Joel Fry-days: Drunk History: UK: Series 1, Episode 1 – “Rob Beckett and James Acaster” (2015)

It was a deep dive on another actor, Andrew Rannells, that led me to watch Drunk History in the first place. That episode was a blast, and I went back to watch the whole series later on—so much fun! So it’s only fitting that Joel Fry is the reason I’m trying out the UK version of the show. This is his first of three episodes, and while he’s quite good in it, I’m not sold on the series yet.

As with its US counterpart, the conceit of the show is that a comedian gets blinding drunk, then tells a historical tale as well as they can. Their narration becomes the soundtrack to a reenactment, with the actors lipsyncing their drunken retelling verbatim. In this episode, we’re treated to “When Henry VIII Met Anne of Cleves,” “Queen Victoria’s Secret Sex Drive,” and “How Scotland Caught the Black Death.”

First, a couple differences from the US show. There doesn’t appear to be an actual host in this series. Each drunk comedian is talking to someone offscreen, but we never see them. Instead, a series narrator briefly introduces each story before the comedian starts telling it. I like the quick tally of how many drinks they’ve had at the start of their segments.

I already knew the bullet points on Anne of Cleves from the musical SIX, and this version of her story hits the same major beats. Told by Rob Beckett, there are some funny bits here. I like the scene where Henry VIII is talking to Oliver Cromwell about his previous failed marriages (divorced—beheaded—died): “And Cromwell’s like, ‘Henry, it’s not your fault!’ And Henry’s like, ‘Well, one of ‘em definitely was.’” I also enjoy Henry’s friend Anthony Brown not having the guts to tell Henry that Anne doesn’t look like her portrait, instead saying, “‘Henry, she’s absolutely quality, mate. You’re gonna love her.’ And then Brown fucks right off!” However, it’s gross that, while Beckett specifically references Anne’s smallpox scars as the issue with her looks, she’s played by a fat guy in a wig and 16th century gown. And I really don’t like the extended sequence of Beckett imagining Brown gagging as he tries to tell Henry about Anne.

Fortunately for me, the Black Death story is the shortest of the bunch, a quick little tag at the end of the episode. It’s narrated by James Acaster, and instead of being dramatized by a cast, his narration is accompanied by simple animation. It’s still horrifically disgusting, though, and it creeps me out. The one bit I enjoy is his description of how the plague is ravaging the English: “Chins falling off. Butts falling off. Nipples—off.”

Kerry Howard tells the Queen Victoria story, where Joel Fry plays Prince Albert to Rebecca Front’s Victoria (Front was Nicola Murray on The Thick of It, so that’s fun.) While I knew a little about Victoria and Albert, I’d never heard speculation that Albert was gay and their nine children were due in part to Victoria being “a raging nympho.” Again, this is a segment with a few fun lines and a fair amount of uncomfortable stuff. I like Howard’s description of the sexual repression of the era, saying, “Ankles were not to be seen. They were like tits.”

Mostly, though, the comedic depiction of Albert’s horror and exhaustion about Victoria’s insatiable sex drive just reminds me of the Pop Culture Detective videos on “Sexual Assault of Men Played for Laughs.” Through a modern lens, we’re able to recognize plenty of sexual violence in arranged marriages between historical monarchs and recognize that it’s effed up, so it doesn’t sit that well for me to hear Howard laughing uproariously at her own jokes when Albert is the one being forced to have sex.

Despite all that baggage and grossness, I do still like Fry’s performance as Albert. He’s a bit hampered by Howard’s narration—he’s lipsyncing her words, of course, but she does different voices for all the characters, which boxes him in more than usual to a specific portrayal of the character—but given the strength of his nonverbal acting, it doesn’t surprise me that he’d do well with this format. His facial expressions and body language are top-notch throughout, making Albert a sweet bundle of nerves who’s caught between a rock and a hard place when the queen of England announces, “I’m gonna have you.”

