TV REVIEWS : ‘MOM’ IS A DOOMED ARMS RACE DRAMA

CBS is so proud of “My Dissident Mom” that the network pulled the show from its original afternoon time slot in October to give it prime-time exposure tonight so it can “reach a wider audience of parents and children.”

Amazing.

On the one hand, CBS is to be commended--first for tackling the nuclear-weapons issue in a dramatic form for young people, who have as big a stake in it as the rest of us and in whose name so much of the debate is framed, and second, for being bold enough to allow the film makers to take a stand, in this case on the anti-nuclear side.

On the other hand, the program itself--airing at 8 tonight on Channels 2 and 8--is so politically simplistic and dramatically exasperating that CBS ought to have been looking for a way to bury it, not elevate it.

Annie Potts has the pivotal role as a married mother of two who gets involved in the anti-nuclear movement at the very time her husband (Martin Sheen) is closing a deal for his company to begin supplying components for nuclear missiles.

This might have been a compelling predicament except for the fact that Potts’ character is a whining, immature woman whose actions are fueled not by ideology but by boredom and anger at her husband, with whom she’s engaged in a marital power struggle.

The debate over the wisdom of maintaining a nuclear arsenal is trivialized in the process and otherwise reduced to a few catch-phrases.

“It’s armed preparedness that prevents war, not wishful thinking,” one character says.

“Security measured by the number of weapons aimed at each other isn’t security; it’s madness,” another, identified as a former general, replies.

Potts’ character, predictably, is less than eloquent on the subject. Challenged by her teen-age daughter on the practicality of trying to halt the arms race, she says, “At least we have to try. If people don’t demand what they know is right for themselves, nobody’s going to give them that.”

The program’s mushy idealism is epitomized in its ending, when the mother and father reach detente based on nothing more than some romantic notion that, as the Beatles put it, “Love is all you need.” It’s a nice sentiment, but real life doesn’t work that way. Not in marriage, not in global politics.

“My Dissident Mom” was directed by Matt Clark from a script by Barry Dantzscher, who co-produced with Sally Hill.