Jim Brockmire is a fitting TV hero for America in 2017. He’s a famous baseball announcer who disappears from public view after an on-air meltdown, then attempts to resurrect his life and career as the voice of a struggling minor-league team in a dying rust-belt town. Brockmire’s longing for a quaint rose-tinted past that never existed and his vulgar means of getting what he wants are an apt reflection of the country right now. But that doesn’t mean Brockmire is a good TV show.
The unrelenting cynicism and darkness of Brockmire, particularly when he’s off-mike, often sounds like what the average American is exposed to on the evening news in 2017. Gathering the town together to watch a network interview he’s just given, Brockmire muses that rich people are just poor people with money; the only worthwhile thing in life is to be famous. A smug jerk who gets everything he wants while doing next to nothing to earn it is apparently the kind of hero TV executives believe we need right now. But why should we root for such a man?
