The turnaround time for converting news into filmed entertainment is short, and getting shorter. Maybe too short—sometimes it feels like the rush to fictionalize recent history has resulted in films and TV shows that aren’t fully realized. Maybe we could benefit from a little distance from the subject.
That’s the failing of The Loudest Voice. The Showtime limited series—developed from Gabriel Sherman’s book The Loudest Voice in the Room by Sherman and Spotlight screenwriter Tom McCarthy—attempts to chart the rise of Fox News and its role in our current political shitshow, while also exploring the paranoia and perversions of the network’s CEO, Roger Ailes (Russell Crowe, waddling under 30 pounds of padding and fake jowls). It’s a worthy undertaking, but one that’s hobbled at each step by overwrought dialogue, overheated acting, and some of the worst prosthetics this side of Trash Humpers.