Any political soothsayers predicting that Hillary Clinton might make a third run for office in 2024 will almost certainly be disabused of that notion on watching the first episode of her new Apple TV Plus docu-series. Attending a clowning workshop in Paris, the former US secretary of state gamely dons a red nose and a novelty hat — the kind of optics that a presidential hopeful, you’d think, would seek to avoid.
Why is Hillary Clinton attending a clowning workshop in Paris? A reasonable question, and not one for which there is a particularly compelling answer. This surreal scene can be found in Gutsy, an eight-part show developed and fronted by Clinton and her daughter Chelsea, in which they speak to inspiring, formidable and courageous women from all walks of life. Some of these meetings — such as one with a woman who was shot 10 times only to survive and open a self-defence class for teen girls — are moving and illuminating testimonies to the resilience of everyday women. Other encounters, like one at the all-female clowning academy at the Moulin Rouge, would perhaps have been more at home in an anodyne travelogue show.
For all its worthiness, Gutsy is repeatedly undermined by its inability to decide on what it wants to be. While it’s true that the series intends to showcase women in all their infinite variety — there are meetings with comedians, celebrities, athletes, firefighters, writers, rights campaigners, counsellors, mothers and beyond — this doesn’t sufficiently account for how unfocused each episode feels as it jumps from one segment or one theme to the next, creating jarring tonal shifts.
For instance, in the third instalment a serious discussion about the overly punitive Reagan-era policing of drug addicts is diluted by a following “bit” in which Hillary takes on Kim Kardashian in a quiz about law terms. By contrast, a conversation with the pioneering feminist activist Gloria Steinem feels squandered on topics such as Hollywood’s leading ladies.
If there’s a messy, scattershot quality to the show’s execution, then there’s too much polish in the Clintons’ interactions. They engage in some semi-scripted walk-and-talk banter, responding eagerly and earnestly to both banalities and original insight alike, but remain largely guarded whenever chats turn to their own personal experiences. That said, the scandal is indeed discussed — with a woman of the cloth no less.
Still, even if Gutsy doesn’t suggest that Clinton’s future lies in television, her enthusiasm for giving a platform to many unheralded, remarkable women and their social causes seems pretty unimpeachable.
★★★☆☆
Episodes 1-2 on Apple TV Plus now; new episodes released on Fridays
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