The Loudest Voice review: Fox News' monopoly expose is far less gripping than it should be

Language: English

The first episode gave the impression of a shaky start, but now five episodes into Showtime’s The Loudest Voice, that is streaming on Hotstar, it was clear to me that this series needed to be better. While that could seem like harsh criticism for a show that is solidly performed and set around global events, one would expect a show about one of the most dangerous people in the history of the world creating a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) to be far more gripping.  

The WMD, in this case, is Fox News, that was deployed for the singular purpose of amplifying conservative voices and keeping the misbegotten Grand Old Party (GOP) in the US in power. Russell Crowe plays Fox’s architect Roger Ailes whose life helming the network is broken down in an episodic manner. While Crowe’s turn as Ailes is adequately watchable, it is the writing and direction that bring down the overall quality of the show, particularly when there are shows like Chernobyl out there, which have set such a high benchmark.    

The first mistake the show makes is the episodic breakdown of the timelines itself – we see Ailes’ life through different decades, which means pockets of narrative drama as opposed to a fluid form of storytelling to build a character. It creates a vacuum between the audiences and the central character, and therefore does not give us much insight into why Ailes behaved the way he did. The time jump from 1995 in the pilot to 2001 in the second episode is just too vast – and by then, Fox had already established itself as the number one network in the greatest country in the world. How this was achieved is never detailed. The showrunners focus more on Ailes talking in interior environments to a few people in his orbit rather than showing us how he managed to build his destructive empire. The time jumps continue in subsequent episodes. It feels like a casual look at modern history’s highlights rather than a character study of a someone literally puppeteering the few objects that seemingly control geopolitics. It is akin to Chernobyl being a show, where we never learn what exactly happened that night inside the reactor.  

The show focuses more on the sexual harassment that Ailes rendered to women at his workplace. While a necessary plot strand in the light of the #MeToo movement, even this thread is not nearly incisive enough to make an impact. Ailes’ sick reputation is treated like an obvious fact than a deep dive into his psyche. He was supposed to be a master manipulator, but we never see how he did this, barring one scene with Gretchen Carlson (Naomi Watts), who famously brought about his downfall. His relationship with Laurie Luhn (Annabelle Wallis) is the centerpiece of the show. Though the show constantly tells us that they had a complicated dynamic with a lot of power play at work, we once again never see what those dynamics were. Ailes is shown exploiting Luhn multiple times, but his actions are crystallised to one woman, and we never quite recognise the scope of his depravity and greed, because it is all referenced as something that happened off screen. A few scenes that paint Ailes as a victim of power are problematic, given he is being portrayed as a sexual predator in other scenes.  

This is also a very dull show, lacking energy and the will to shock or thrill you at any point. Visually, it is unreservedly uninteresting and furthers the notion that TV is an inferior medium to cinema, oddly in an era where streaming at home is gathering more attention than theatrical releases. It is packed with recognisable faces, including Seth McFarlane as the former FOX VP Brian Lewis, but they are let down by the insipid production values, a lack of focus and detailing.  

The most egregious problem, however, is Rupert Murdoch being almost whitewashed here, and his character portrayed as a passive agent in the building of the Fox machine. Murdoch has always been the shadowy mastermind behind Fox and the manipulative cause of several world events. This show not acknowledging that only furthers his villainy and offsets Ailes’ degeneracy being brought to light. Make no mistake, Ailes and Murdoch purposefully built Fox in the wake of Nixon’s scandal as a propaganda cushion, to prevent the GOP from receiving criticism and maintain the right wing base in the US’ rust belt. We see the effects of this machine at this very moment, as the current US President Donald Trump continues to enjoy a 40 percent approval rating despite his disgusting and treasonous actions only because people watch Fox.  

Two other strange aspects in this show are the complete absence of Wendi Deng and the NRA. Deng, for those who are not aware, is Murdoch’s ex-wife and also a Chinese spy, who deserves her own series for the massive amounts of material to be covered in her colorful life. Maybe, we will see a glimpse of her in the next two episodes of The Loudest Voice, but there is also a chance she would be portrayed in a sympathetic light, much like Murdoch.

Rating: *1/2