‘Five Days at Memorial’ Shows Us Katrina’s Horrors: TV Review
variety.comDaniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticThe aftermath of Hurricane Katrina so precisely crystallized a set of seemingly unfixable problems with this country that it’s surprising TV, in an era of re-examining recent history, is only now getting around to depicting it in fictionalized form.
It’s not for lack of trying: Ryan Murphy had previously proposed multiple takes on the story, one with Annette Bening starring as Louisiana Gov.
Kathleen Blanco and then one with Sarah Paulson starring as Dr. Anna Pou. These never came together, leaving a lane open for Pou’s story, as told in Sheri Fink’s book “Five Days at Memorial,” to get adapted for Apple TV+.And while this series, produced by Carlton Cuse and John Ridley, is accomplished in many ways, viewers may well pine for what might have been; the willing-to-be-crass bigness of Murphy’s approach and his eagerness to grasp at Big Themes suits the astonishing failures that led to Katrina in 2005, and the sad truths about this country’s willingness to toss away Black life that it revealed.
Cuse and Ridley take a more measured approach, telling a story that feels strangely muted even as it addresses a catastrophe.
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