00BAMA Review
It has often been stated that it is both different—and maybe even easier—to run a political campaign than it is to actually govern, as President Obama no doubt learned early in his administration. With a two-party political system and deep philosophical divisions throughout the country, achieving the necessary consensus to initiate policy changes can be a tedious and often unsuccessful task. Writer Todd Berger seems to ask “What if it was easier?” in 00BAMA, a webseries that turns the Forty-Fourth President of the United States into a 007-style undercover agent capable of implementing his “yes-we-can” optimism into reality with both ease and finesse.
In the first episode, for instance, a suspected terrorist with knowledge of an imminent attack on U.S. soil is captured. When President Obama’s covert team of Joey B (Jeff Grace), Hill (Elizabeth Sandy) and Rahm (Blaise Miller)—send-ups of Vice President Joseph Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel—are unable to ascertain the needed information through normal interrogation, the President refuses to utilize more aggressive Jack Bauer-type techniques. “This is America, man” he replies. “Save aggressive techniques for the bedroom.” Instead Obama himself questions the suspect and when that yields no results, he opens a box containing a freshly-baked apple pie and begins eating until the terrorist finally breaks.
Other episodes include Obama and his team going undercover in a Moroccan bar where Kim Jong-Nam of South Korea and Vladimir Putin of Russia are having a clandestine meeting. Instead of using threats of physical force against the newly-formed alliance, President Obama literally throws the keys to the White House on the table and challenges them to a drinking game a la Raiders of the Ark to resolve the question of world domination. In another installment, the Big Three automobile-makers hold American jobs hostage in exchange for millions of dollars in bail-out money only to have their plan thwarted by Obama.
Although the idea of the President of the United States masquerading as a covert undercover agent could easily turn into a half-baked late night comedy sketch, 00BAMA rises above such simplistic depictions with a slick, polished look and professional air to its episodes. The writing, meanwhile, is both witty without being patronizing as well as fresh without falling into predictability. And while actor James Jolly may not be a dead-ringer for the actual Barack Obama, there is enough charm and charisma in his performance to indeed illicit comparisons to the leader of the free world—and even Sean Connery’s interpretation of James Bond.
00BAMA is not Todd Berger’s first venture into the webseries medium. In 2008 he created the four-episode Time Dealer—about “a time traveling drug dealer as he alters history, on ounce at a time”—for the now-defunct 60Frames. While 00BAMA contains an optimistic viewpoint on both present politics and President Obama’s administration, Time Dealer offers a glimpse of the past that is more in line with the ramblings of Timothy Leary than anything learned in high school. Like some burned-out Dr. Who or Sam Beckett from Quantum Leap, the mysterious lead protagonist (D.C. Pierson) indeed travels through space and time, meeting many historical figures along the way. He then introduces them to some form of illegal drug which in turns leads to the actual events recited in history books. Joan of Arc, for instance, experiences visions of God urging her to lead the French army against the English while wasted on mushrooms. A writers-blocked Thomas Jefferson, meanwhile, finds the right words for the Declaration of Independence after a night of “tweaking” with the Time Dealer.
In 1999, the television drama The West Wing premiered on NBC. The series depicted politics in the United States in the ideal sense, with a President who adhered to a set of beliefs and an opposition party that was both open and willing to compromise. 00BAMA offers its own idealistic viewpoint, transforming the charismatic Barack Obama into a James Bond-style covert operative that is capable of bringing about his policies of change in a hands-on and successful manner. While more fantastical than The West Wing, the webseries still manages to convey the optimism that Barack Obama initially invoked in his supporters while likewise being both humorous and entertaining in the process.
On 00BAMA, “Yes We Can” has never been more fun.
Anthony Letizia (March 22, 2010)
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