Here are my favorite parts:

• When one of Albert’s friends asks if he’ll know what he’s doing in the bedroom, Albert replies,  “To be honest, erm, why would I want to go near a woman? [...] It’s like a dragon down there, and I don’t want to touch that dragon.” Fry’s facial expressions are just great here!
• “‘You’re gonna be my wife—I mean, husband.’ And Albert’s like, ‘Er…!’”—Nice physicality here, with Albert nervously taking a drink while looking wide-eyed at Victoria.
• On their wedding night, I like the choice Fry makes to have Albert covering his face with both hands while Victoria is on top of him.

Not the most auspicious start to the series. The US version went on to share lots of cool lesser-known stories from history—more obscure tidbits about famous figures, badass stuff from impressive marginalized folks, etc.—so seeing an opening episode that relies on cheap cross-dressing jokes, “funny” sexual assault, and intense gross-out humor is a disappointment. Fry’s other two episodes are both from series 3, so fingers crossed that the show will be more thematically aligned with its predecessor by then.

Accent Watch

Not applicable—he’s lipsyncing someone else's narration.

Recommend?

In General – No. At this point, the humor is too mean-spirited and gross. I hope it gets better, but either way, this episode definitely bothers me.

Joel Fry – Possibly. Despite the disturbing angle the story takes, Fry’s performance is still good.

Warnings

Strong thematic elements (including jokes about nonconsensual sex,) sexual content, language, smoking/heavy drinking, references to violence, and strong gross-out humor.

Y tu Luna también: Narcos: Mexico: Season 2, Episode 8 – “Se Cayó el Sistema” (2020)

*Episode premise spoilers, which include a couple spoilers from episode 7.*

I feel like I’ve been saying, “This is a great episode for Diego Luna,” for most of this season, but it just keeps being true. It’s a strong episode all around, with some dramatic resolutions to major plots, and when you add Luna’s spectacular performance to the mix, it makes for some damn good television.

In the last episode, Walt met with Acosta and tried to convince him to inform on Félix. But Acosta, as usual, goes his own way, instead giving a tell-all interview to an American newspaper. While he prepares to weather the inevitable storm to come and Amado works to get the new planes ready in time for the monster shipment from Colombia, Félix is occupied with the presidential election. His political allies have made it clear that not just his career and wealth are contingent on their victory, but his freedom as well.

Giving the finger to both Félix and the DEA, spilling cartel dirt to the media and thinking this is a viable path to retirement, is just such an Acosta move. And I find it weirdly touching how concerned the reporter is about him. As he puts everything on the record, the reporter checks in with -+him, pointing out how dangerous this will be for him. In true Acosta fashion, the old trafficker simply says, “Next question.” (Also, it’s depressing that the DEA can’t muster even a scrap of this reporter’s human consideration toward their targets.) And afterwards, it’s interesting to watch the tension build for everyone but Acosta as they wait for the retaliation.

Amado is an interesting character. I wouldn’t say he’s loyal to Félix, because it’s not precisely loyalty. Rather, he’s very diligent. He knows where his bread is buttered, he knows where the danger is, and he’s methodical about doing what needs to be done to stay on Félix’s good side. Even though he thinks it’s nuts that Félix let the Colombians back him into accepting 70 tons of cocaine in a single shipment, he’s damned if he’s going to be the reason the gambit falls through. In any other circumstance, he’d probably be trying to get Acosta to take the target on his back more seriously, but in this episode, he’s meticulously going over each and every plane, ensuring everything is in working order.

Félix’s big plan for the election is as ingenious as it is underhanded. Basically, his idea is to create a dummy computer program to put out poll data. He knows the real votes won’t match his figures, but he knows that this election is a psychological game—if would-be Cardenas voters hear that he’s getting trounced by the PRI in the early results, they’ll get disheartened and won’t come to the polls. And when they stay home, the PRI will then get the votes they need to win outright. As Walt rather condescendingly points out in the narration, “It’s called voter suppression,” although at least he acknowledges that it’s a concept the U.S. is exceedingly familiar with.

