Other Doctor Lives: Twenty Twelve: Series 2, Episode 4 – “The Rapper” (2012)

*Spoilers for episode 2*

Just as soon as the show gave me Karl, they took him away again! But fortunately, this is the last Joel Fry-less episode of Twenty Twelve. In it, the commission deals with a reasonable issue in a fairly ridiculous way.

An American company called Juiced gets involved in the Olympics in a big way. Because they’re primarily known for selling condoms, this sparks the idea of tying a sexual health awareness campaign to the Games. All good, until you realize that Siobhan is the brainchild steering the direction of said campaign.

Our character of the week is Daniel Stroud, Ian’s new PA—Sally and Ian had been dancing around each other for a while, but when it appeared to Sally that Ian was going back to his now ex-wife right on the cusp of them getting together, she abruptly resigned. Daniel endeavors to take care of Ian just as much as Sally did, but while Sally often blended seamlessly into the background, Daniel is so far doing it in a much more obtrusive way. He’s played by former History Boy Samuel Barnett!

Let’s just say the sexual health campaign has all the consideration of a runaway train. Siobhan brings her usual brand of “blithely enthusiastic agreement without paying much attention to what’s going on” to the proceedings, signing off on pretty much everything at first glance. A representative from Juiced is on hand, along with a spokesperson for a British sexual health campaign who warns them that the Olympics are going to be rife with sexual contact. With countless hot athletes flying in from all over the world, “they are going to have sex with each other, and they’re going to do that whenever they feel like it—all kinds of combinations.”

Ian realizes just how much the campaign is getting away from him when he’s invited to a meeting where a rapper is recording a contraceptive-themed song, the planned centerpiece for the campaign. As depicted by the show, this is painfully ill conceived, but Siobhan and her team blissfully dance along while the musician raps about lubrication and having “your girl slap it on.”

(Side note: as I said, Karl/Joel Fry isn’t in this episode, but the rest of Siobhan’s team is. I can’t decide if Siobhan is the sort of boss who’d insist on bringing her Black employee to meet the Black rapper, or if she’d be saved by her own obliviousness.)

In a subplot, we learn that Graham’s route for the Olympic torch relay is positively unhinged, and the rest of the team end up having to play cleanup for him. His initial cursed map cracks me up, and I like his later admission that he’s rearranged the locations of some British towns on the map to fit his route better.

Favorite David Tennant narration bits today:

• Fi has started taking her smoking breaks at the same time as Ian, using the time as an opportunity to push legacy’s agenda, and Kay decides she needs to get in on that, despite not smoking herself – “It’s starting to look like a busy day at the smoking area, as head of sustainability Kay Hope has arrived.”
• After explaining that “Ian has taken a difficult executive decision” regarding the haphazard sexual health campaign, I really like the addition, “And Siobhan has taken an equally executive decision not to accept that decision.”

Other Doctor Lives / Joel Fry-days: Twenty Twelve: Series 2, Episode 3 – “Clarence House” (2012)

I’ve been waiting for this moment: Joel Fry’s first appearance on Twenty Twelve! Although this episode only features his character in one scene, I can already tell I’m going to like him.

The commission has a few issues that need addressing. Two football teams have put in bids for the Olympic Stadium once the Games are over, and the overtaxed Kay is frantically trying to complete a sustainability audit on both prospects. Siobhan is tapped for branding ideas when Prince Charles and Camilla express interest in tying the Olympics with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. And Graham and Nick puzzle over bathroom plans for the Olympic Park.

Kay has been off-balanced all season so far—having Fi in the office has definitely put her on edge, so she doesn’t appreciate Fi’s competing input on the long-term future of the stadium. While upstairs is champing at the bit to announce their decision, she’s fielding calls from her ex-husband about their son, distracting her from writing the audit. She is teetering all the way off the rails on this one!

Graham and Nick’s plot is flimsy but amusing. The issue is fitting a sufficient amount of toilets into the Olympic Park. Graham is alarmed when the architectural engineer says they’re factoring in “five toilet events” per athlete per day, and as the engineer goes on about the completely different construction between the men’s and women’s toilets, it’s not clear if he’s talking about bathrooms or anatomy.

The Jubilee stuff is really fun. Ian is all too aware how critical it is to get this right, and Siobhan’s blase attitude doesn’t really inspire confidence. Mark Bonnar, who I recognized from the Eleventh Doctor story “The Rebel Flesh” / “The Almost People,” plays a representative from Charles and Camilla who meets with them. He tells Ian and Siobhan that the Prince of Wales wants the collaboration to bring the Jubilee into the present. “We talk a lot here about the idea of inheritance,” he explains. “It’s become a bit of a buzz word for us.” Hee!

Nothing too noteworthy from David Tennant’s narration today. That said, I did crack up at the line, “By the next morning, it’s Wednesday.”

