As everyone takes a break from work, it’s time for a lot of us to catch-up with the year’s best entertainment. I’m certain you have a list and there's an abundance of things that deserve your time, but I am here to make the case for why Patriot, an Amazon Prime hidden gem that released its second season a few weeks ago, should be a priority. It's admittedly difficult to describe, but I'll do my best. Patriot follows John Tavner (Michael Dorman): a very sad spy, yet also manages to be one of the funniest, most enjoyable, most bizarre things I’ve seen in a long time. If you have a penchant for dark humor and characters that tenaciously move forward by any means necessary, no matter how bad it gets, with a grin on their face, then this is for you. If you find it funny when the lead pushes someone in front of a truck in the first two minutes, then this is for you. If you’d like to hear a spy sing sad folk songs outlining his missions in way too much detail, then this is for you. If you like one of those things or none of those things, there's a good chance you’ll still like Patriot. John is an American N.O.C. (non-official cover) agent whose state-department father (Terry O’Quinn – Locke on Lost) serves as John’s government liaison. As a spy who is asked to do anything and everything to complete a mission, instantaneously problem solving every minute of every day, John knows that his country will never claim him if he is captured or killed in action. In the first episode, he is tasked with bringing a bag from one place to another, but due to international travel restrictions he needs to become an employee of an industrial piping firm to complete this seemingly simple transaction. As a professional chameleon, he must show working knowledge of his cover job at an industrial piping firm – which proves to be absurdly specific and jargon-driven – so he can get the position without overt help from the government. Another far better candidate comes along, so John does what he must do to get the job. And pushes his competition in front of a truck. That first episode and the fact that just the seemingly simple mission of delivering a bag (a starting point the show regularly reminds us of the more insane everything gets) eventually takes more than one trip, is a pretty good encapsulation of the entire show. Every minor issue escalates exponentially and what John must do gets increasingly ridiculous as he juggles innumerable lies to keep his cover. His boss Leslie (Kurtwood Smith – Red on That 70’s show) is aware John doesn’t really know what he’s doing, so the longer he needs the job the more John must combine little gestures of knowledge and a couple extreme measures to keep his head above water. John’s governmental bag task is driven by the need to prevent nuclear weapons from falling into the wrong hands, so the stakes start extremely high before more problems just keep adding up to prevent him from completing that first task. The more of these problems John solves, the more others seem to appear like a hydra of pains in his ass. Then John occasionally sings songs about some of the worst and most classified things he has done. It’s miraculous how Patriot's writers can constantly escalate problems, now two full seasons in. What John does just to maintain his cover, let alone complete his real assigned task is always over-the-top, yet somehow sensical. He is clearly very good at his job and makes the best decisions he can on his toes. When these road blocks are presented in the moment, the solution appears to be the only option, but once you take a step back, everything becomes absurd, a fact characters point out quite often when listing sequences of events that got them to certain points or reviewing the steps of their next mission. The more John’s two worlds collide, the bigger toll they take on him, and the more he claims to be “pretty good” while looking visibly distressed, the better Patriot gets. All the performances are great, but the role of John would be impossible for a lot actors since we have to empathize with him and still enjoy when things get worse for him. Michael Dorman shows a good guy whose emotional growth was a little stunted and is now eager to help everyone, his father first and foremost. In competition with this good heart is an often ruthless ability to use violence as a matter-of-fact necessity once someone gets in his way, but John clearly took small steps down this path until he was in too deep, well aware he now does awful things regularly. Both undercover and to those who know his true identity, John believably ingratiates himself to all those around him, no matter how pained he gets, maintaining a straight-faced, solution-oriented approach the whole time. Just like the audience, people want to help him, yet remain able to laugh at what he has done or had done to him. The show doubles down on John's pain in the second season, and Dorman keeps plunging the depths of physical and mental anguish until getting a wonderful release in the series’ best episode – something both the character and actor seem ecstatic to finally let out. A delightful supporting cast surrounds John, presented with varying degrees of ridiculousness and self-awareness. O’Quinn’s Tom Tavner shows a tough love for his son without regard for the horrible things he asks him to do on a regular basis, getting a lot of the best monologues when providing those instructions. Until the end of the first season, Smith plays Leslie straight, but is let loose in a riotous performance throughout the second. John’s brother Edward (Michael Chernus), is a comedic standout, oblivious in his job, blindly supportive of his brother, yet so confident as the sweat suit wearing, Beastie Boys loving guy he is. Dennis McClaren (Chris Conrad) is a colleague that quickly gets roped into the mission, extremely eager to help his newfound (best) friend, break out of his ordinary life, show off his muscles, and play interference with others from John's real world cover. One of the best dynamics of the show comes when Dennis and Edward meet later in season one. The women in John’s life are on complete opposite and extreme sides of the spectrum when it comes to their feelings for him. Agathe Albans (Aliette Opheim) is just a good detective doing her best to solve Luxembourg’s first murder(s) in more than three years, within a male-driven police force that takes every opportunity to express its extreme misogyny. As far as Agathe is concerned, she is just chasing a cold-blooded killer and maintains a kind-of mutually respectful relationship with her target as she and John appreciate the tactical methods by which they make things more difficult for each other. John’s wife Alice (Kathleen Munroe) is aware of what her husband does and extremely supportive, nonetheless. The two of them are deeply in love with each other, constantly separated and endangering themselves through their efforts to come together. It’s a relationship that is slowly built in the first season and gets a chance to come to the forefront in the second, letting Munroe shine in the process. Alice shows plenty of character and brilliance on her own though, becoming much more than just a woman chasing her man while making it clear that she's a perfect match for John. Debra Winger even shows up in the second season to shine more light on the childhood that drove John, Tom, and Edward to this point. In the first season, many of the other small roles serve to complicate John’s problems, presenting themselves as new issues that demand his attention. The second season gets better when the entire ensemble spends more time together, beginning to solve everything as a team in support of John, and many of the best bit players from season one are given larger roles within this support network. It gives him a group of friends that keep up with him, no matter how much John wishes to be alone or simply expects it because that’s how he has always worked. He slowly learns how to use these allies as powerful tactics that expand the planning possibilities because when they interfere on their own it often leads to further difficulty. The circumstances get more tense, and the lengths to which the writers and characters will go to escape even more absurd. This all comes with a better and more consistent soundtrack of original songs that narrate some of the action, bringing a whole other level to those moments. Filled with powerful emotional moments, wonderful performances, edge of your seat tension, and occasional bursts of pure fun and deep sadness, Patriot is one of the best shows to come along in a long time. It provides the strongest laugh out loud moments that I have experienced since Arrested Development without being a pure comedy. When the jokes hit, they hit hard, yet almost never present themselves as such until you take a second to recognize how brilliant the moments were. There’s a self-awareness that manages to maintain the balance between comedy and all-encompassing sadness, making this a pleasure to watch, quickly earning a level of trust only the best shows deserve. You can choose a lot of things to watch over the holiday break, but these eighteen episodes would be a delicious dessert while you’re curled up after a big meal or just hiding from the cold.
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