Stephen Fry has used his enormous wit and literary skill to present some of the most accessible and revealing documentaries of recent times - The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive about bi-polar disorders and Last Chance to See on endangered animals spring to mind. Sadly, Stephen Fry in America is one that is too easy to forget.
In this six part series Stephen Fry sets his sights on driving a black English taxi cab through across all 50 of the United States of America. As he puts it, he was ". very nearly born American," because his father at one time considered working at Princeton University. This series would be his opportunity to discover the nation that he might have called home. It sounds great on paper, but the result is something like The Beatle's Magical Mystery Tour. The premise of that failed production was that if you filled a bus with enough interesting people and drove it around the countryside, an interesting film was bound to emerge. Stephen Fry seems to be the logical choice for a witty examination of a nation that takes itself very seriously. However, despite moments of brilliance, the series looks more like a holiday video that will please only the most dedicated fans.
The problem is that Stephen Fry in America cruises at too high an altitude. The idea of cramming 50 states into six episodes was always going to be significant limiting factor. The task is not impossible given that each episode is an hour long, but success depended on the identification of a unifying theme early on. Would the series concentrate on Stephen's comic observations? The unusual people that inhabit this home of the brave? Maybe the startling natural features of such a diverse continent? Or how about the vast changes that have taken place in what would have been Fry's American life time? Any of these would have worked - but not all of them. There are moments of real fascination like Tennessee's 'Body Farm' where forensic scientists experiment on corpses and the aging professional dancers of Florida. But for the most part it's too much in too little space. Manhatten is summed up by a weird two-minute cab ride with Sting; New Orleans by a clichéd stop-in with a decidedly unauthentic voodoo priestess. Stephen Fry in America meanders along, seemingly guided by The Lonely Planet 'must sees' at one moment, and whimsy the next, without ever getting too close to anything to deliver any real understanding.
If this series has anything to teach us, it is that real understanding of another person's life requires more time and effort than a taxi-stop tour. Many people have criticised the concept of religion for the very same reason. If God exists, how could we understand Him, or He us, when our differences make the distance between us so vast that it couldn't be traversed in a lifetime? Perversely Bette Midler tried to find some comfort in this idea in her Grammy-winning song From a distance:
From a distance we all have enough,
and no one is in need.
And there are no guns, no bombs, and no disease,
no hungry mouths to feed.
And God is watching us, from a distance.
Which is to say, God has no more idea of what is going on in America, or elsewhere for that matter, than Stephen Fry does. But history tells us that God spent more than a few weeks contemplating a single nation. Rather, as Jesus He spent 33 years living a difficult life, understanding our problems and providing a comprehensive solution. Stephen Fry in America can be forgiven for failing to rise to such heights since it only aims at light entertainment. The program does manage to uncover some captivating corners of America yet they are few and far between. But the lack of commitment the series shows over all can never be laid at God's door. His understanding of our lives is both up close and personal.
