The first episode of Sacha Baron Cohen’s Who Is America has graced the world and it sounds and looks absolutely cooked.
[jwplayer ufxzSg8Y]
News of the seven-episode show unearthed itself early last week and since then, we’ve had little snippets here and there. We’ve also had high-profiled politicians admitting Baron Cohen pulled a fast one on them for the purpose of the show. One of these included Sarah Palin who was none too pleased she was “duped”.
Most of us know Baron Cohen as Ali G, Brüno, and Borat but in the pilot of Who Is America we get four new characters. Erran Morad is an anti-terror expert and aggressive Islamophobic dude. Dr. Nira Cain-N’Degeocello is your super liberal, proud Democrat, and lecturer on Gender Studies at Reed College. Rick Sherman is an ex-con trying to be a better person and Billy Wayne Ruddick is sorta just tin-foil-hatty.
Some of these characters have very real Twitters.
If you need an idea of what this show entails – former Vice President Dick Cheney, a man who played a vital role in the Iraq war, was asked to sign a bloody waterboarding kit… a form of interrogation that simulates drowning.
— Sacha Baron Cohen (@SachaBaronCohen) July 8, 2018
CHRIST.
If you’re keen to watch the series, I’ve left out spoilers.
As we learnt last week, episode one features prominent American politician Bernie Sanders as well as a rather messed up gun rights segment.
So, here’s what Twitter had to say after the first episode aired on Showtime and Stan:
The first episode of #WhoIsAmerica is up on @StanAustralia right now and… wow. It’s amazing (as expected).
— Toots: molk@aus.social | The Guidefather 👍🇦🇺📺 (@SteveMolk) July 15, 2018
some #WhoIsAmerica #SachaBaronCohen thoughts…
Ep1 not as uproariously funny as Borat but lots of OMG gasps. Will probably kill a few careers of those interviewed…— Michael Bodey (@michaelbodey) July 15, 2018
Sacha Baron Cohen … I have no words. But I kinda feel like we deserve this. #WhoIsAmerica @StanAustralia
— Justin Burke (@justinburke) July 15, 2018
https://twitter.com/ryansatin/status/1018361033159667712
the gun segment of #WhoIsAmerica …I was sad but not shocked 🤯 i can’t wait for the next episode haha
— s h a n (@superflyshannon) July 15, 2018
https://twitter.com/JasonHirschhorn/status/1018357165143162883
I’m still in shock from watching #WhoIsAmerica So sad, and hilarious at the same time, @SashaBaronCohen is amazingly brilliant
— Tyler (@DonnieReb) July 15, 2018
Meanwhile, critics are ‘meh’ about it. Deadline titled their review “Baron Cohen plays dumb in stupid spoof series” while IndieWire found it “hard to call it entertainment… since there aren’t many laughs to be had.”
The Hollywood Reporter wrote:
“Sacha Baron Cohen’s new Showtime comedy is occasionally funny, but it’s hard to be outrageous in a world where ideologies that used to be concealed are now proudly public.”
However, despite these sobering reviews/ reality checks, reviewers did praise Baron Cohen’s strong performance as each of the four characters.
For us Aussies, episode one of Who Is America is now streaming exclusively on Stan.
P.S Here’s Palin’s Facebook response if you want to see how pissed off she was about the whole thing:
