Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1203636
63 S P R I N G Q 1 I S S U E B O O K R E V I E W ises. The purpose of this cruel ruse is to get this commissioning editor, who is ineffectual, to pitch the idea to his company. Locke feeds a good idea to the duped man's colleague in hopes that when both sit around a table with people who can greenlight a film, the idea Locke really wants to produce will shine in com- parison. He schemes that the contrast between the bad concept and the good will lead to a commission. Despite all this, the reader is per- suaded to root for Locke. Perhaps it is because he embodies a vanishing kind of documentary film journalist. That ste- reotype is one of hard-drinking men who move through the world with no ties, big egos, and a focus on getting a film made at any cost. They are also characterized as magnets to the opposite sex, bad boys who exude excitement. The book unfor- tunately contains disturbing language as part of this image. In "Some Things You Should Know," using a crude c-word re- ferring to female genitalia is acceptable as an invective thrown at the lowest sort of person. If the author, whoever he may be in real life, finds this to be the English language's worst possible insult, he should expand his vocabulary. The book is crisply written and uses a mystery/adventure story filled with danger and twists to create plot. Locke knows the people, pressures, and plea- sures found in making factual television shows, and he reveals them with cynical humor. Enjoyment of the book does not depend on whether the story he tells is true, and it is most certainly filled with "Some Things You Should Know." ■ Betsy A. McLane is a freelance writer. Some Things You Should Know: Confessions of a TV Executive By Truman Locke Bloomsbury, 2020, $19.95 Paperback, 280 pages The reader is persuaded to root for Locke. He embodies a vanishing kind of documentary film journalist.