"The Skies Are Red," by Richie Narvaez, in On Fire and Under Water, edited by Curtis Ippolito, Rock and a Hard Place Press, 2025.
This is the third appearance in this blog by Narvaez, and a very clever tale it is.
It is an oral history of a TV series that never aired, told in fragments of interview with the cast and crew. Criminal Takedown: Climate Change Cops was supposed to be the latest hit spinoff from that hugely successful television empire. (Hmm... What could Narvaez have had in mind?)
This particular show was the brainchild of Sal Cassady, who had made it big in hippy movies and was a dedicated environmentalist. He thought that he could change hearts and minds by approaching the issue of climate change through the classic crime format.
Didn't quite work out. The interviews show us a toxic combination of Hollywood ego, corporate doubletalk, denialism, and just bad (hah) chemistry. Like a lot of the stories in this book this one tends toward the polemic, but it is excellent fun.
Yes, loved this story. In fact, there wasn't a clunker in this entire anthology!
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