Nicolas Cage may sign on to virtually every single project that comes his way based on the sheer volume and wildly inconsistent quality of his filmography over the last decade, but the actor has almost completely sat out the age of Peak TV, when many of his contemporaries have headed to the small screen in search of either a career rejuvenation, critical acclaim or a combination of the two.
In fact, when the Academy Award winner stars as Joe Exotic of all people in one of the many upcoming Tiger King-inspired series that are in development, it’ll mark his first role in a fictional television project since a teenage Nicolas Coppola appeared in the unaired pilot for variety show Best of Times all the way back in 1981.
However, Cage has finally made his bow in a Netflix original that relies heavily on his distinctive and unique brand of charisma, even if he’s not featured as prominently as the promos would have you believe. The 56 year-old is the host of new docuseries History of Swear Words, which tracks the origins, evolution and everyday usage of society’s most popular profanities.
The Face/Off and Con Air star is an ideal fit for delivering the opening and closing monologues, and even gets to unleash a little bit of his signature Cage Rage for good measure, but the meat of the six-part show is occupied by a variety of talking heads diving into the history and etymology of f*ck, sh*t, b*tch, d*ck, p*ssy and damn, which also happen to be the titles of the episodes themselves.
History of Swear Words is streaming now on Netflix, and is every bit as entertaining as it is informative. Enjoy.