Review: 'Suburban America: Problems & Promise'

DOCUMENTARY "Suburban America: Problems & Promise"

WHEN | WHERE Saturday night at 8 on WLIW/Ch. 21

REASON TO WATCH A look at the 'burbs, with a heavy emphasis on Long Island.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT From Greenlawn-based Rudaitis Media, and an assist from former Newsday columnist Lawrence C. Levy, now executive dean of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra, this documentary explores the challenges facing suburbs, which lie at the nexus of sweeping political, economic and demographic change. There is a heavy emphasis on Long Island, with much commentary from local politicos. Levy notes that myths endure about the homogeneity of the suburbs, "but the reality is just not so." Indeed.

MY SAY "Suburban America's" author Ron Rudaitis is a kitchen-sink producer, in the best sense of the phrase. He grabs his camera, hits the road and talks to everyone who has a thoughtful opinion about the subject. His 2007 documentary, "Farming the Future: Farm Life on Long Island," was outstanding, as his Emmy attests.

But viewers would have been better served had he confined this film to Long Island. Even then, the subject could barely be covered in an hour, so complicated are the challenges facing the public health, educational and economic infrastructure. Taxes are fleetingly mentioned here and schools are ignored. There's an upbeat endnote, but it's hard to see how a success story in Arlington, Va., has anything to do with Wyandanch.

BOTTOM LINE Thoughtful, but too sprawling.

GRADE B