Political documentaries CAN be fantastic, for example Brexit, The Circus, or Knock Down the House, but Beto—like his campaign—comes up short.
The narrative skitters across the surface of the water really fast, then drops like a stone at the very end. I wanted to care a great deal about a number of these people, but the show fails to do any sort of in-depth character development, and when they attempt to, it just feels scattershot and superficial.
As a result, there's no propulsive arc, even though we know exactly how it ends.
He drives, eats, skateboards, checks in and out of hotels, shakes a ton of hands, kisses lots of babies, leaps on top of cars and counters to give quick speeches, flop sweats and pits every shirt he owns, vents at his Deputy Campaign Manager for dropping balls that realistically cannot be caught, then does it all again. And again. And again.
After a while, it just feels gimmicky or schticky. Ephemeral and not particularly substantive.
I shall be very curious to see how this translates on the national stage in coming months, and whether he can break through the Democratic cast of thousands. I suspect he cannot, but who knows, in the valley of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
