A fine overview of a pivotal figure in American socio-political history and an insightful piece of cultural anthropology

Anchored by a superb central performance, and built upon a fascinating aesthetic design and wide-ranging thematic concerns, the show does an excellent job of arguing that Fox's onscreen reactionary politics and the behind-the-scenes culture of sexual harassment and xenophobia were simply two sides of the same pernicious coin. Depicting a man who believed (correctly, as it turned out) in the profitability of fudging the distinction between reporting the facts and offering opinions on them, the show illustrates the damage such an ideology can have on society as a whole. Does it tell us anything new, anything one can't glean from reading a decent Ailes biography? No, not really. Is it biased, with its own agenda? Yes, absolutely. Is it subtle? Hell, no; not even a little. However, it's well-written, brilliantly acted, extremely well-mounted, and, for the most part, it avoids caricature. All things considered, it's a very fine overview of a pivotal figure in American socio-political history and an insightful piece of cultural anthropology, showing how one man's paranoia reshaped a nation and birthed an ideological chaos from which the country has yet to emerge.

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