Who is America? Sacha Baron Cohen's new show aims high but goes low

The first episode of the comedian’s much-hyped new series has one moment of viral gold but is mostly a frustrating experience

Somewhere around the bit in which Sacha Baron Cohen recalls being cuckolded by a dolphin while on vacation with his (human) wife, a viewer is liable to be hit with a wave of nostalgia. Sitting through the largely tiresome pilot of Cohen’s latest program Who Is America? inspires longing for a simpler past, when Cohen’s profile was still low enough that he didn’t have to mask his face with nightmare-inducing prosthetics just to go incognito. He plays four characters in the first episode of this new series – an obese quack doctor, an NPR-listening uberliberal, a limey ex-con, and a gruff Israeli commando – all of whom evoke fonder memories of sweet Borat, the good-natured traveler in thrall of a “very nice” world full of “great success!” As hardliners on the left and right, gun nuts and bleeding-heart activists, confrontation is baked into the very premise of this new quartet.

Related: Who else might be a victim of Sacha Baron Cohen's new show?

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