Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Green Veil’ On The Network, A Drama About Government Coverups in the 1950s, Ranging From Aliens To The Abduction Of Indigenous Children

The Network is a new ad-supported streaming service that promises to be constantly releasing original shows, whether they were produced by them or licensed from elsewhere. Two shows will debut every week, and the idea is that they don’t want their home screen to be an endless scroll of content. The first show they are debuting is a series created by Aram Rappaort, who also founded The Network, and stars John Leguizamo in a very different role than we’re used to seeing him in.

THE GREEN VEIL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A teenage girl in the back of a car, hands bound, wearing a gag. She’s screaming for her mom and dad.

The Gist: A voice over explains that she met the girl in the back of that car, Isabella Sutton (Jessica Marza) at a local orphanage in Connecticut. Isabella was taken by government agents from the farm that was her home; her dad Gilberto (Jon Ortiz) was a bootlegger, and her mom Glennie (Irene Bedard) was a Native. That last part is the key to why she was in the back of that car; government agents took her as part of a secret effort to rehome Native and immigrant children with white parents to keep minority groups from building generational wealth.

Isabella’s first day at the orphanage was the last for Abigail (Isabelle Poloner), the girl doing the voice over. She’s being adopted by Gordon Rogers (John Leguizamo), an FBI agent, and his wife Maybelline (Hani Furstenberg). We see her being baptized, and Abbie’s voice says, “I didn’t have the heart to tell them I was Jewish.”

Gordon is obsessed with showing everyone he’s got the perfect, All-American family. He insists that Abbie call him “Dad,” even though she’s uncomfortable doing so. He’s also under stress at work, investigating an alien abduction case that’s being splashed all over the local papers.

For her part, Mabel is completely frustrated playing the dutiful housewife. We learn from Abbie that her new mother used to fly in World War II, so her new role doesn’t fit her well. After Gordon goes to work, we see Mabel pleasuring herself with an industrial-looking vibrator, and manically cleaning in heels and her dress. She seems to merely tolerate sex with Gordon.

What’s gotten her intrigued is the case file Gordon leaves lying around. One Saturday, after Gordon goes to work to try to close out a case, she takes a deeper look at the file, about a supposed alien abduction incident where two people disappeared: Glennie and Gilberto Sutton.

She decides to drive to Sutton Farm to see the supposed landing site for herself, and she’s taken there by a seeming believer (Marco Torriani) who charges nickels for tours. She wants to visit the hut Glennie set up to pray for her daughter’s return but is warned not to. But the landing site is fascinating to her.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Green Veil is a bit reminiscent of Project Blue Book, though the government abduction of Indigenous children was covered well in the Canadian series Little Bird.

Our Take: Aram Rappaport, who directed and wrote The Green Veil (he also created The Network, the new service this show streams on; Leguizamo and Bedard are also EPs), took an interesting approach to the story in The Green Veil. We thought at first the show was going to be a bit lighter than we expected, given the music on the soundtrack and the teenage voice over used in the first episode. The use of the half-hour format for such a weighty topic. But the second episode gave us a lot more insight into ust how dark this show can get.

In the second episode, Leguizamo’s character Gordon Rogers does the voice over, and we learn that he was also abducted by government agents 30 years earlier, after he and his mother immigrated to the US, and placed with a white family. But instead of becoming bitter, he went all in on becoming the best American he could be, which includes being God-fearing and making sure his family waves goodbye to him as he leaves the driveway to go to work every morning. He curses at people who try to speak to him in Spanish.

There is all the evidence in the world that the alien incident where the Suttons disappeared was staged. Why, we don’t know. But Gordon seems to be investigating something more insidious than a mere alien abduction, though he might not even know it yet.

Leguizamo does a fine job going against type as Gordon, who is controlling and vindictive; when Abbie covers for Mabel’s “errand” the night she goes to the Suttons’ farm, he gets angry that the women in his house are conspiring against him and punishes Abbie in a particularly cruel way. His obsession with achieving the American Dream makes him blind to what is going on under the surface, both with Mabel and with his work. Furstenberg also makes a good impression as Mabel, who deserves a whole lot more than being with the oppressive Gordon.

Because of the shorter episodes, no one is going to accuse Rappaport of padding the story, which includes the presence of a drunken cropduster pilot named John Boon (Steven Boyer). We just hope he doesn’t get bogged down in devices like the voice overs, so the story itself has a chance to breathe.

Sex and Skin: We mentioned the vibrator scene, and we see Leguizamo’s butt as Gordon — still wearing his shirt and tie — takes Mabel from behind — she’s still wearing her dress and watching the TV.

Parting Shot: Mabel looks at the landing site and says, “Well, I’ll be.”

Sleeper Star: Bedard is basically the distraught mother in the first couple of episodes, but we’re pretty sure we’re going to see her perspective on the story at some point, and we’re looking forward to it.

Most Pilot-y Line: The voice overs aren’t really necessary, but at least they change from episode to episode.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Some of the storytelling in The Green Veil undercuts how intense this story really is. But the performances of Leguizamo and the rest of the cast are worth watching, as is the part of the story about the government abduction of Native and immigrant children.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.