seems to be having a hard time dealing with it. I don’t think I need to keep going with this show but may change my mind in a week when I decide whether or not to watch episode three.