Fellow Travelers Takes Place in The 1950s But is Anything But A Period Piece

 

What does it say about me, who has studied almost every aspect of 20^th century American history, that it is only fairly recently that I learned about the Lavender Scare, another saga that gives lie to the argument that so many who choose to look at the 1950s as a blissful, peaceful era? Taking place in concurrence with the Red Scare led by Joe McCarthy and Roy Cohn, it led an investigation into Washington officials in every aspect of government and society, not for their ideological beliefs but their moral ones.  If Eisenhower’s behavior towards McCarthy during his anti-Communist crusade barely pasted muster, there’s an argument that the hero of D-Day might have actually privately endorsed this one: he never had the most enlightened view of integration, so it’s not much of a step to go from their to investigate what people in their bedrooms.

Fellow Travelers,  a limited series adaptation of Thomas Mallon’s novel of the same name, ostensibly spans more than thirty years of history but at its core is McCarthy era Washington at the height of both of these scares. It begins its story at Eisenhower’s landslide victory in November of 1952 in McCarthy headquarters and ends its first episode just as McCarthy is announcing the investigation that will lead to the second part.  Joe McCarthy is played by that brilliant character actor Chris Bauer, who is clearly enjoying getting to play a proper villain after decades in TV as characters who are simply ‘morally ambiguous’. But the series centers around the relationship between two men Hawkins Fuller (Matt Bomer) and Tim Laughlin (Jonathan Bailey).

Early reviews compared Fuller’s character to the gay version of Don Draper, and I can understand at least part of that comparison. Like Don, Hawkins is roguish handsome, has no problem being behind the political scenes without being part of them, backs a prominent Democratic Senator but has no problem showing his face at McCarthy victory party, has a charming veneer that hides a sexual predator (which Don really was, when you get right down to it) and is cynical about every aspect of society that so many people hold dear – including Tim. The only difference is that when Hawk needs to indulge in his indiscretions, he has no problem going to the local men’s rooms and picking up strangers.  However, as a colleague of his says (Hawkins doesn’t really have friends) ‘he likes sex without emotional entanglement’.

At this core, however, Hawkins is more cynical that Don Draper ever was. Don made efforts to make connections, even if he didn’t know he was doing it. Hawkins sees everything that is going on – including the Red Scare itself – as an opportunity.  There is of course, a hidden level to this  that Draper never had: given just how dangerous it was to be labeled queer in 1950s America, Hawk is trying everything in his power to make sure he will never be suspected of what he refuses to acknowledge is something that could get end him in prison or dead. At one point a fellow state department official tells him a preview of what it is to come, and Hawk has no trouble telling him to throw someone else under the bus.  The next day, when he encounter the State Department a man he had a one night stand with who recognizes him,  he walks away and takes as circuitous a route back to his office as he can and did gives his colleague the number far more to save him then himself. When he learns that same kid tried to kill himself and nearly succeeded, he remains firm in public – and it is only a few days later that he raids his safe and gives the kid money from an anonymous envelope.

Early in the episode Hawk makes the acquaintance of Tim, who unlike Hawk is a true believer. He thinks that Communism is a danger to society and McCarthy is on the side of the angels. Hawk makes sure he gets him a job with McCarthy but its only so that he can use Tim – both for political advantage and sexual advantage.  Many of their early encounters show Hawk completely dominant over Tim, not merely in the bedroom but by mocking everything he stands for, including his religious background. (Tim is a devout Catholic when the series begins which Hawk seems to find amusing more than anything.)

Hawk spends much of the first episode acting like these encounters are not a relationship. Tim tells Hawk everything about himself and Hawk refuses to tell Tim anything. At one point when Tim bares his soul to Hawk, Hawk mocks not only everything he believes but everything they’ve been doing.  There are signs of the consequences even in the first episode. We first see Tim only drinking milk; by the end of the episode he gets drunk for the first time and Hawk seems proud of this.

I have told you much of what I have seen and not who the cast is. Hawk is played by Matt Bomer. Bomer has been in television almost all his life and yet somehow I’ve had so little interaction with him despite his resume: I somehow never saw Tru Calling, much of his star-making work in USA’ White Collar and I never saw his appearance in The Last Tycoon. I was, however, riveting by his work in the third season of The Sinner where he played Jamie, a husband and father who seemed to have everything, but whose appearance of an old college friend led him to take part in his death and go down a path of nihilism. One can’t deny his sex appeal – one doesn’t get cast in the Magic Mike franchise if you don’t have it  - and I’ve been very aware of his sexual preferences since he won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in the HBO adaptation of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart. He hadn’t really been hiding it before or since that win, certainly not in many of the projects he chose he has been one of many performers in Ryan Murphy’s stable for the past decade. Fellow Travelers is perhaps the first television series he has done where both parts of his behavior are in play simultaneously. In White Collar, he played a criminal whose role was the help the government get to other con artists by basically lying about everything: Hawkins is doing the same thing, including about the most vital part of his nature.

