“Traveling companions” were those who, without being communist fighters, shared revolutionary goals, spirits and tasks. Many fell victim to McCarthyism under accusations of anti-American complicity. Now titled Fellow Travelers (although not translated as Fellow Travelers), a miniseries that adapts a novel by Thomas Mallon about McCarthyite Hollywood and includes a plot involving secret homosexual love, suicides and political persecution.
I have not read the novel, which is called “Los Lavandas” in Spanish, but I was very interested in the series because it deviates from the codes of the thriller and the ideological pamphlet. Its creator, Ros Nyswaner, conceived it as an arthouse whimsy that recreates the texture, color, format and narrative of the '50s. The viewer cannot completely suspend disbelief because the aesthetics do not. It allows one to surrender to the emotion of the whole story.
This defeats the purpose of historical fiction, which is to make the audience feel transported to the time period. When we watch Fellow Travelers, we never turn our attention off when men on a couch are watching a series from 2024, and that immunizes us against presenteeism. We do not live in McCarthyism. As much as the angry masses and desire for cancellation fuel fears of censorship, we do not live threatened by the spirit of the Inquisitor. Or at least today's Torquemada trainees don't look like the Torquemadas of yesterday who set the FBI on you.
Nyswaner's series – otherwise great – satirizes the constant exaggeration of those who feel suffocated without a hand to squeeze them. That's not to say that today's cancellation and harassment campaigns aren't abhorrent, but they don't compare to this terror. As grandparents used to say: I gave you a good McCarthy so you would know what armed puritanism is.
You can follow EL PAÍS Television on X or sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.
Get the TV newsletter
All the latest news from broadcasters and platforms, with interviews, news and analyses, as well as recommendations and reviews from our journalists
LOG IN
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
_