Other Doctor Lives / Joel Fry-days: Twenty Twelve: Series 2, Episode 7 – “Loose Ends” (2012)

*Spoilers for episode 6*

The finale of Twenty Twelve doesn’t have much to offer in the way of Joel Fry/Karl, but luckily, we’re not quite through with the character yet. More on that in a bit!

Things are getting down to the wire for the commission. The start of the Games are rapidly approaching, and Ian is eager to take care of all the last-minute details before he hands the reins to the team that will be running the actual Games. Amid that mad scramble, the shortlist for the post-Games director of posterity position is released, which several members of the commission have applied for.

At the eleventh hour, things for the commission are as disaster-prone as ever. The fireworks at the opening ceremony are in danger of triggering Britain’s automatic ground-to-air defense missiles—so, you know, not good! Kay installed slow-charge stations for the fleet of electric cars to ferry athletes around the Olympic Park, but based on the 10-hour charging time, they’re projected to have zero cars available by day two. And Siobhan is auditioning composers for a piece to be played on church bells on the morning the Games start, and let’s just say she’s not finding the cream of the crop.

Some nice David Tennant narration today. Here are my favorite lines of his from the finale:

• Fun bit, in reference to the whole fireworks debacle – “In the last few weeks, a growing conflict of interest between the creative team behind the opening ceremony and the Ministry of Defense has become potentially explosive.”
• “Meanwhile, it’s a different day altogether, and just six days to go until handover” – hee!
• Love this line – “Despite how high the stakes are, Ian knows he has no option now but to keep thinking on his feet until he finds out where it is they’ve taken him.”

For some reason, Siobhan also needs a celebrity for this church bell thing. She’s promised someone on the level of Paul McCartney or Sting, and when she finds out Sting is in Tuscany and doesn’t want to come back for the Olympics, she shouts into her phone, “He can bring his fucking lute! You know, get over it!”

So, since her overly ambitious pitches aren’t available, it’s up to her team to track down a smaller-scale celebrity. This is perhaps the natural progression of the dynamic Siobhan and her team have with Karl, because Karl doesn’t even take part in this meeting despite being in the same room. While Barney and Coco fill Siobhan in on how their respective celebrity hunts went, Karl is sitting in the background, wearing headphones and looking at something on his tablet. It’s not clear if he realizes there’s a meeting going on behind him.

Which is fine with everybody else., Siobhan asks about him as an afterthought once she’s heard from Coco and Barney, but she balks at Coco’s offer to get his attention. “No, no, no, no, no, leave him,” Siobhan insists, adding, “Yeah, that’s like, don’t wanna know,” if he was able to secure his celebrity (who I’ve never heard of but who is evidently an embarrassing choice.)

As such, Joel Fry’s time on Twenty Twelve ends with a bit of a whimper, but it’s not the last we’ve seen of Karl! He also appears on a handful of episodes of the spinoff W1A. I don’t know much about that show. I just know it features some of the Twenty Twelve characters, including Ian and Siobhan (which makes sense, given Karl’s presence,) as well as some new ones, including a character played by Jonathan Bailey. And of course, W1A will also feature narration from David Tennant, so we’ll continue with the Other Doctor Lives posts too!

Still, we’ll wrap up Twenty Twelve, and there will be a bit of a break before moving on to the spin-off. I just found out Joel Fry’s new series Alice and Steve is coming out at the start of June, and I don’t want to drop those reviews into the middle of W1A, so until I’ve finished that show, I’ll pivot to something different for both Joel Fry-days and Other Doctor Lives.

Final thoughts on Twenty Twelve:

Accent Watch

David Tennant – Scottish.

Joel Fry – Southern British English.

Recommend?

In General – A soft maybe. It’s entertaining, but it’s not a knockout.

David Tennant – I don’t know if I would. While Tennant always gets the job done, I’m not sure if it’s worth it just for his narration.

Joel Fry – Yes! I don’t care that he’s only in one-to-two scenes for each of his episodes. Karl is wonderful!

