Graceland; reflections of a Hollywood Misfit

The television series Graceland, confronts the deceptive world of undercover police work. It also represents the identity crisis and familial gap that often ensues in the lives of all whom choose to dedicate their lives to such a difficult line of work. Graceland’s representation of identity crisis and loss of family is a reflection of creator Jeff Eastin’s own personal identity crisis and loss as a film maker.

            Eastin is a journalism major from Greeley Colorado, a small town east of Fort Collins. He somehow ended up in living in Hollywood producing television shows for USA Network, a path he never planned­­. Graceland revolves around a scrawny young FBI agent who fresh out of training gets assigned to spy on undercover ICE, DEA and FBI agents, essentially an undercover-undercover agent.  Throughout the show, the main character slowly gets drawn into their lifestyle, and grows inappropriate loyalties with various members of this home of undercover agents.

            His boss soon becomes suspicious of his loyalties and begins spying on him. He later discovers this and turns on his boss. However he is reminded of his mission and emotionally separates himself from the home of undercover agents.

            I don’t cover all this information to bore you with a plot recap but to draw some clear comparisons between this scrawny undercover agent, and a scrawny journalism major from Greeley Colorado, with no apparent Hollywood upbringing or training. I wager that this scrawny young adult upon arriving in Hollywood must have felt similar emotions to the protagonist of Graceland. He is a stranger to those amongst whom he dwells, and a stranger to those from whence he came.  As his Hollywood career developed, he must have found himself being drawn deeper and deeper into a life he never expected to participate in. At some point he must have had an awakening, someone that cared about him deeply enough to tell him he was going down the wrong path. Perhaps this person was injured by his sudden change, similar to the story line of the boss, who is killed as a consequence of the agent’s inability to trust.

            Apart from just designing a television show. Graceland built an app, that allows viewers to participate more in the show. What this app allows is for users to sync up and follow the location and actions of every character in the show, and in the investigation of the scrawny young man at any given moment in the show. This app definitely gives the viewer a false sense of control. False because when we use it, yes we can see more of what is going on at once, but this information does not allow us to alter any future or past consequences throughout the narrative. I suspect that the creators perhaps designed the app with this in mind, helping us to come to their level of identity lost, knowing so much but in all reality knowing so little. Allowing us to experiment the same emotions that the protagonist and Eastin must have felt during their crisis.

            There is another relationship in this program that I would like to explore on a deeper level. Two of the agents living in the house seem to be constantly clashing throughout the show, but ironically they both have similar goals. One character is an ICE agent that lives with the regret of estranging his wife and son as a means for protecting them from the dangers of his career. Another agent in the home’s only desire is to make his fellow agents his family, because he has no one. The agent who has lost his wife and son pushes everyone away, especially this agent who wants them all to be family. It is ironic that these two clash so much when in all reality all they both want the same thing, to have a family.

            Overall I would wager that the complex issues of loss or lack of family life and identity are true reflections of the programs creator Jeff Eastin. The characters, the scripting, and the additional media outlets (apps) provided to experience Graceland point to an all to true life experience. The show was an opportunity for Eastin to communicate the confusion he lives by trying to assimilate to the life of a filmmaker in Hollywood, when he was raised and trained to be a Journalist in Greeley.

            I understand that the evidence to prove my thesis is limited. But one should not take to lightly the strongest of all evidences; Eastin is the stories creator, and thus his authorship will leave imprints of his own soul and experience on the media form. By using this complex story line, and new technology (iPad Apps) Eastin has allowed me personally to take a deeper look at my potential life, and the consequences of seeking a career in an industry often founded on deceit.