USA TODAY International Edition
‘Voice,’ and Ailes, may shock and horrify you
It’s not possible to make a nonpartisan TV series about Roger Ailes.
The former chairman of Fox News, who died in 2017, is and was an immensely polarizing figure in media and politics. The architect of the conservative cable news channel from the ground up, Ailes is reviled by many and revered by others, even after he resigned from Fox in 2016 amid sexualharassment allegations.
In adapting Ailes’ Fox News reign to the screen, Showtime’s “The Loudest Voice” (Sunday, 10 EDT/PDT, ★★g☆) had to take a side, and it’s one that will likely have Fox talking heads discussing a “liberal media bias” (or liberal Hollywood, take your pick).
But as much as “Voice” will anger many Fox News lovers, it isn’t necessarily more than a shlock horror show for the haters.
Based on the reporter Gabriel Sherman’s 2014’s book “The Loudest Voice in the Room,” and Sherman’s magazine reporting, “Voice” unloads a laundry list of alleged evil deeds. As portrayed by Russell Crowe under a mountain of prosthetics, Ailes keeps women in a form of sexual slavery, colludes with Republican strategist Karl Rove after 9/11 to get the U.S. involved in the Iraq War, indulges conspiracy theorists to try to bring down President Barack Obama and steers millions of Fox News viewers for a very personal, petty agenda.
Each episode checks in on Ailes during a single year of his life, giving a propulsion to “Voice”: First as he launches Fox News, then in the aftermath of 9/11, during the 2008 election and, finally, Obama’s first year in office (only the first four episodes were made available for review).
“Spotlight” writer Tom McCarthy, along with Sherman, create urgency in a script that mostly contains meetings and control rooms.
Particularly the first two episodes feel electric and horrifying, although the second relies on perhaps too much imagery from 9/11 to elicit emotion. Even as the series is quick to paint Ailes as a megalomaniacal villain, it also recognizes his brilliance in building the news network into a machine that delivered ratings and changed minds.
But although early parts of “Voice” offer some insight, particularly to those who weren’t focused on Fox News’ debut in the 1990s, once the series gets into more recent territory, it has less to say. The episodes play out scenarios that are so familiar they sometimes are dull, playing too plainly to Ailes’ staunchest critics. The series also attempts to draw a direct line from Ailes to the election of President Donald Trump, including Ailes saying
“make America great again” in a 2008 speech, a sequence that proves far too heavy-handed.
“Voice’s” other weakness is its reliance on makeup and prosthetics to bring Ailes to life. Prosthetics are fun, sure, and maybe help with a suspension of disbelief (and they certainly help actors win awards), but they can also be a distracting impediment to a good performance. Crowe does his level best, but the Oscar-winning actor is fighting through layers of silicone to even smile, glower or laugh. He does nail a commanding and intimidating presence, and his vocal work is impressive.
Also behind a mountain of prosthetics is Sienna Miller as Ailes’ wife Beth, who crosses over into unrecognizable, and her performance feels a little onenote. The cast is rounded out by Naomi Watts as Gretchen Carlson (she appears so infrequently in the first four episodes that it’s impossible to comment on her performance), a gleefully slimy Seth MacFarlane as Fox PR Chief Brian Lewis and Annabelle Wallis as as former Fox News booker Laurie Luhn, who is portrayed as the victim of intense sexual and psychological abuse by Ailes.
“Voice” is an entertaining and wellcrafted piece that is just a little too predictable to be transcendent. No matter your opinion of Ailes, he is a hugely influential figure, and trying to distill his life into a miniseries was always going to be a monumental task.