Warnings

Language, smoking, and mild thematic elements.

Other Doctor Lives / Joel Fry-days: Twenty Twelve: Series 2, Episode 6 – “Inclusivity Day” (2012)

*Spoilers from the end of episode 5*

We’re at the penultimate episode of the series and things are ramping up, albeit in a very bureaucratic British way. Matters are coming to a head on several fronts.

So in the last episode, during a security review involving the doctored starter pistols, Ian accidentally got shot in the foot (literally.) Now it’s 24 days until the Olympics, he’s stuck in the hospital, and his boss just poached his PA. Back at the office, the rest of the commission plans for the rapidly-approaching Inclusivity Day while Siobhan’s team partners with a professional footballer to address the lack of interest in women’s football.

One of Ian’s character quirks has been to describe a dismal state of affairs and top it off with, “No, so basically it’s all good,” and we get a lot of that from him here at the hospital. As he struggles to get things done, everyone from the commission who stops by to visit him is mainly there for their own self-interests. I like where the episode takes this storyline, though.

Part of the problem with Inclusivity Day is that the Olympics is also hosting Diversity Day at the same time, so 1) the commission isn’t clear on what the difference is between the two, and 2) some of their ideas for special guests are already occupied appearing at Diversity Day. On top of that, there are arguments over who’s running the morning meeting when Ian isn’t there and Kay’s clashing with Fi is worse than ever. I laughed out loud at this line, from Nick: “If we get this wrong as well, we’re in danger of running out of feet to shoot ourselves in.”

Here’s what we’ve got for David Tennant’s narration today:

• The wording of this cracked me up – “Back over at Perfect Curve, Siobhan Sharpe and her team are about to get creative with the idea of Carey Taylor.”
• I loved this description, when Kay meets with someone on site to discuss the plan for Inclusivity Day – “...And in the spirit of inclusivity, head of legacy Fi Healey has decided to join her, in case anything happens.”

Our character of the week is Coco Lomax, Siobhan’s trend analyst. Played by Sara Pascoe, she’s the last member of Siobhan’s team. While Barney remains at the top of my shitlist, I’m not thrilled with Coco, either. She’s not openly/relentlessly critical of Karl, but she takes part in the whole office’s pattern of excluding him.

In addressing the problem with women’s football, which is opening the Games but has hardly sold any tickets, Ian isn’t confident in Siobhan’s ability to fix it. “For all I know, they’re trying to rebrand it as men’s basketball,” he gripes. “I wouldn’t put it past them.” And to be sure, Siobhan and her team aren’t exactly on top of it. The more they talk, the clearer it is that footballer Carey Taylor is thoroughly unimpressed with their “brilliant” marketing idea.

Thankfully, Barney doesn’t pick apart Karl’s ideas in this episode, but he’s still not having a good time. The theme of Karl’s presence in this episode is very definitely exclusion, and we see that throughout. There’s a whole thing with everyone in the office loving Brazillos—Siobhan tosses one for Barney to catch in his mouth, and after everyone claps for him, he high-fives just Siobhan and Coco. Then when Karl asks for a Brazillo, he leans back and opens his mouth, ready to catch, but Siobhan just pushes the bowl over to him. Even when everyone is meeting Carey, he tries for a high-five and ends up with a handshake. His input is met with silent stares from everybody.

And listen, I’m not saying that Karl is a fantastic PR person who’s being unfairly maligned by his colleagues. I’m saying he’s awkward, anxious, and doesn’t really thrive in the fast-paced atmosphere of a pitch session, but he still doesn’t deserve the way his colleagues treat him. He regularly miscalculates things, jumping in at the wrong time or saying the wrong thing. The women’s football campaign is called “Who’s That Girl?”, and as Coco is explaining the pitch to Carey, Barney chimes in with a singsong,” Who’s that girl?” to punctuate each beat. But when Karl tries to join in, he winds up singsonging, “What are those lips?” to everyone’s bewilderment. (It makes sense in context but is still ridiculous—I laughed so hard.) And I love this moment where Coco assures Carey, “You’re Wayne Rooney, only it’s like, you’re a woman,” and Karl leans in to clarify, “She doesn’t mean that like literally.” Oh, honey!

