“Clipped” could have been a documentary

Watching the new FX series “Clipped” made me nostalgic for a special era of the Internet. The year 2014 was a boom time for digital media and the height of the blogging era. Many websites published clever and sarcastic reporting and writing. Twitter, while not without its flaws, was a place where you could actually have robust conversations.ations, rather than a pit latrine filled with conspiracy theories and sponsored content overseen by a manchild.

In the spring of 2014, the story of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling exploded on the Internet, when TMZ released leaked audio of him launching into a racist rant, secretly recorded by his assistant and girlfriend V. Stiviano. There was a lot of sharp, thoughtful writing and reporting on all angles of the story – what it said about the NBA and professional sports as institutions, and how it went well beyond that.

The Sterling saga has sparked online conversations on a host of important topics. People have written all kinds of incisive articles about race, gender, class, fame, labor, activism, and housing policy. For years, Sterling and his wife Shelly were stiffing and discriminating against black and brown tenants in Los Angeles – much like another famous Donald from the other coast, who would run for president a year later. In addition to the serious talk, people also had a lot of fun with the story, circulating jokes and memes on Twitter, a characteristic of this type of information cycle. (It also had a personal impact on me: As a college student and seriously beginning to pursue a career in journalism, I have a distinct memory of the Sterling saga as emblematic of this era of digital media. Every day I loved logging onto Twitter and discovering the work of so many smart writers, dreaming of being a part of it myself.)

The visual tapestry of “Clipped” is reminiscent of that era, like the way each episode transitions from scene to scene using scrolling Instagram feeds — specifically, Instagram as it was in 2014. But the series limited six-episode release, premiering Tuesday on Hulu, loses much of the necessary context the Internet gave the story at the time.

Based on “Sterling business,” a 2019 podcast from ESPN’s “30 for 30” series, the show would have worked better as a docuseries (perhaps on ESPN itself). By zooming out and featuring commentary from people involved or covered at the time, a documentary series could have led more viewers to discover the enormous scope of this story and reflect on it a decade later. Dramatizing the Sterling saga into a prestige limited series, despite its many excellent performances, is an approach that fails to give the story the context it needs.

But hoo boy, do the cast of the show make a delicious meal out of these characters. Ed O'Neill brings the required amount of cartoon villain energy to Sterling. Laurence Fishburne brings both seriousness and grumpiness to Clippers coach and NBA legend Doc Rivers. Cleopatra Coleman and Jacki Weaver as V. Stiviano and Shelly Sterling, respectively, are also fantastic. Coleman in particular brings a welcome depth and complexity to Stiviano, who in the public narrative of the time was often flattened and reduced to “the mistress.”

The casting wonderfully accentuates the larger-than-life qualities of the characters in this saga. But some of the actors' maximalism and the show's dramatic heights inadvertently distract from the larger issues at play, which the show overlooks. It even left me wondering if “Clipped” unintentionally replicated the salacious nature of the story itself. Much of the great writing on the Sterling saga of the era was able to scrutinize the tabloids' initial coverage of the story and point out how it was all so much more than a spectacle.

In contrast, a dramatization with an excellent cast of boldface names playing these real-life characters, all of whom have great personalities, invites and inserts more spectacle. Aside from a few standout moments in the middle of the series, as well as a flashback episode that feels annoying, the series is too limited in its scope, never pulling the lens far enough.

I can understand not wanting to make a show that sticks too closely to the format of the original source material, essentially creating a visual version of the podcast. Different media can serve different purposes and reach different audiences. If you're interested in the drama and spectacle of this group of characters, a limited series might be your preferred vehicle for consuming this story. But if you're interested in context, you won't get much here.

It's a loss for viewers. Much of the Sterling saga was not just about the story, but rather how it was covered and how each news cycle found more and more layers to it. Unfortunately, many of these articles are lost due to time and poor decisions by media CEOs, who erased the work of many talented writers. Those days of the Internet are long gone. A series like “Clipped” could have paid homage to him, not only aesthetically, but also substantially.

“Clipped” airs Tuesdays on Hulu.