Usually alternative or alternate histories are fun because you can imagine how awful the world would have been if something didn’t happen then close your book or turn off the tv feeling better about life because at least it isn’t THAT! Things could be much worse. I’ve only known about this genre in movies and books that imagine what would the world look like if the Nazis won WWII, namely Robert Harris’ Fatherland, which was made into a movie starring everyone’s favorite replicant, Rutger Hauer. (The Man in the High Castle is in my queue.).
C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America ended up in my queue for two reasons: a friend highly recommended it, and I love fake documentaries. C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America imagines what the U.S.A. would have looked like if the Confederates won the American Civil War. C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America is a British documentary evocative of the Ken Burns’ The Civil War style except there is no PBS because there are fake commercials for products and teasers for news stories that will air after the documentary ends.
Initially C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America is amusing, but as the mockumentary unfolds, C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America had the opposite effect that most alternate histories had me. C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America made me realize that a world with the Confederates as victors is not as different from the real world as I would like it to be.
C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America used the majority of American history as it actually unfolded to show that a dystopian world where slavery still exists is alarmingly similar to our own. At the end of the mockumentary, C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America reveals that many of the events actually occurred, and the racist products featured in the commercials actually exist.
C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America is not entertainment. C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America is a trenchant piece of satire that does what satire is supposed to do-it punches up and will leave you shaking with disappointment at society’s shortcomings. C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America is a must see, but wait until you’re in a great mood and it is an uncharacteristically slow news cycle.