Michael Arceneaux: Showtime’s ‘Lincoln Project’ doc, like the super PAC, is noisy but not all that effective

(Michael Arceneaux is the author of "I Can’t Date Jesus: Love, Sex, Family, Race, and Other Reasons I’ve Put My Faith in Beyoncé.") Showtime’s five-part docuseries about The Lincoln Project, the super PAC founded by multiple well-known Republican strategists and operatives with a shared contempt for Donald Trump, reminds me a lot of the organization’s work in 2020: noisy but not necessarily all that effective in realizing its stated goals. I understand the desire for a documentary on the organization because it checks off boxes that would make the average viewer curious about its inner workings. There’s scandal, egos, Trump and money. I understand the desire for a documentary on the organization because it checks off boxes that would make the average viewer curious about its inner workings. There’s scandal, egos, Trump and money. It’s not that The Lincoln Project founders shouldn’t be proud of the house they built. It raised $90 million to fight against Trump. Also, to its credit, the organization drew the ire of the former president repeatedly throughout the 2020 election with its ads — which racked up a few hundred million views.

Those videos comforted people angry and depressed about the era of politics Trump had incited. But as we immediately learn from the first few minutes of episode one — and throughout the series, which premiered Friday — the founders were way too proud of themselves. This docuseries, directed by Karim Amer and Fisher Stevens, captures the unprecedented super PAC from its formation at the onset of the 2020 presidential election and its fast rise to its just as fast fall from public favor after a sexual harassment scandal and questions about how it spent the large sums raised to stop Trump’s re-election. The problem is it’s done in a way reminiscent of a reality show — in this case, about a group of attention-seeking political consultants. On the plus side, viewers get to see the backstory of the organization’s founders. It is a great reminder of how rooted these people were in the Republican Party. Audiences should see co-founder Rick Wilson in photos with former New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani and ex-vice president Dick Cheney. We should know that, according to Wilson, Steve Bannon targeted him in 2015, and it gave him more drive than ever to defeat Trump and his enablers.