Other Doctor Lives: W1A: Series 3, Episode 5 (2017)

*Mild spoilers for episode 4*

I watched Twenty Twelve and W1A a number of months ago and have had my reviews written up for a while, but when I went to post about this episode for last week’s Other Doctor Lives, I found just the notes I’d taken during my initial watch—somewhere along the line, I’d missed writing the review and had never gotten back around to it. Whoops! Anyway, I just rewatched this, the penultimate episode of W1A, to jog my memory and to write a new review of it.

There are a couple fresh crises brewing at the BBC. Claudia Winkleman, longtime host of Strictly Come Dancing, has been offered a deal with a rival network and is considering walking. While the executives scramble to find a way to woo her into staying, Izzy and Jack are met with a crisis of their own. Last week, Will had an unexpected win when he got Hugh Grant to film a “Super Me” ahead of the BBC Me launch. The only problem is, Grant didn’t realize it was for a viral marketing campaign—because, of course, Will didn’t explain things clearly—and now he’s upset about the BBC using his image without permission.

We’re getting two characters of the week this time around, because they’ve been a package deal from the start of the series. Max Olesker and Ivan Gonzalez play a pair of interchangeable junior executives, the terrifically-named Ben Rosenstern and Jerry Guildencrantz. As their surnames would suggest, much of their humor throughout the series has come from Ian and other executives generally being unable to tell which is which. They’re both quintessential yes-man and have a particular habit of echoing whatever Simon says in meetings. This past season, they’ve gotten their own mini-subplot. Like Lucy, their positions have been targeted by the BBC Less is More initiative, with two jobs being reduced to one. This has caused friction between them as each tried to distinguish himself from the other and prove he was the one worth keeping around. The subplot comes to its conclusion in this episode.

Claudia Winkleman is wanting to take on more serious projects, and the new offer she’s received would allow her to branch out from her role as the host of a popular but insubstantial show like Strictly Come Dancing. Losing her would be a huge blow to the BBC, so the execs are desperate to satisfy her. There’s an amusing pitch session where they search for anything more serious that they could offer her, and naturally, any time you have a delicate meeting with onscreen talent where it’s critical for everything to go right, it’s not great to have both Siobhan and David involved.

The Hugh Grant debacle has quickly spiraled out of hand. In addition to removing his image from the BBC Me marketing, he’s demanding that the BBC apologize by making a charitable donation of over a million pounds. As Izzy panics over the situation, Jack tries to convince her that her best option is blaming the whole thing on Will.

Some nice David Tennant narration today. Here were my favorite bits from him:

• This one cracked me up – “Meanwhile, upstairs, what was supposed to be a renewal meeting mainly about something called ‘distinctivity’ has spontaneously turned into an emergency damage limitation meeting mostly about disaster.”
• Nicely worded – “Elsewhere in the building, Jack Patterson and Izzy Gould have taken some time out to have an argument.”
• This is such a textbook W1A line – “It seems that the BBC is shortly to announce a major senior management simplification, which follows the pattern of encouraging more staff to apply for fewer jobs by abolishing the ones they’ve already got.”

Joel Fry-days: Bedlam: Series 2, Episode 5 – “Dare” (2012)

I’m not quite sold on this BBC supernatural drama, although admittedly, it doesn’t help that Joel Fry’s guest appearance comes in the literal penultimate episode of the series. I love me a good penultimate episode, but not when I don’t know any of the characters or the main story! Despite that, it’s quite a good episode for Fry, and his plot is standalone enough that I don’t need any extra details to make sense of it.

Partway through the opening scene, I realized I maybe shouldn’t be going in completely unaware, so I paused to Google the show. Basically, the premise is this: in modern-day London, the infamous Bedlam hospital has been turned into high-end flats, but the building is still haunted by the ghosts of former patients. In each season, the protagonist sees visions from the past as these ghosts emerge, giving them clues to help the spirit move on and/or protect anyone from being hurt by them. In series 2, that protagonist is Ellie. She shares a flat in the building with Max, Kiera, and Dan.