 Jonathan Bailey was less known to me because most of his work has been in British Television. He is remembered by many (but not by me) for his work as Lord Anthony in Bridgerton.  I do remember him for his work in Broadchurch where he appeared in the first two seasons but only vaguely (was the world not riveting by David Tennant and Olivia Colman?) Like all British Actors he has the American accent perfect and perhaps because he has been in the business since he was child, he is still capable of showing wide-eyed innocence when it counts. The fact that he is almost completely unknown helps in the first episode: it’s hard for anyone to stand in the presence of Bomer and not be in his shadow. But as the episode progresses, he begins to stand on his own to the point that he is visits confession for the first time in months, admits his sin and refuses to even consider contrition. “I felt like my true self for the first time,” he tells a priest before leaving the pews and it’s a powerful moment.

This episode also makes it very clear about the other issues play including African-Americans as well as their gay counterparts. One of the critical characters is Lucien, a reporter for the Pittsburgh Courier who works the D.C beat. Already having to live one difficult life, he also takes Hawk and Tim to a gay speakeasy (there’s a red light to warn you when the police are coming, though alcohol isn’t what their worried about) There’s also a young African-American boy in drag singing falsetto. We know enough from trailers to know they will become involved; we also know that Lucius will stay in Tim’s life longer than Hawk will.

This series begins in the 1980s, when Hawk is about to receive  a post in Italy during the  Reagan administration. By this point Hawk has been married for decades to the Senator’s daughter, played by that incredible talent Allison Williams.  This would seem to be a thankless role for a performer of her talent but Williams is capable of doing much with even a few words. In the present Hawk tells Lucy that he is going to San Francisco to see Tim. By this point, they have two children and seem to have the perfect life.  He says reassuringly: “You’ve always been everything to me.” The line she says back is utterly calm but reveals so much about the relationship that’ s unfolded – and what she’s had to give up.

It is not lost on me as a historian – though it may be on some others – the fact that this particular attack on ‘morality’ was led by two men, who along with being utterly evil in public were immoral in private: McCarthy was a heavy drinker and gambler, who never married and we all know that Roy Cohn denied his sexuality until the day he died.  But that hypocrisy of the Lavender Scare is not the point of Fellow Travelers, at least not yet.  The hypocrisy of forcing our values on all of our citizens that didn’t fit in a box is not and it is at the heart of the choices that Hawkins makes throughout his life.  It’s clear by the 1980s that the real reason the two never worked out was not just because of the impossible burdens of society but because Tim was not willing to live a lie and Hawkins couldn’t live anything but. There’s a scene at the end in 1980s San Fransisco where Hawk is sitting in a diner, looking at the openly gay behavior and we see a sense of longing that we never saw in the present.

I won’t testify yet as to the overall quality of Fellow Travelers as a series – I have only seen a single episode and I will probably need more time to judge. Those of you who follow my column know that I am fond of period pieces and this show certainly gets that part of it right, and the fact that it looks at a part of history even people like me might very well be unaware of would make it worth watching even if the execution turns out to be a failure overall.

Still the work not only of Bomer and Bailey, but so much of the cast – including Linus Roache as the Senator that Hawk works for – is genuinely superb and the writing is compelling.  We need to hear the story of Fellow Travelers not just as a reminder of how far we have and haven’t come as a society, but to see what it actually cost the victims of these ‘hunts’.  There is nothing Unamerican about being gay then there was about being a member of the Communist Party.  The problem has been – as today as the 1950s – that what is considered ‘American’ is something that fits the definition of those who claim to speak for them and those whose opinion never seems to be asked.

Author’s Note: In recent years, some historians have actually theorized that Joseph McCarthy himself was a Soviet agent.  Not in the way that it is viewed in The Manchurian Candidate, but there are those who connected him with a New York Congressman who was one and who he know.  McCarthy was, as I said, a gambler and some think that out of financial need, he agreed to use his elected office in a way to spread disinformation and to keep the Americans distracted during the Cold War. I’ve always thought that theory was half-cocked. Given recent events, well…

My score: 4.25 stars.