I am burning through a couple-few seasons of Sleeper Cell from Showtime.
I am super impressed by the show but I am confused as to the memetic and propagandic — read political — agenda of the show.
Does anyone have any insight into this raw television show, this rugged, well-acted, show about terrorist “sleeper cells” in the United States, and the women who love them?
I am curious as to your take — I can’t tell, and I am pretty good at sorting out message agenda …
Is Sleeper Cell pro-war, anti-war; is it pro-Islam or anti-Islam; or is it one of those super-rare “balanced” works?
The show is so well-acted and so well-produced, that I would really like to know what the show intends to say and convey.
Either way, it is very fine story-telling.
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When I’m confused about the agenda behind a show, I usually find out who the producers are. Then I read interviews with or about them. That usually does it.
I did this last week after seeing (a sneak preview) of The Kingdom. It was surprisingly balanced since there are a bunch of anti-war films coming out this fall. And Peter Berg, who directs the Kingdom, is in a super-left one.
But it turns out Berg was going for a more balanced approach in the Kingdom and for the most part, he pulled it off.
From Wikipedia:
Sleeper Cell is a one-hour drama on the Showtime network that began airing on December 4, 2005. The tagline for the first season was “Friends. Neighbors. Husbands. Terrorists.” and the tagline for the second season was “Cities. Suburbs. Airports. Targets.” In the UK, Sleeper Cell has been shown on FX (UK) and on Channel 4 Terrestrial TV. The series was nominated for an Emmy award for Outstanding Miniseries. The eight-episode second season of the series, titled Sleeper Cell: American Terror, premiered on December 10, 2006. Both seasons of Sleeper Cell were originally aired in an unusual fashion, by filming the entire season ahead of time and then airing the episodes on consecutive nights, such that each brand new season was aired for the first time over a period of less than two weeks.
There are currently (as of August 2007) no definite plans for a continuation of the series. However, Robert Greenblatt, President of Entertainment for Showtime, was reported in July 2007 to have said that there was still a possibility for Sleeper Cell to return in the near future. He also mentioned the possibility of a new installment of the series every few years, possibly with an entirely new cast each time, as a way to examine and update the current state of terrorism.
As extra material on the first season DVDs reveal, the show was originally known simply as “The Cell.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeper_Cell_(TV_series)
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