Should You Submit To Tyrant?

What Is This Thing?

Barry -- formerly Bassam -- grew up in privilege as the son of Abbudin, a not-especially-liberal Middle Eastern country. After moving to the U.S. and becoming a pediatrician, Barry hasn't had much contact with his family or his reform-minded friends back home. But now that his nephew's getting married, he's making the trip back for the very first time, with his wife and two teenaged kids, for what will probably be an uneventful couple of days. PSYCH! Shit goes down.

When Is It On?

Tuesdays at 10 PM on FX.

Why Was It Made Now?

The success of Homeland must have made other networks want a show that tells the story of the Middle East -- in part, at least -- from the perspective of the people who actually live there. Not too much, though! Chuck a couple of Americans in there so people don't get too scared of the unfamiliar!!!

What's Its Pedigree?

Tyrant shares a lot of DNA with Homeland: it's created by Gideon Raff, who created the original Israeli series Prisoners Of War, on which Homeland was (loosely) based; Prisoners Of War stars Salim Dau and Hadar Ratzon-Rotem also appear in the pilot. Howard Gordon, the 24 producer who turned Prisoners Of War into Homeland, is credited as an Executive Producer, as is...Ang Lee?! Okay.

...And?

Tyrant has done something basically noooooo other premium cable show has done: I'm not only interested in the kids; I empathize with them the most. I actually empathize with both of them, somehow, even though they have opposite positions on the visit to Abbudin. Daughter Emma, the younger of Barry's two teenaged children, doesn't want to go at all, on the grounds that the country is, you know, a dictatorship in general, and not exactly forward-thinking as regards the rights of women in particular. Son Sammy is easily seduced by the luxuries of being related to the dictator -- and honestly, when they learn that Barry's father Khaled bought every seat on their commercial flight back to Abbudin so that the family could travel in comfort, you kind of see Sammy's point. However, we also learn early in the pilot that Sammy is gay, and makes eyes at another guest in the steam room at his cousin's bachelor party; we don't find out exactly what the punishment for same-sex sex is in Abbudin, but the impression one gets based on Emma's warning to Sammy is that the government is not cool with it. An anonymous wedding hookup is one thing (ladies, am I right), but when circumstances require Barry to stay in the country a lot longer than he'd planned, one imagines that Sammy could be in for trouble. I'm also interested in finding out more about Amira and Leila, Barry's mother and sister-in-law; based on the little we see of them in the pilot, it's still clear they could teach a pretty fascinating seminar on soft power.

...But?

Leaving aside the fact that everyone in Fakeistan speaks English all the time, including in flashbacks...it's a good thing the setting changes early on, because the shot of taciturn Barry, his cajoling wife Molly, and their standard bratty kids around the kitchen debating how much they should open their hearts to Barry's problematic father brought back unpleasant memories of Ray Donovan. When I say -- tongue (mostly) in cheek -- that the problems of TV men are getting less and less interesting to me, this is the kind of shit I mean: Barry is haunted by his past in Abbudin and the things he did under his father's influence before he learned better (or did he?!), and somehow the fact that he's never ever told his wife any of the shit he's still upset about -- and his general inability to communicate with her -- has apparently never come up before at any point in their nineteen-year marriage. How many shows are we going to have to watch where some improbably skinny blonde suburban Los Angeles mother whines at her CLEARLY sketchy-ass husband that she doesn't feel connected to him? Let me solve this problem for all these bitches: if he's not talking to you, it's probably because he's killed people and thinks if he tells you, you will like him less, and he can't have that, because for him you are basically just the idea of Redemption. If he doesn't treat you like a person: that's a dealbreaker, (TV) ladies!

...So?

I really liked Prisoners Of War (check it out on Hulu if you're looking for something to marathon after Orange Is The New Black), and as someone whose parents live in Pakistan -- true fact -- I feel like I should give it a bit of a chance. But if Barry is subjected to a nightmare about watching his father fuck his wife, I won't be happy.