Discomfort May Be the Point

WHEN I THINK about the 2015 HBO miniseries Show Me a Hero, the person who first comes to mind is Nick Wasicsko. This is understandable: According to its HBO blurb, the politician is the show’s main protagonist. But this scripted drama is about the real-life 1980s and ’90s struggle for public housing in Yonkers, N.Y., when low-income people of color worked for integration and the city government resisted—even as daily contempt-of-court fines threatened to bankrupt it. So, it feels weird to focus on the white Mayor Wasicsko, although he (eventually) fights for the public housing too.

This discomfort may be the point. “The thing I don’t buy anymore,” said the show’s co-writer, David Simon (The Wire, Treme), “is if we elect the right guy, the great men of history, that’ll save us. ... Our problems are systemic, and we’re going to have to solve them as people.”

This is exactly what the characters of color in Show Me a Hero do. Wasicsko may seek to overcome political hurdles—including how the Catholic Archdiocese of New York retreats from its decision to devote some of its land to public housing after it upsets white Yonkers residents, including parishioners. But the people of color whose lives are in limbo work to save themselves, too. They are not powerless.

I won’t say anything more about what happens: I don’t think watching the show would have been as thrilling if my husband and I knew what was going to happen next, or at the end. The title is a hint, though. “Show me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy” is how the full F. Scott Fitzgerald quote goes, and that’s how the six-episode miniseries unfurls, too.

I can’t tell you that Show Me a Hero is the best show I’ve ever seen. Although HBO has never steered me wrong, some of the dialogue feels clichéd, undercutting some supporting performances. It even hurts the Golden Globe-winning performance of the Juilliard-trained Oscar Isaac, who plays Wasicsko.

But perhaps Simon would support this critique, to diminish the deification he received for the stellar, groundbreaking drama The Wire. And ultimately the power of Show Me a Hero  is undeniable. It captures brilliantly and in-depth the ambitions of a young mayor and the low-income people of color whose futures have become intertwined with his own. We see Simon’s point that neither the development of a crisis or the solution depends on a singular soul. And we see each person’s humanity in a broken system that must change to lift all lives.