For whatever reason, I had to watch "Recount" like the rest of America did — when it aired, because HBO didn't get a screener to me, or it was intercepted and is selling on eBay right now, or something. Anyway, I found the first hour tendentious but the second hour, when the Florida recount of 2000 just became an old-fashioned political street brawl with 24/7 news coverage thrown in, was much more entertaining.
That video of a hanging chad getting flattened by a machine counter, however, was the highlight of the movie. Why didn't CNN hire a visual effects lab to cook up one of those during the recount? They had a whole month to work with.
Anyway, I told Chip Franklin on the radio this morning who I thought the film benefitted most right now. Here's a hint: Someone should've asked her husband for help eight years ago.
Not that I would've had time to write about "Recount," what with writing about The New Summer Shows (Kansas City Star) and the Kansas memoirists and "KC's Most Wanted," which is still airing on various stations in town, and "Idol" and "Sex and the City," which is the makeup movie thousands of men are going to be watching as payback for dragging their dates to see that hideous "Indiana Jones" sequel this weekend.
I'll be on 10 today on KCUR as part of a "Walt Bodine Show" panel discussing the digital TV transition, or as I'm calling it, Y2K II.
