When I went looking for something to watch on HBO Max last week, a docuseries called The History of the Sitcom caught my eye. The eight-part series traces the American situation comedy from the 1950s into the 21st century, and I figured it might be interesting. I should have realized it would be unbearable the moment I saw CNN’s name attached to it.
We watched all eight episodes anyway. It wasn’t always easy.
The series isn’t new. It came out in 2021, smack dab in the middle of the racial reckoning era, when every corporation in America was rushing to virtue signal its wokeness. But its age doesn’t make it irrelevant. The worldview behind it never left the entertainment industry, either. That makes the series worth examining now, because it lays out the left’s cultural playbook in plain view.
So I kept watching it so you don’t have to.