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What to watch ahead of this week's American election

Photo: Sky
Photo: Sky

Given the hype and inescapable presence of this week's election in the United States, it's no surprise there's an incredible amount of programming dedicated to covering the race. I don't mean the news, though: I'm talking about film and television. And you can watch most of it at home.

The 2020 American Presidential Election is less than 48 hours away, but election fever will continue for most of the week as ballots are cast and counted. (Given the record numbers of early ballots and mail-in ballots, it's unknown when this week a winner will be confirmed - if it happen this week at all.)

But with so much content on streaming services and channels alike, where do viewers start looking for finding well-researched and well produced things to watch?

I've dedicated the last two months to watching as much material (news included) and have made a collected list of the best things to see in various categories and where to find them. Finding unbiased material is particularly challenging (since most political material has at least some clear bias towards one political ideology) but this is as good as you'll likely find.

Reviewing every one of the dozens of films and series I've seen in aggregating this list would be worthy of a full-length novel. Instead, here I've listed the best of the best and encourage you to look at the titles yourself (based on sub-categories) to learn more about the wide variety of topics covered.

Some are about the 2020 election in particular, whether at the presidential, senate, house and municipal levels. Some are about American politics at large. Others are about American history and its systems, while some are simply materials about the broader topic of politics in the USA's first 250 years.

Here are some starting points, all (except when noted at the end) released just this year in 2020. Happy watching!

DOCUMENTARIES

Photo: Apple TV
Photo: Apple TV
  • Boys State (on AppleTV+), one of the year's best films following teenage boys in Texas as they create a mock state government in an annual experiment
  • All In: The Fight for Democracy (on Amazon Prime Video), a look at the history of voter suppression in the United States, culminating in the 2018 race for Georgia's next governor
  • Totally Under Control (both for rent on demand and Prime Video), a deep dive into how the current Trump administration handled the first eight months of the Coronavirus pandemic

ABOUT THE STATE OF AMERICA TODAY

Photo: Prime Video
Photo: Prime Video
  • What the Constitution Means to Me (Prime Video), a filmed recording of Heidi Schreck's award-wining Broadway play where she replicates the speeches she gave in high school about the United States constitution
  • The Comey Rule (on Showtime and Crave), a four hour, two-part look into FBI director James Comey in the 2016 election and early days of the Trump administration
  • Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm (Prime Video), a surprisingly sweet and increasingly powerful exploitation of what Americans really say and think

TELEVISION PROGRAMS

THE CIRCUS | Photo: Alex Wagner, Mark McKinnon, and John Heilemann (Showtime)
THE CIRCUS | Photo: Alex Wagner, Mark McKinnon, and John Heilemann (Showtime)
  • The Circus (Showtime/Crave, new episodes Sundays), currently in its fifth season, as political experts from across America cover the ongoing election campaigns by interviewing subjects on every political topic you can think of - this is the best political show currently on TV
  • Whose Vote Counts (on Netflix), a three episode series totalling 90 minutes in all, focusing on topics of how voting systems both succeed and fail in America
  • Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO, new episodes Sundays), a weekly look back at major headlines, followed by a deep-dive into a chosen weekly topic (note: this isn't technically about politics, but their chosen topics for the last eight episodes have all been the election.)

HOLLYWOOD FILMS (Biopics or dramatized history)

Photo: HBO Films
Photo: HBO Films
  • All the Way (HBO), about the first year of Lyndon B. Johnson's presidency and the his civil rights bill
  • Selma (on Netlfix), about Martin Luther King Jr.
  • Lincoln (for paid rentals), Steven Spielburg's biography about America's 16th president
  • Recount (HBO), about the recount of Florida's vote in the contest in the 2000 American presidential election

NOT WORTH WATCHING

Note: this category is of the material I found that I'm listed simply by title that, after watching, is either cheaply produced, factually inaccurate, heavily biased left or right, unrelated to politics (as they were presented to be) or some combination of all these things

  • Safeguard: An Electoral College Story (Amazon)
  • Hillary’s America: Secret History of Democratic Party (Amazon)
  • Simepre, Luis (HBO)
  • Oliver Stone's W. (Starz)
  • Lee Daniels' The Butler (Starz)

For further reading, Oakville News has published a number of opinion pieces addressing the 2020 American elections from a variety of authors. 

From Bob Fleck: Mr. President, Let's Take a Walk

From Tyler Collins: Why does the Winner Matter to Us? (A two-part story, part one here and part two here)

From Chris Stoate: Another Perspective on the American Election