Will Sacha Baron Cohen's secret series be the televised event of the year? | Television and radio

I t is, in the general opinion, a striking clip. A vaguely recognizable voice-over asks "Is it possible to sign my waterboard kit?" So Dick Cheney – the real Dick Cheney – answers with a chirpy "Sure!". After scribbling his name on a battered bottle, he happily declares "It's the first time I sign a waterboard!" Ladies and gentlemen, Sacha Baron Cohen is back.

The new series of Baron Cohen, Who is America? , feels like an ambush. Announced this week, it will be showcased in the UK and the US in less than a week. We know very little about who is America? and it may be for a good reason. He promises "to explore the various people, from the infamous to the unknown across the political and cultural spectrum, which inhabit the unique nation". Its bill as "the most dangerous show in the history of television" makes it look less like a program and more like a prison-yard. The secret, you imagine, is probably due to the high level targets and the brutality with which they are going to be destroyed.

If Who is America? can go after Dick Cheney – a hug grandfather at this point, yes, but an arch-villain of his time – then the sky is practically the limit. In a tweet, right-wing commentator Matt Drudge warned that Sarah Palin, Howard Dean, Bernie Sanders and Ted Koppel were among those who had joined Cheney in prey to Baron Cohen. However, do not expect the elephant in the room to be unlined.

The first to know the series was when Baron Cohen posted a video addressed to Donald Trump on Independence Day. Baron Cohen's biography on Twitter is Trump's quote: "They should have pounded him (Baron Cohen) on the ground. It would have been great. "All signs suggest that Trump is downright in Baron Cohen's sights, and it's personal, even if it ends badly, Who's America?"

That could not get better at the band This sort of thing – infiltrated, disguised, drawing involuntary prejudices – is absolutely what it does best – it's clever and it's cruel and it's ruthlessly nothing beats hard enough when it is used to make a point about the state of the world.

But it is also designed to self-destruct with the impact; Baron Cohen finds some kind of success with an approach, the template is already up. "Ali G ceased to be a workable ship the second he appeared on television, for the simple reason that he was Too easily recognizable, it was the same with Borat Bruno did not even go so far, because at that time, Baron Cohen was not too famous to be under the skin of his victims.

Compared to his pranks, the rest of Baron Cohen's work suffers from an almost terminal bbadity. The scripted prize such as The Dictator and Grimsby tends to work under the weight of the rudeness of the road. His acting performances for Hugo and Alice Through the Looking Glbad are quite competent, but no role has yet managed to fully capture his impudence.