When I watch something as uniformly superb as Show Me a Hero, it champion to the people around me. Yet it seems to me that, due to the lack of bombastic high-concept, the show is being unsung by most audiences much like Mayor Wasicsko himself. It’s not the ratings juggernaut it should be. Perhaps, it will go down as a missed opportunity for those who initially missed and be an unearthed bijou for those who find it later in the sands of time.

Before he runs for another term in the mayoral race, Wasicsko has been honored for his philanthropic stance on the housing initiative. When he meets with an aide for support in the next election, he pontificates about he committed a “courageous” act and suddenly his prideful egomania is beginning to disturb his tenets. Like Ozymandius from Greek mythology, Wasicsko is starting to worship himself a little too intently.

The city government is stacked with white politicians but they require a member from the other side of the fence to represent their point-of-view. Bob Mayhawk (The Wire veteran Clarke Peters) is that spin-doctoring consultant. Peters’ authoritatively fastidious voice brings a wisdom when he goes door-to-door to preemptively soften the smooth transition into the neighborhood.

A rallying cry at an African-American group meeting acutely pinpoints the negative terminology that the white populace uses to demoralize their community (“Tenants” over “residents”, “low-income” equates to “low-class”, etc.). In 1991, the housing debacle might be a few years ago but it is still fresh in the long-term memories of the more ardent voters and he has been earmarked as the “face” of that ordeal.

Clearly, Nick isn’t sufficed with a subordinate post and we can feel the rancor when he holds a conference to announce that he is relinquishing from the upcoming candidacy. Once Martinelli has withdrawn, the election culminates in a cliffhanger verdict with a recount of absentee ballots. Speaking of serendipity and rolling the dice, the potential residents in the townhouses are being randomly chosen by a lottery drawing.

Of course, novelistic showrunner David Simon is shrewd enough to show that the screening process is not above being preferential and selective about who they permit. For her part, Norma doesn’t particularly grovel for special treatment because of her legally blind status. When she is accepted into the brownstones, her reluctance is quite funny. Furthermore, Paul Haggis stages it like a Hooverville game show.

As with most David-vs.-Goliath stories, there are a few triumphs. For instance, Doreen Henderson (Natalie Paul), who was a menial crack addict. Now, she has rehabilitated herself and is now an upstanding community organization leader. With this, we gain twinges of admiration for her reversal. Meanwhile, our collective ire is constantly raised when Billie Rowan (Dominique Fishback) is oblivious to the short-sighted quagmire she is in with her excuses for her delinquent boyfriend who is also the deadbeat father of her multiple children.

At a seminar, the new residents are given lessons on etiquette (a condescending demonstration on how to properly cincture trash bags). But Mayhawk is the voice-of-reason when he asks if the residents still want to move in based on his stringent guidelines. He sagaciously states it is an adjustment and difference has an existential price.

The miniseries has largely censored itself from our kneejerk reaction to the word “nigger” but when a white neighbor yells it from their car, we recoil in fear and aggravation anew. Wasicsko is not the humble civil servant he once was and his peacock showboating is causing friction with Nay (Carla Quevedo), his wife, to the point where she is unceremoniously terminated.

By its conclusion, Show Me a Hero is a proletariat, emotionally paralyzing masterstroke that is another feather in the cap of those powers behind the scenes who deemed the subject worthy of broadcasting to a wider audience of all ethnicities. The lump-in-the-throat moment is when a haughty Caucasian woman ceases her stride to introduce her poodles to an adolescent black child after months of being aloof.

Regardless of your persuasion, it was nearly impossible to watch it idly without furor, empathy and compassion. The thought-provoking questions are we’ve seen Nick inebriated on city-wide power and his own influence but was it for right purpose and who benefited from it? Paraphrasing Norma, was the defeat worth the fight?

Rating: 5 out of 5

The public’s reactions to art can be mighty extreme. The general consensus for True Detective Season 2 was that it was inferior, stupefying and overall, lacking in substance. Now we are graced with the arrival of Show Me a Hero which is bountiful with multifaceted themes, well-rounded characters and sociopolitical, ripped-from-the-headlines prevalence….and people are bemoaning that it is too leisurely. I guess you can’t win with some message boards. I, on the other hand, cherish a show like this.

As the camera revolves on a dolly around his desk, the newly minted, overburdened Mayor Wasicsko realizes that the issue of the city in contempt transcends party lines and funding. Despite this, he hasn’t lost his rhapsodic view of what Yonkers can and should be. On the porch of a house, the youngest mayor waxes idealistically about a view directly to his council office and how his future children will idolize their father.

Like The Wire and other anthology series, the focus is mostly communal and tribal. The potential residents of the 200 homes are not faceless hordes and they are also not demonized as thug stereotypes or welfare peons. Single moms sit outside of their low-income housing and they are frightened of their “upstate” environment. Maybe more scared than the WASP-y constituents who are opposing the ruling.

Although it isn’t explosive with ultraviolence from gun battles, this is just as immediate and nerve-shredding with higher stakes than usual. The city is verging on costly budget cuts (police force suspension, water and trash services, etc.) and on the whole, Yonkers will be bankrupt in a short span. It has a race-against-the-clock urgency that doesn’t require triggers or bombs.

Henry J. Spallone (Alfred Molina) proposes that Yonkers will degenerate into the “trash” that is already established in the Bronx. Molina imbues truly vitriolic bigotry in Spallone as he reconnoiters the slums with incriminating photos. His bullish behavior is a blistering indictment on the white-collar phobia of sharing and desiring a monopoly on quality living.

When Wasicsko is negotiating for an appeasement with two council members on the opposite end of the issue before a midnight deadline, Haggis captures the swaying sentiments of Sidney Lumet’s Twelve Angry Men. Politicians are classified as laughingstocks in popular culture, but the outcry of a few virtuous politicians during this period overturned that belief.

The most wrenching storyline is a former retirement-home employee who has recently been diagnosed with advancing complication due to diabetes. Her government-certified health aide are averse to traveling to her neighborhood but her son is optimistic that they will eventually uphold their responsibility. It is a bleak depiction of the “fearmongering” that Sussman denounces.

Near the conclusion of his first term, Wasicsko is already challenged by Spallone who is wielding the widespread approval rating that the housing expansion was an incorrect judgment. Since I was unaware of the outcome in the election, the show is still capable of dazzling me with the element of dramatic surprise. Like Frank in True Detective, Nick hallucinates a vision of his father in a graveyard but it is much more profound and meaningful.

Inflammatory subjects like teen pregnancies are addressed with refreshingly aboveboard veracity. Of course, they are casualties of statistics but David Simon and Haggis don’t gloss over their interior thought processes. Additionally, Show Me a Hero is a rallying call-to-arms for the “silent majority” who are being muffled by the outspoken faction.

The Fitzgerald quote that the title is based on is germane for the disillusioning sight of watching Wasicsko pack up his office after Spallone’s landslide victory. While he is no longer the mayor, his in-home remedies of caulking and light fixture repair show he still possesses a constructive backbone for public service. It’s safe to say I’m eagerly anticipating the final chapter next Sunday.

Rating: 4.25 out of 5