There are alot of reasons that I am not happy with the workings of my own party, but none of them bear even the slightest resemblance to the characterization portrayed on TV.
It is unintentionally hilarious...in much the same way "Reefer Madness" was.
"Reefer Madness" excited the enthusiasm and curiosity of the very people it was supposed to terrify.
It is the conservatives who are the staunch backers of a policy that has liberated millions of women frm Taliban rule, but the show has Donald Sutherland uncaring of the Nigerian womans plight in the pilot episode, with Geena Davis using military power to have her released.
In trying to portray the "evil" Republicans on the show, they are revealing who they are. Maybe I just have a perverse sense of humor, but I do find myself laughing at this drama and wondered if there were other's like me who were watching for reasons other than what the creators intended.
From what I've seen of the show (only a few episodes), the left still practices the same tactics today.
On IMDB, the left slams that show but conservatives who have reviewed it loved it. It was based in truth. The author wrote an autobiography (I think it was also adapted into a film as well as this series).
"I Led 3 Lives" (1953) [TV-Series 1953-1956]
As a child I had no reason to disbelieve the show's portrayals of subversive Communist activities in the United States. Later I read Herbert Philbrick's book that served as the source of the name and background for the series, and it too had the ring of truth.Yet as other comments here about this show reveal, the idea that America was the target of conspiracy and espionage is derided as paranoid. The investigations of the House Un-American Activities Committee are described as a witch hunt, on the implicit premise that since there are no witches, there must not have been Communists either. We still hear laments for the Hollywood writers, directors, etc., who found it difficult to find work after being blacklisted for refusing to admit to their membership in the Communist Party.
Well, folks, the cat is out of the bag. As if the world was not already full of enough evidence of the evil of Communism, the fall of the Soviet Union led to the opening of the KGB archives in Moscow to researchers, and guess what... At the direction of the Soviet Union, there were Communist agents and sympathizers in the US Army, the Manhattan Project, the State Department, many labor unions, and other strategic targets. The archives show that the Communist Party USA received millions of dollars each year from the Soviet Union for purposes of undermining America, with Hollywood being specifically targeted for infiltration.
In that atmosphere I think it is remarkable that "I Led Three Lives" ever got produced. I whole-heartedly hope that this show does get re-released. However much it may have been dramatized, "I Led Three Lives" shows how America was in fact endangered by its enemies, foreign and domestic.
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This was a good series while it lasted. It pretty much showed what was gong on during this period in our history and the efforts to keep it in check. The left doesn't like the series because it shined a light on communist activities in the U.S. We don't track "commies" anymore because the cold war is over and they lost. Today people can be openly against the U.S. without any fear. They are in academia, the media,Hollywood, the judiciary and at all levels of local and national politics. Their still is, however, resentment among many that there is no longer a U.S.S.R. It would be great to have an updated series like this today. McCarthy was a little over-zealous in his time, but not far off the mark.