More Power to “The Grid”

For the most part, Hollywood ignores the war on terror. Since September 11, 2001, only a handful of movies and TV shows have been produced that mention the attacks on America. The broader subject of the war on terrorism has been addressed barely at all. And the war in Iraq has been taken up only twice, in documentaries–The Control Room and Fahrenheit 9/11–which are largely critical of America and fawning of the Islamists with whom we are at war.

So if I told you that TNT was airing a mini-series, called The Grid, about the war on terror, you would know what to expect: Sympathetic, over-burdened Muslims and Americans who, when not fighting silly bureaucratic turf-wars, were waging brutal, destructive, real ones. As it turns out, you would be wrong. The Grid is the bravest, most-daring piece of entertainment in years.

IT IS DIFFICULT to overstate how resistant the creative community has been to dealing seriously with the war on terrorism. A year ago, Jack Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Association of America, explained why Hollywood was reluctant to tackle the subject: “Who would you have as the enemy if you made a picture about terrorism?” he asked. “You’d probably have Muslims, would you not? If you did, I think there would be backlash from the decent, hardworking, law-abiding Muslim community in this country.”

Valenti’s concern was well-founded–Muslim activist groups have a long history of bullying artists into submission. Whenever a production depicts Islamist terrorism, the Council on American-Islamic Relations or some such lobby is there to protest. The result is often ludicrous: In the film version of Tom Clancy’s Sum of All Fears, for instance, the Islamist terrorists were turned into Nazi white supremacists.

Fortunately, Tracey Alexander and Brian Eastman, the executive producers of The Grid, refused to be cowed. The Grid is not anti-Islamic propaganda. It features several admirable, even heroic, Muslim characters. In fact, the show’s creators have gone to great lengths to present a good and moderate picture of Islam. Smartly, they hired Khaled Abou El Fadl, one of the brave voices of moderate, modern Islam, as their Islamic technical advisor. His important influence shows in every frame.

HOWEVER, The Grid does not pretend that all forms of Islam are benevolent. Barely five minutes into the first episode, one character is worrying about what will happen in Saudi Arabia if “extreme Wahhabis” take over the government. This is, to my knowledge, the first time the term “Wahhabi” has been used in a non-news television program.

There’s more: Karen Jackson, the NSC counter-terrorism director played by Julianna Margulies, gives a damning assessment of Middle Eastern Islam, saying, “You’re right that Islam is the religion of the oppressed. I say that it appeals to oppressed men because it sanctions the oppression of women. To me Islam is one thing: fear. And until the clerics can stand up and say that killing people is the work of the devil, and that it is a woman’s God given right to eat, sleep, walk, do, say whatever she wants, I’m dumb, deaf, and blind to what they’re selling.” This, from a character who is neither the villain, nor the conservative dupe, of the piece–but the heroine.

In another scene we’re introduced to Kaz Moore, a red-haired, blue-eyed, all-American young man. We first meet Kaz at his father’s car dealership in Dearborn, Michigan. The dealership has been vandalized with anti-Muslim slogans and swastikas spray-painted on the windows. Kaz’s father is an immigrant trying to assimilate in his adoptive country and he winces when his young son puts on his kufi in front of a customer. “You know what?” Kaz says to his father with a smirk. “I’m proud to be a Muslim.”

You’ve seen this moment a dozen times in the last three years. What you haven’t seen is the next part, where we learn that Kaz is a terrorist in training, who has been using the time he spent studying Islam abroad to become involved with a charismatic bin Laden figure who calls himself Muhammad.

There’s more, still. When Muhammad meets with a wealthy Saudi oil magnate, who serves as the financial backer for his operation, he demands of his patron “that your ‘scholars’ issue a fatwa for two men whose blood is legitimate for the mujahadeen and the pursuance of our jihad.” In the next scene, we see a shadowy cleric issuing the death warrants for two counter-terrorism agents.

AS A WORK OF DRAMA, The Grid has much to recommend it. Brian Eastman, one of the two executive producers, is best known as the force behind the British TV series Traffik, and to be sure, The Grid is cut from the same cloth. It follows no fewer than 10 central characters and equal time is spent on the storylines of the terrorists and the British and American counter-terrorism agents. The story and writing are superior, the acting strong (particularly from Jemma Redgrave, Bernard Hill, and Alki David). Strictly on the merits, The Grid is dynamite stuff.

But it is impossible to ignore how ground-breaking this show is: It is the entertainment industry’s first unvarnished look at the clash of Western civilization and Islamist terrorism. It is the first work not to white-wash the problems some strains of Islam pose. It is the first time Hollywood has gazed at the new world we live in and not been blinded by the glare of political correctness. The Grid is to be applauded on every level.

The Grid airs Monday nights at 9:00 pm on TNT.

Jonathan V. Last is the online editor of The Weekly Standard.