I have to remind myself whenever I watch American documentaries that the British are, overall, a cold and bitter people and that that is not always a good thing. And that Americans are, overall, warm and earnest. And that that is not always a bad thing.
With that in mind, let us turn to Gutsy (Apple TV+), a TV version presented by Hillary and Chelsea Clinton of their 2019 bestseller The Book of Gutsy Women: Favourite Stories of Courage and Resilience. I know, I know – the natural reaction is a dry retch, then and now. But if your gut can summon the resilience, it’s worth giving the Clintons’ docuseries a go.
Yes, there is smugness – the feeling that Hillary and Chelsea are desperately proud of their common touch, and/or willingness to use their power for good, never quite leaves you. Yes, there is agonising “natural” banter between mother and daughter as they introduce each show. Yes, the titles of every episode are emetic (Gutsy Women Have Rebel Hearts, Gutsy Women Are Forces of Nature, Gutsy Women Are a Bunch of Mothers). And yes, the legal quiz Chelsea conducts during their interview with Kim Kardashian – who recently started law school and periodically mobilises her millions of followers to shed light on miscarriages of justice in death row cases – will make your teeth itch. There are moments of painful earnestness, especially when actor Mariska Hargitay comes on the scene, and endless warmth.
But. Overall, cumulatively, the eight 40-minute episodes work. They are attentively curated and edited to bring out the best in every “ordinary” woman interviewed, showcasing their achievements with respect and without relying on the pure emotive rush many of them could provide. In the third episode, Hillary interviews two mothers, Susan Bro and Dawn Collins, who lost their children – Heather Heyer and first lieutenant Richard Collins III – to hate crimes. She lets their tears flow without losing any of the wider points the women have to make or infringing on anyone’s dignity.
They, or their producers, have assembled a collection of impressive and formidable activists, community leaders and others who have used their experiences (of domestic violence, or membership of a far-right group) or their simple rage (the founders of Moms Demand Action, who have taken up metaphorical arms against the gun lobby) and channelled it into change. Interviews with celebrities, including Amy Schumer, Megan Thee Stallion and Kate Hudson, are present in every instalment. But their star wattage is deployed as carefully as any other part of the show, and is clearly intended – along with the determined avoidance of politics-with-a-capital-P – to bring in an audience who wouldn’t necessarily tune in for a discussion of “women’s issues”.
The first episode is the weakest, but it is also undoubtedly a baller move, when one of your presenters has been endlessly depicted as the humourless woman, to open with a show about women in comedy. A diverse range of comedians (the show is refreshingly successful in having as broad a range of voices as possible in every field) talk about the issues of power, authority, trust and prejudice that come into play when you are a female trying to dominate a room full of people. Nothing particularly new is said, but it is a good ramp into the rest, which touches on everything from online trolling to health care to prison reform, through the prism of – though I’m not sure the word is ever mentioned – feminism. Gutsy indeed. But we have to come up with a better word.
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