OIL STORM!!!

You've got to hand it to the FX network and their propensity for generating really cheesy disaster movies out of the subconscious angst of the nascent post-9/11 America oughts. First, there was the subtly-titled SMALLPOX, a fictitious documentary chronicling a fictitious 2002 outbreak of smallpox, caused by a "politically correct" religious fanatic (if such a thing were to exist - read: not a Muslim) who infects himself with smallpox and mingles among the populace of NY, coughing, shaking hands, and rubbing on stuff. This sets off a global firestorm of infection, resulting in martial law and desperate overacting from the ordinary folks herded into "relief" camps. The mock talking-head format is pretty effective, when not undermined by aforementioned cheesy acting.

Now, premiering on June 5th we have Oil Storm, in which rising gasoline prices cripple the American/world economies, leading to (I presume) martial law and desperate overacting from the ordinary folks waiting in line for the precious, precious gasoline that will never come. I say "presume" because the trailer is all a quick-cut mess of scenes, the most memorable of which (and genuinely chilling, I might add) is a shot of a Conoco showing, in time lapse, rising gas prices, from the $2 range, to $3, to $4, all the way up to $5.

I don't know what the appeal is. Why do we want to watch scenarios in which our society collapses? Do we hope to stave off something that might actually happen by pre-empting it with fiction? Or do we feel guilty about our society's vast material wealth, and indulge in self-destructive daydreams to assuage our guilt? I don't know! Quit thinkin' so much and join me this Sunday at 8 to watch...Oil Storm!