In this episode, Ellie’s visions show her a mutilated priest. She and Max search for answers at a nearby church, not realizing Bedlam houses an old chapel. This is the staging ground for a troubled young man named Liam to “[conduct] the rite of blasphemy” with his two reluctant friends in tow. Elsewhere, Dan juggles personal drama with both Kiera and the landlord Warren (who has some involvement in the supernatural goings-on in the building.)

We’ll briefly touch on the main cast drama, then move onto the one-off plot that’s our focus today. It’s clear that these flatmates (plus Warren) have super tangled interpersonal lives. There are multiple will-they-won’t-theys, a recently terminated pregnancy, and paternity secrets. Because it’s so close to the end of the series, some of the relationships get shaken up here, and some of the secrets come out. But since I don’t have any of the background on these characters/stories, it doesn’t really matter to me. While Ellie and Max both know about the supernatural stuff and work together to find the priest’s ghost, it seems Kiera and Dan don’t. Kiera is played by Gemma Chan, which is neat to see.

Okay, onto the Ghost of the Week plot, which is where we find Joel Fry. As Liam, he kickstarts all of this. His actual aims are kind of muddled—he thinks conducting his ritual in a purportedly haunted chapel will call forth “evil,” which he hopes to capture on film and put online. He also thinks this will prove God doesn’t exist, though I’m not sure how.

But in a way, it makes sense for his intentions to be confusing. Liam repeatedly expresses sentiments like “I don’t care what people think,” and “I’m not scared!”, presenting himself as equal parts edgy outsider and puckish shit-stirrer. When he and his friends—ex-girlfriend Chanel and her new boyfriend Taylor—see evidence of spookiness afoot, Liam reacts with glee, at one point actually rubbing his hands together as he grins. In truth, though, his speechifying and eagerness to unmask “evil” are rooted in trauma, grief, and misplaced guilt.

It’s an interesting oneshot plot, because while I think the writing feels kind of inconsistent, the episode does draw me into the lives of these three characters. The dynamic between all of them is interesting, and the hints we get about Liam’s personal issues early on is enough to make me want to know more. Liam is still hung up on Chanel and makes the occasional “oh, I think your boyfriend’s scared” dig, but Taylor is genuinely his friend, even if Chanel gets along better with both guys than they do with each other. (Side note: Taylor is played by Sam Anderson, former History Boy and Danny Pink on series 8 of Doctor Who!)

For a guest starring role, Liam gets a lot of focus, so it’s a pretty nice role for Joel Fry. Despite some of the shakiness in the writing, he’s quite compelling to watch here. As Liam shifts from mischievously excited to brashly defiant to quietly needy, Fry deftly navigates everything and keeps it feeling consistent to the character. You can feel the undercurrent of pain beneath his provocation, and as much as he brushes off Chanel and Taylor’s misgivings, it’s clear that he doesn’t want them to leave him here alone.

I want to highlight the opening scene, where Liam breaks into the basement at Bedlam, exploring until he finds the chapel. Although it briefly had me worried that Fry’s character was going to die in his introductory scene—investigating an old haunted hospital on his own, and before the credits, no less!—the performance here is so good. Because Fry has such strong nonverbal acting skills, he keeps your attention without any dialogue. As Liam pokes around, alternately curious and irreverent, we’re given a good sense of this character before he ever speaks his first line.

Also, I believe he does a brief Q impression in the middle of the episode? Add it to Fry’s miniature David Bowie and Mr. Spock impressions from White Van Man!

Accent Watch

London, I think. I’m realizing that a lot of Fry’s accent work has a pretty light touch, rarely more than a few shades away from his own accent. That can sometimes make it harder for me to identify if he’s putting one on or just using his regular voice.

Recommend?

In General – A soft maybe. I was definitely more interested in the Ghost of the Week plot than any ongoing arc stuff, but it might work better in context.

