The Accidently Best Economics Show on Television

NBC is using the dog days of summer to burn off episodes of The Philanthropist, a new series with little chance of being picked up in the fall. The show follows the exploits of billionaire playboy Teddy Rist, played with a wink and a nod by British actor James Purefoy.

Fans of Purefoy may remember his portrayal of Mark Anthony from the two seasons of the BBC/HBO drama Rome. Rome explored the quite literally cutthroat politics of the ancient empire from the days leading up to the assassination of Julius Ceasar to Anthony's defeat at the Battle of Actium. The Philanthropist takes a less subtle, less nuanced, and less realistic look at the politics of modern corporations and poverty around the world.

Rist is the co-CEO of Maidstone-Rist, a multinational corporation with subsidiaries and investments throughout the seediest parts of the world. In the pilot episode, we find Rist reeling from the death of his young son. While on an expedition to secure mining rights in Nigeria, Rist runs into a young boy facing poverty and disease, and rededicates his life to helping those he has so long ignored.

Rist is not so based as inspired by Bob Sager of Malden, Massachusetts. Sager made his fortune as president of Gordon Brothers, but now travels the globe doing charitable works. He uses his business acumen to provide the charity with the resources it needs to help the poor throughout the developing world. But it was Sager's travels with rock star Sting that brought him to the attention of veteran television producer Tom Fontana, who shared how he came up with the series with the Boston Globe:

“The idea that you can take capitalism - which, being an old hippie stoogeball, I’ve always thought to be the enemy of change - and have that be the element that causes the change is just, to me it’s a revolutionary idea,’’ Fontana says.

Fontana's lack of understanding of what capitalism really is comes shining through in that quote, and throughout the series. In the pilot, Rist uses his connections and his checkbook to deliver a box of vaccine to a remote village, dodging corrupt bureaucrats and malevolent gangs before walking out of the jungle, collapsing on the edge of the village, and being nursed back to health by the villagers.

In the second episode, Rist personally investigates a slave labor camp in Burma while trying to determine whether to sever his companies ties to a Chinese firm that does business with the oppressive regime. Early in the show, he flatly states, "Sanctions don't work." But his first-hand experience convinces him to cancel the contract, presumably at great cost to his shareholders.

Last night's episode involved a sex trafficking ring in Paris, and Teddy's upcoming adventures take him to Kosovo, Kashmir, and back to Nigeria.

The show is entertaining enough. It features attractive people speaking their lines earnestly. The plot always come down to making money or doing what is right, and the inspired Teddy Rist always chooses people over profits. Basically, The Philanthropist is typical Hollywood claptrap. Except that it manages to stumble upon the truth in spite of itself.

You see, showing the real adventures of corporate raiders would be boring. And most Nigerian customs agents don't go out of their way to prevent billionaires from delivering vaccines. So the producers have to create villains for Teddy and his friends to defeat. And the most convenient villain is the government.

It is the governments of the developing world that keep it from developing. Whether it be the crushing tyrants of Burma, the kleptocrats of the Eastern Bloc, or the thieving warlords of Africa, it is state control that prevents capitalism from reaching the poorest corners of the earth, and allowing people to improve their own lives. Africa alone has the ability to feed not just itself, but the entire world. We think that the desert has led to starvation of millions on that continent, but in reality, they are being killed by their governments.

We are called to action against genocide in Rwanda and elsewhere. Yet we continue to ignore the passive genocide in nations whose leaders let their people starve. The Philanthropist simplifies these problems, and solves them in 43 minutes plus commercials. And it does so with a wagging finger at corporations and capitalists the whole time.

The show's left-wing politics and rather sloppy writing can be grating, but I'll keep watching The Philanthropist. At least until television comes up with a better look at economics. The third season of Mad Men debuts in August.