In that context, watching Sheila’s meeting spiral out of control feels almost as subversive and revelatory as Terkel’s book. The problem arises when the show attempts to explain what, specifically, has gone wrong to make that eruption possible. The series wants to hang around working people, as Terkel did, to understand their hopes and dreams and contradictions. This issue goes unaddressed, but the series does touch on the idea that popular media has long neglected the workplace. Neither are developments like the erosion of job security, the rise of erratic scheduling, the invasive workplace surveillance — changes that marked Obama’s very own era in the White House.

---

Persons: Obama, Milton Friedman, Terkel, Norman Lear, ”, Reagan, “, Henry Mayhew, London “, Barbara Ehrenreich, Dwight Macdonald Organizations: Television, “, Morning Chronicle Locations: ‘, London