Russell Brand: In Plain Sight
- Episode aired Sep 16, 2023
- 1h 18m
IMDb RATING
6.2/10
114
YOUR RATING
Dispatches investigates Russell Brand's treatment of women.The British comedian, television personality and radio talker Russell Brand is accused of abusing women close to him for several ye... Read allDispatches investigates Russell Brand's treatment of women.The British comedian, television personality and radio talker Russell Brand is accused of abusing women close to him for several years. An investigation by Channel4.Dispatches investigates Russell Brand's treatment of women.The British comedian, television personality and radio talker Russell Brand is accused of abusing women close to him for several years. An investigation by Channel4.
- Awards
- 2 nominations
Photos
Russell Brand
- Self
- (archive footage)
Storyline
Featured review
The definition of a hit piece
If there has ever been a perfect example of a pre-decided narrative hit piece this is it. This show will go down in history of the text book example of the genre.
Not a single word in this show lifted a finger to give us any insight into the wider person that Brand is. It was all, every single note of it, design to make him look as bad as possible, and worse frame him as inherently evil, and to be fair his stand up work and his writing didn't do him any favours. It helped them write their character assassination, and it is fair to say some of his comedy is off colour from a modern view, but evil?
The hypocritical aspect of this program is that it was made by an organisation that personally enabled and supported his character persona, hired him to be exactly who they're attacking him for being, along with all the other British media institutions who hired him and encouraged him to behave exactly as he did.
All of it happening in a time when that shock jock tactic aspect was de rigueur, and everywhere. So it's a bit rich to sit 15-20 years later and look back at the 'loaded magazine' days and judge it by 2023 standards, especially when these channels profited from it and actively paid him to be this character. But that's exactly the basis for this program, and it worked well. Cut out the punchline to a distasteful joke, play it with scary music and bad colour, and put it with an accusation. Direct hit.
The wider context is that present day Brand is now a controversial anti-war, anti-corruption, anti-capitalism, anti-establishment status quo challenging figure who has a huge audience, and is a skilled communicator, articulating challenging ideas that make a compliant public restless, and a lot less compliant. Brand has acknowledged and rejected his shady past and worked hard to become the opposite of the vacuous thrill seeker celebrity he was encouraged to be. He study politics and taught himself more about the issues he addresses.
So the person this show (I refuse to call it a documentary because it relies on a narrative they wrote and does nothing to present itself as impartial in anyway) is address is gone, not that you would know it from this show. They never mentioned anything about his growth as a person, his family, he charity efforts and going out of his way to help people, not a word.
And they purposefully went looking for people to illustrate this story, in that these women did not come to the production looking to air complaints against Brand. The production went out purposefully to recruit people for this hit piece, people who could deal the narrative they decided they wanted to administer on Brand, and they admit as much in the show. It says something that out of the many thousands of women Brand admits to have had relations with the production could only find 4-5 (one of whom complained "he didn't call me after") who were willing to speak and most of them would only do so with complete anonymity, with actors playing them for the screen. Ie the injured party we were watching and empathising with wasn't the actual person the production company had managed to persuade to give them ammunition for their narrative, it was an actor, sculpting lines to give a desired effect, I'm ready for my close up Mr DeMille
And the allegations as framed did sound bad, especially when framed against his dated tasteless comedy and with the moody music and lighting. He'd say a tasteless joke and they'd cut it against someone saying he did the thing he just said. This program must have almost assembled itself, or a less favorable reading might be this program stuck to a very basic narrative for maximum damage with out much effort and insight. By the numbers, by the play book.
The show said they had proof that what they were showing us was true, they had verified details but they never presented any evidence to us of this beyond their word. No interviews with crisis centers who verified X even had happened, it wasn't in the show. No law enforcement fronted to corroborate any allegation. The show just said it happened, and we were to take them at their word.
So it's obvious Brand has enemies, and people who find his humour distasteful and I count myself amongst them for some of his stuff. It can be puerile and unpleasant, just like other shock jock comedians like Howard Stern, their 20 year old antics don't stand up well in the 2023 world we live in, and without the context of the time they happened in and judged against our current back drop it was not a hard task to make Brand appear off colour, especially using the by the numbers/book smear campaign this production did.
But the 2023 Brand is miles away from that relic of the early 2000s not that you'd know it from this show. So much water has passed under the bridge that the real story of Brand is far far more complex than this one dimensional one objective show would have us believe.
Brands is currently a leading voice in an anti-corruption anti-war anti-establishment movement, with a large target on his back. An unfavorable reading of this show is that getting brand for those reasons rather than any deep consideration for real victims was exactly the aim of this program, and in the current trial by media world the program had the desired effect, and hammered his voice well away from any chance of appearing in mainstream public anytime soon, effectively silencing him.