Joel Fry is great in this role. Even though he’s only in one or two scenes per episode and Karl is a bit of a one-joke character, he’s still both funny and endearing. Justice for Karl!

Y tu Luna también: Narcos: Mexico: Season 2, Episode 4 – “The Big Dig” (2020)

*Episode 3 spoilers.*

And already, we’re nearing the middle of season 2. I don’t know why, but it feels like this show is going by really fast for me. This is a good episode, and Diego Luna is incredible in it.

At the end of the last episode, the DEA got Zuno in custody on American soil, and now he’s ready to name names. As Zuno prepares to testify before a grand jury, Félix knows he’s in jeopardy, along with his government partners and his plan to put pressure on the Colombians. He takes a huge risk to try and protect his operation. Meanwhile, there’s a new tax on the Sinaloans for using Tijuana’s infrastructure, and Isabella has a proposition for Enedina.

I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned Chapo by name, but he’s been a part of the show since early in the first season. For much of the series, his part has benefited from dramatic irony, contrasting what we know about El Chapo with the eager-to-please narco who’s loyal to Félix but frequently the butt of the joke among his friends. But here, we get the start of Chapo making his mark. As I’ve said before, the Sinaloans have had to traffic their share of the cocaine through Tijuana because they’re not on the border, but with the prospect of the new tax cutting into their profits, Chapo brainstorms ways to get around it.

Isabella has been looking to strike out on her own ever since Félix dropped her near the end of season 1. She’s smart enough to know she needs a partner to do that, but so far, everyone is too afraid of retribution from Félix to work with her. It’s interesting to watch her approach Enedina, another woman who’s been tired of being underestimated and dismissed by the men around them. Despite their similar grievances, they’re such different characters, and Enedina isn’t an easy mark. “What’d you expect?” she asks. “Turn my back on our family because we’re both women?” Isabella, equal parts savvy, ambitious, and scorned, replies, “Why not?”

This is an excellent episode for Diego Luna. I feel like Félix is always the most fascinating when his feet are really held to the fire, and with Zuno’s testimony hanging over his head, he’s determined to find a way out. We see him visiting Don Neto in prison, but he’s less than forthcoming with the advice. He tells Félix, “You’ve got all these people around you, but the truth is, you’ve got no one. ‘Cause you chose a bunch of dirtbag lawyers and politicians over your friends.”

I like watching Félix navigate this situation, reaching out to someone he betrayed last season. It feels like a no-brainer that Neto wouldn’t be in a forgiving mood, but for Félix, it kind of makes sense. He’s still working with the government, even though they threw him under the bus with Kiki’s abduction; he hasn’t forgiven them for that, not by any stretch, but he prioritizes what the business needs and puts that over his own anger. One of Félix’s recurring flaws is that he tends to think others will do the same when they frequently don’t.

So without Neto’s help, he’s left to find a solution on his own. Félix is a smart guy, but the Americans are about to have him dead to rights, and it’s going to take a masterful play to get out of that. He comes up with a plan that involves enormous risk and zero room for error. The scenes where he meets with CIA operative Bill Stechner are far and away the strongest in the episode.

A few weeks ago, I talked about Luna’s performance in the season finale and mentioned an earlier post I’d written that goes into his scene with Calderoni in more detail. This is the other big scene included in that post, another instance where Félix backed against the corner with only one card left. I just love watching these scenes, seeing him frantically make his move when there’s no guarantee it’ll work and the consequences of a miscalculation are dire. If anything, he's even more desperate here than he was in the season one finale, in part because Stechner enjoys using his lack of English against him; Stechner provides an interpreter for their conversation but withholds translation at critical moments just to watch Félix squirm. Luna plays this so well, Félix’s fear and panic warring with his determination to make his play.