What I’m Watching: The Loudest Voice

The Loudest Voice: Season 1, Episode 4 “2009” (B+)

I found the opening scene of this episode to be rather unnecessarily grotesque, showing Roger in a moment of cruel pleasure and listening to his sounds in the process. The portrait of Laurie as a woman turned completely paranoid by the degrading behavior endured by Roger on a regular basis is immensely disturbing, and it’s clear that she’s trapped in this cycle since she her belief that he’s always watching her has now led to her always being watched. Being told that she needs to find her replacement was terrible, and Roger telling Gretchen to twirl like Miss America when she came to him with a legitimate complaint was extremely manipulative and demeaning. Appointing Joe, played by Emory Cohen from “The OA,” as the editor of his town’s newspaper and sending him after someone who was infringing upon his “property rights” demonstrated just how much Roger wants to show that he can spread his influence. Going hard after Obama even after the president pointed out how one network in particular hates him just to show that he isn’t Rupert represents the way that he responds to a challenge by merely hitting back even harder. I have to imagine this episode was shot months ago, and its timing couldn’t be any more relevant. Glenn Beck being admonished for calling the president racist and Roger refusing to apologize for it made the current situation with a certain president’s tweets and sentiments feel entirely hypocritical. I guess that’s the point, but there’s no way that the particulars of this situation could have been predicted back when this hour was filmed.