I don't know if the 4-5 women they managed to dig up had real cases of harassment and abuse against Brand, they never presented any real evidence in cold hard proof to us, although proof and evidence isn't necessary to convict a target these days, and the show certainly made this a text book smear job, indistinguishable from the truth. The women never went to the police with their complaints, and there is ample reason to get Brand. That's the bigger story here, not that you'd know it from this one dimensional cliche.
Not a single word in this show lifted a finger to give us any insight into the wider person that Brand is. It was all, every single note of it, design to make him look as bad as possible, and worse frame him as inherently evil, and to be fair his stand up work and his writing didn't do him any favours. It helped them write their character assassination, and it is fair to say some of his comedy is off colour from a modern view, but evil?
The hypocritical aspect of this program is that it was made by an organisation that personally enabled and supported his character persona, hired him to be exactly who they're attacking him for being, along with all the other British media institutions who hired him and encouraged him to behave exactly as he did.
All of it happening in a time when that shock jock tactic aspect was de rigueur, and everywhere. So it's a bit rich to sit 15-20 years later and look back at the 'loaded magazine' days and judge it by 2023 standards, especially when these channels profited from it and actively paid him to be this character. But that's exactly the basis for this program, and it worked well. Cut out the punchline to a distasteful joke, play it with scary music and bad colour, and put it with an accusation. Direct hit.
The wider context is that present day Brand is now a controversial anti-war, anti-corruption, anti-capitalism, anti-establishment status quo challenging figure who has a huge audience, and is a skilled communicator, articulating challenging ideas that make a compliant public restless, and a lot less compliant. Brand has acknowledged and rejected his shady past and worked hard to become the opposite of the vacuous thrill seeker celebrity he was encouraged to be. He study politics and taught himself more about the issues he addresses.
So the person this show (I refuse to call it a documentary because it relies on a narrative they wrote and does nothing to present itself as impartial in anyway) is address is gone, not that you would know it from this show. They never mentioned anything about his growth as a person, his family, he charity efforts and going out of his way to help people, not a word.
And they purposefully went looking for people to illustrate this story, in that these women did not come to the production looking to air complaints against Brand. The production went out purposefully to recruit people for this hit piece, people who could deal the narrative they decided they wanted to administer on Brand, and they admit as much in the show. It says something that out of the many thousands of women Brand admits to have had relations with the production could only find 4-5 (one of whom complained "he didn't call me after") who were willing to speak and most of them would only do so with complete anonymity, with actors playing them for the screen. Ie the injured party we were watching and empathising with wasn't the actual person the production company had managed to persuade to give them ammunition for their narrative, it was an actor, sculpting lines to give a desired effect, I'm ready for my close up Mr DeMille
And the allegations as framed did sound bad, especially when framed against his dated tasteless comedy and with the moody music and lighting. He'd say a tasteless joke and they'd cut it against someone saying he did the thing he just said. This program must have almost assembled itself, or a less favorable reading might be this program stuck to a very basic narrative for maximum damage with out much effort and insight. By the numbers, by the play book.
The show said they had proof that what they were showing us was true, they had verified details but they never presented any evidence to us of this beyond their word. No interviews with crisis centers who verified X even had happened, it wasn't in the show. No law enforcement fronted to corroborate any allegation. The show just said it happened, and we were to take them at their word.
So it's obvious Brand has enemies, and people who find his humour distasteful and I count myself amongst them for some of his stuff. It can be puerile and unpleasant, just like other shock jock comedians like Howard Stern, their 20 year old antics don't stand up well in the 2023 world we live in, and without the context of the time they happened in and judged against our current back drop it was not a hard task to make Brand appear off colour, especially using the by the numbers/book smear campaign this production did.
But the 2023 Brand is miles away from that relic of the early 2000s not that you'd know it from this show. So much water has passed under the bridge that the real story of Brand is far far more complex than this one dimensional one objective show would have us believe.
Brands is currently a leading voice in an anti-corruption anti-war anti-establishment movement, with a large target on his back. An unfavorable reading of this show is that getting brand for those reasons rather than any deep consideration for real victims was exactly the aim of this program, and in the current trial by media world the program had the desired effect, and hammered his voice well away from any chance of appearing in mainstream public anytime soon, effectively silencing him.
I don't know if the 4-5 women they managed to dig up had real cases of harassment and abuse against Brand, they never presented any real evidence in cold hard proof to us, although proof and evidence isn't necessary to convict a target these days, and the show certainly made this a text book smear job, indistinguishable from the truth. The women never went to the police with their complaints, and there is ample reason to get Brand. That's the bigger story here, not that you'd know it from this one dimensional cliche.
helpful•74
- Rob-O-Cop
- Oct 21, 2023
Details
- Runtime1 hour 18 minutes
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