Joel Fry comes in on the Jubilee plotline, as one of three new characters introduced here—employees at Siobhan’s PR firm. He plays the wildly-named Karl Marx, viral concept designer. Despite only being in one scene, it’s safe to say that Karl will be added to my collection of Fry’s Anxious Sweetheart characters. During a pitch session with Siobhan, he’s nervous-stimming pretty much the entire time. He fiddles with his hair, he worries at his ear, and his fingers fidget a little as he crosses his arms around himself. He speaks in soft, halting tones. Protect him at all costs!

And so far, it looks like he might need protecting. While his two cohorts lead the pitch, riffing off each other as they sell Siobhan on their ideas, Karl is much quieter. He only offers a few tentative suggestions, which are quickly shot down by Barney, another member of the team. “Yeah, didn’t quite work?” Barney keeps drawling whenever Karl manages to speak up.

Adding some Joel Fry-days first impressions here:

Accent Watch

He doesn’t say much, but it sounds like Southern British English to me.

Recommend?

Joel Fry – I would. I know we’ve only seen a bit of him so far, but I’m already excited to get more Karl!

Y tu Luna también: Narcos: Mexico: Season 2, Episode 1 – “Salva El Tigre” (2020)

*A few spoilers for the end of season 1.*

Season 2 of Narcos: Mexico gets off to an excellent start! It’s an almost deceptively exciting episode—there’s less big action than in some we’ve seen, but there are a lot of moving pieces that all intersect in compelling ways within the larger context of a central event. And Diego Luna is just so good!

Félix was able to avoid consequences with the DEA in the season 1 finale—in part by giving up some old friends, in part by his talent for knowing what people want—but even though the operation appears on solid footing now, he’s still dealing with serious issues. As he prepares for his 40^th birthday party, he’s less concerned about the celebration and more about the between-the-lines implications for his business. The DEA, meanwhile, has launched Operation Leyenda to find and take down everyone involved in Kiki’s abduction, torture, and murder. Headed by Walt Breslin, this mission uses dirty, brutal tactics to work their way up the chain of those responsible for Kiki’s death.

We’ll start with the DEA stuff. It’s revealed at the end of the season 1 finale that the show’s narrator is actually Walt, played by Scoot McNairy (a.k.a. Gordon from Halt and Catch Fire.) As an interesting side note, while most of the major characters in the Narcos franchise are real people, Walt is a fictional character. Anyway, Walt and his team are on a vicious vendetta. They know that, after Kiki’s body was recovered in the season finale, not everyone involved went down—just the people that Félix (and more importantly, the government) allowed to go down. But they’re after everyone, and they’ll do whatever they have to in order to achieve that, including some abduction and torture of their own. “If you want to be a lawyer about it, the whole fucking thing was probably illegal,” Walt drawls in the narration, largely unbothered by that fact.

But so far, their investigation has stayed on the periphery of the cartel, so the big power players aren’t yet aware of them. Instead, everyone is congregating for Félix’s birthday, and everyone is bringing their own agendas to the party. Benjamín, urged on by his sister Enedina, wants a larger piece of the pie for Tijuana. Amado shows up to the party without Acosta in tow, and he’s trying to smooth over any suggestion that this is a slight on Acosta’s part. And the Sinaloan guys are champing at the bit to show off their huge, flashy, impractical gift for the understated, discreet Félix.

As I said, for Félix, this party is about connections, logistics, and business, not fun. In the lead-up to it and at the party itself, he’s constantly doing mental calculations on who is/isn’t there and what sort of message it sends. After the events of last season, he’s determined not to be ignored by the politicians, although by now he knows better than to place any trust in them. “Stay sharp,” he says flatly when several governors show up to the party. “They might steal the silverware.”

Luna is excellent throughout, navigating the party like it’s a dangerously high-stakes chess game. Félix has enough power to be sure in his position, but he doesn’t take anything for granted. “Every one of these assholes would put a bullet in my head if they could get away with it,” he remarks as he manages Benjamín, questions Acosta’s absence, and makes a strategic response to the Sinaloans’ ostentatious gift. But all the while, he waits for news of his most anticipated guest’s arrival.

Pacho Herrera, a partner in the Cali cartel, is one of the recurring characters who’s come over from the original Narcos. I love scenes where Félix is dealing directly with Cali, because they always seem to put him on the wrong foot. Even as Félix’s own plaza bosses line up to talk business with him, he has his own business to put to Pacho. Namely, the Colombians owe the Guadalajara cartel $200 million. As is stated, “Powder is fast, cash is slow,” so the cartel has been receiving plenty of shipments of cocaine to traffic but not the payments they’ve earned for their work. Félix lays out this issue as plainly and logically as he can, but Pacho is thoroughly unimpressed. You can always feel the subtle shift in Félix’s response when someone talks down to him, but with Cali, he also knows how powerful and dangerous their organization is, so he’s limited in what he can do. Luna does such a great job with these moments, clearly showing Félix’s reaction to being disrespected while at the same time having to disguise those feelings with the person he’s interacting with.