Picturing America: "This American Life"

FOR MORE THAN a decade, we knew Ira Glass, the host of Chicago Public Radio's "This American Life," primarily as a voice: crisp, matter-of-fact, friendly and a bit nerdy, as if nursing a fascination with everyday Americans was akin to studying quantum physics.

Last year, we added a face to that voice, when "This American Life" moved to television for a short, six-episode season. As it turns out, Glass has a genial face, unruly hair going gray, a bemused smirk and thick-frame glasses that suggest a hipster news reporter.

On television just as in radio, Glass remains a reassuring presence for whom interestedness is a default setting. And yet, that may be the smoothest transition as the show moves from audio to audiovisual, from NPR to Showtime, and finally to DVD.

The television show retains the radio show's basic premise: Each episode incorporates documentary, poetry, short fiction and scraps of observation, all organized around a common theme. However, the running time is cut in half: Instead of a full hour in which to fully plumb these stories of Americans in extreme or unusual situations, this "American Life" feels truncated at half an hour.

It's telling that the most intriguing episodes — notably, "God’s Close-Up," about a Mormon painter who arranges elaborate photo shoots of New Testament scenes — are those that run nearly the full 30 minutes.

In visualizing its documentary subjects, however, "This American Life" allows its filmmakers to involve themselves more intimately in their reportage, which doesn't always pay off. Glass, a typically nonintrusive presence, comes across as bullying when he questions a man about the cloned bull that has just gored him in "Reality Check."

By the end of this first season, Glass and the producers have found better ways to involve themselves in their stories, mainly by being forthcoming about it. In "Pandora's Box," about the modernization of the pork industry, the story shifts from the farm to the filmmakers' reactions to it, which range from vomiting to vegetarianism. The crew, it seems, have American lives as well.

Written by Stephen M. Deusner for Express
Photo courtesy of Showtime