Joel Fry – I think so. Fry does a really nice job as Liam, and there’s a surprising amount of meat on this bone.

Warnings

Violence (including references to child abuse,) disturbing images, strong thematic elements, sexual references, and drinking/drug use.

Y tu Luna también: Pan y circo: Season 1, Episode 7 – “Looking Ourselves in the Mirror: Identity and Racism” (2020)

The last episode of season 1. Like episode 6, it was particularly interesting to look at this topic from a Mexican perspective. However, I do think they could’ve covered certain aspects of it in greater depth. Onto the dinner conversation!

• I love this analogy from the coordinator of a non-profit group – “Identity is like a garment that carries Mexicanness. Then you take it off and you realize that everybody can have a different one.”
• A linguist explores the concept of identity by pointing out that everyone at the table—everyone in the world—is an Earthling, “however, that isn’t part of our identity. Because there’s no contrast” – She goes on to say that Earthling identity, Earth culture/books/food/etc. would take on a much greater meaning if we were invaded and oppressed by an alien race.
• I really like this remark from a journalist – “It makes a lot of sense to me to have an identity associated with the land. Because culture has a lot to do with geography, with climate, with the things you eat, with the produce that comes out of your garden. On the other hand, national identities, to me, as an indigenous person, generate conflict. I have a Chilean passport because of a historical accident.”
• A researcher discusses some of the reasons behind the denial of racism in Mexico – “They say, ‘How can we as Mexicans be racist if we are the product of two races? We can’t be racist.’ That’s one. The other argument is, ‘In Mexico there are no people of African descent.’ There is a very strong Afro presence which was erased to build a national identity based on the indigenous and the Spanish, but also in a hierarchical position.”
• This is where I think the episode drops the ball – While immediately following these comments, there’s a montage of footage, news clips, and snippets of interviews involving Afro-Latinos, no one at the table is speaking to that experience on a personal level. We see people talking about Afro-Latinos, but no one really talking as an Afro-Latino, which is especially stark when they’re brought up in the context of erasure.
• An architect for the controversial Mayan Train project, which is planned to go through indigenous communities, winds up being the unofficial “heel” of the table – Multiple other guests take him to task over the project, and at one point, he accuses the indigenous journalist of being “racist” against him because the journalist doesn’t include him, a mixed-race man, in his observations about indigenous folks around the table.
• This is a good quote from the linguist – “The call for integration to us has always been an alarm. Because it means precisely to disenfranchise the population under a brutal racist system with public resources from the state to reach this point.”
• I like this detail that the chef shares with Diego Luna, talking about his process when he cooks in different places – “I never take anything prepared, I never take anything from my place. I go to the place where I’m going to cook with what’s there.”
• A renowned soprano from an indigenous community talks about how much it means to her to sing songs in various indigenous languages (six languages, as Luna points out!) – “Those of us who have and speak a language say to you, ‘Speak your language, learn a language.’ Because we are losing them, because we have to rescue what our ancestors spoke, right?”
• This is an excellent quote from the linguist about projects like the Mayan Train – “It seems to me there’s a ‘we think this is good for you’ kind of idea here. I find the directionality quite disturbing. Let’s assume good faith. But even if there were good faith, we have been an impoverished population, but there are also other forms of validation that go beyond paper money.”

This is another episode where Diego Luna takes a lighter role during the discussion, making room for other voices. He introduces some topics, like the Mayan Train, but he mostly just reacts to what the guests say. As usual, he has some nice interactions with the chef before the meal.

I also like his introductory voiceover here. I’m going to quote it in full:

“Sometimes we are all those who were born in the territory we call Mexico. Although sometimes, we are the inhabitants of a region or simply a city or an indigenous town. Other times we are the ones who share certain physical traits, because ‘we’ always implies an outsider, an ‘other. And that can lead to racism, a disease with terrible consequences, consequences that we can see all over the world.”