Drew Carey is no Michael Moore. He is not an activist filmmaker. Instead, he earned millions being a regular Cleveland guy on television. So when that guy becomes the face of a libertarian-leaning Web series that dissects his hometown’s problems without offering real solutions, you have to wonder why. Reason Saves Cleveland with Drew Carey (watch episodes online at the Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation’s reason.tv) presents ideas, of course, but most of them come wrapped in a less-government political message. The series attempts to inspire us by showing how other cities have handled issues similar to ours. It’s a vast oversimplification because Cleveland is not Chicago or Oakland or Houston, and that flaw largely derails the six-part, 50-minute Web series. Finally, Carey’s presence is a glorified cameo. You won’t see him rolling up his sleeves Michael Moore-style and getting involved. Instead, he sporadically pops up on the screen to drop a Cleveland-really-is-this-bad-I-lived-it-myself punch line. By the end it feels like the joke is on us.
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