If you think the last thing TV, America or the world needs is another panel show yelling about current events, you are a sane and rational person.
But there’s always room for a panel show that debates those topics sanely and rationally, and the limited-run PBS series Third Rail With OZY has shown encouraging signs of growing into that.
Third Rail, which airs Friday at 8:30 p.m. ET (check local listings), has finished five of its seven scheduled episodes, tackling Big Subjects like free speech, racism and the value of truth.
The fifth, last Friday, looked at the Las Vegas shootings to ask whether violence is in the DNA of America.
Host Carlos Watson (top), founder of the OZY news website, handled it in his usual fashion, throwing questions that were in general ideologically neutral at a panel that included conservative pundit Ann Coulter, Harvard professor Steven Pinker (right), Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo and Impact Strategies CEO Anne Rye (right).
Rye said the history of America is riddled with violence. She focused on the way slaves were brought here and treated when they arrived, not to mention how they continued to be treated after slavery was abolished.
Pinker said violence has decreased dramatically in all civilized nations compared to several hundred years ago. That includes the U.S., though the U.S. remains among the most violent by a significant margin.
Acevedo, who left Cuba when he was young, said there will always be violence, including gun violence, but that we could markedly reduce it if we would institute background checks and close the “gun show loophole,” wherein almost anyone can buy almost any gun.
Coulter said the real causes of violence could be traced to four areas that must be addressed: mental illness, unchecked immigration, the breakdown of the family and “urban violence.”
As often happens, Coulter found herself in an opposite corner from several panelists. Acevedo said the answer to violence doesn’t lie in condemning people by race or religion. Pinker said he fears a rough time the next few years because President Trump often makes decisions based on emotion rather than statistics or science.
While the discussion became intense at times, Watson never let it become the cacophonous free-for-all into which many television debates deteriorate. That has occasionally been a problem on previous Third Rails.
Third Rail has its own weekly Marist poll, asking civilians how they feel about the question of the week. It invites viewers to live-tweet their reactions during the show, and some of those are posted on the screen during the discussion – a popular tactic that can be distracting.
This Friday’s topic will be sexual harassment in the workplace, prompted by the Harvey Weinstein debacle, and whether there’s any realistic hope of changing that sordid underbelly of male corporate culture. The panel, which changes every week, is being put together as we speak.
Past guests have included folks like Malcolm Gladwell (right), Mark Cuban, Gretchen Carlson, Jeb Bush, and Grover Norquist, in combinations that provide a good range of opinions on the topics at hand.
The elusive target for any panel show, of course, is a conversation that is fresh, enlightening and informative rather than simply contentious, like your uncles screaming at each other over the lasagna.
Watson understands that any show with the aspirations of Third Rail has a line to walk. A half hour where the panelists verbally elbow their way to the foreground to repeat their talking points and insults has little value. Conversely, an academic lecture has few viewers.
The middle ground is something panel shows have been seeking since way back before The McLaughlin Group.
Third Rail With OZY has a shot at becoming one of the better incarnations.
Watch Friday, and if you like it, you can catch up with previous episodes online. Sadly, questions like violence, policing the world, and the value of truth aren’t going to be obsolete any time soon.