You know how you read something that’s too good to be true so you have to do a double (and triple) take?
That happened to me just now. I was lollygagging on our work Slack news channel when Staff Writer Jay Connor dropped a link to a Vanity Fair article titled, “The Obamas Are Producing a Comedy Series About Trump Being a Giant F—kup.”
“WHAT?!” I exclaimed. Surely this must be reported by a bootleg magazine called Ego Carnival or something. This is a level of political pettiness that doesn’t exactly gel with the well-known “reach across the aisle” branding, so this can’t be real! Nope, my eyes did not deceive me—it was the actual legitimate publication Vanity Fair.
VF’s Bess Levin reports:
Yes, in news that will assuredly send Trump into an unhinged tailspin once he notices it, Barack and Michelle are reportedly producing a comedy series for Netflix “based on the chaotic transition of power when Donald Trump became president in 2016.” The show, titled The G Word With Adam Conover, is a collaboration between the comedian and the former first couple’s Higher Ground Productions, based on Michael Lewis’s book The Fifth Risk, which was born out of a September 2017 Vanity Fair article. The book covers the historic chaos and mismanagement that occurred in the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, and Energy during the handoff between the administrations. While Obama team members had prepared briefing books for their successors, among the Trump people who showed up to fill the posts, of which there were very few, basically no one was qualified. (You may recall that Trump’s first energy secretary, Rick Perry, thought his job entailed overseeing the oil and gas sector, when it actually involved active nuclear warheads.)
It all lines up with the fact Higher Ground Productions acquired the rights to Lewis’s book in 2018. The G Word With Adam Conover is being described as comedy “mixed with documentary elements.” Per Deadline, production is set to begin in early 2021, which means we don’t have much time until production begins. Hell, we might already be too late. But, I don’t see any trade announcements for staff yet so it doesn’t hurt to try! Soooo, let’s get this out of the way…
The Root hereby nominates Senior Editor Stephen A. Crockett Jr., for the role of showrunner. At the very least, he should be a producer or consultant for the series—I mean, have you read literally any coverage about Trump on this site? No one in all of digital (or print) media covers Trump the way Crockett covers Trump. Then, as VF mentioned, there’s also the chaotic shenanigans that marked Chris Christie’s short-lived leadership of the White House transitioning team. Well...Crockett has Cake Boss Christie covered, too. By the way, if you’re an actor who has the energy of a constipated fart bubble, please do audition for the pivotal role of Jared Kushner before it’s too late!
Anyway, I truly believe Crockett as showrunner makes the most sense because I’d love to be in this writers’ room and Crockett would likely hire me because everyone knows it’s “who you know” in Hollywood. Boom.
Overall, I feel like this is going to be for Americans what The Crown is for British folks and the entire world will tune in and talk about it on Twitter. Let the Game of Drones begin...