At any rate, this is a huge swing for Félix, way out of his wheelhouse. On election day, the fake program he had built needs to stand up to scrutiny from the press, along with Cardenas and his people. Not to mention, Mr. X proved back in season 1 that he’s not exactly God’s strongest soldier when the heat is on. He will absolutely screw things up and then make it Félix’s problem.

I have to repeat, Luna is just fantastic here. Félix currently has two juggernauts breathing down his neck, the PRI and the Colombians, and he knows he can’t afford to slip up with either. Everything he holds is threatened, and his very life is on the line. He spends the whole day rubbing elbows with politicians who desperately need him but resent him for it, and he has to field multiple huge deals at once.

There’s a scene where things are really hitting the fan, and Luna plays Félix’s reaction to the crisis wonderfully. He’s not ready to be counted out, not yet—in the direst moments, he’s still frantically brainstorming—but you can all but physically see his head imploding onscreen as he grapples with the thought that he may not get out of this one. So, so good!

Other Doctor Lives: Royal Wedding (2010)

I wound up enjoying this made-for-TV movie more than I thought I would. While I had a certain idea of what to expect based on the title, it actually goes in quite a different direction. Pretty nice leading role here for Jodie Whittaker. (Side note: the copy I watched was a fairly low-quality video, which I think had the effect of making me feel the film was lower-rent than it actually is. I’m trying to push back on that perception.)

In 1981, a small-town neighborhood in Wales prepares for a street party to celebrate Prince Charles’s wedding to Diana, complete with a potluck, a live DJ, and lookalike contests. Linda’s 15-year-old daughter Tammy is a Diana superfan and the mastermind behind the event, but Linda herself has anything but the royal wedding on her mind. She’s just been laid off from her factory job, and she’s not sure how they’re going to make ends meet—her husband Johnny, with his floundering music career and plethora of “next big thing” schemes, isn’t going to be much help. She’s been having an affair with her boss, who asks her to run away with him. It all comes to a head at the street party.

I’m reminded a little of the new Who story “The Idiot’s Lantern,” which also takes a historic moment for the British monarchy—the coronation of Elizabeth II—and uses it as a backdrop for the personal drama of a working-class family as they watch the event on TV. That episode ends with a street party too! It’s interesting as a thematic tool, with everyone in town eager for Diana’s fairytale wedding while Linda, who’s gotten used to her dreams not panning out, is weighing the few choices she seems to have available to her. Diana is both a glamorous princess in a frilly dress and a powerful woman rising to prominence in the country. Meanwhile, Linda is just one of many women who are being laid off at the factory (because the available jobs need to be “preserved” for the men,) and she’s felt stuck in her dead-end town after getting pregnant at 15. The pomp and circumstance of the royal wedding, juxtaposed with the messy uncertainty of an ordinary woman’s life, makes for a nice contrast. Throw in the dramatic irony of knowing how things turn out for Diana, along with Magaret Thatcher’s role in the economic conditions that are putting Linda in dire straits, and it gets pretty interesting.

I didn’t realize it until I looked on IMDb afterwards, but the movie was written by Abi Morgan, who was the creator of The Hour. This definitely tracks—in both, she does a nice job exploring women leading lives of quiet desperation, whose opportunities have been limited by sexism.

Besides Whittaker, there are two other Who alum in this film. Rebekah Staton, who was in the “Human Nature” / “The Family of Blood” two-parter from series 3, plays Linda’s friend and coworker Beverley. And I was excited to see a baby Jacob Anderson pop up as Wesley, a quiet boy with a crush on Linda’s daughter Tammy. Even better, he spends most of the film dressed as Robert Smith from The Cure (although people keep insisting he’s going for Michael Jackson, because he’s a Black boy in a small Welsh town in the ‘80s.)

As Linda, Jodie Whittaker offers up an interesting lead performance. She’s spent years in a life she feels stuck in, complete with a dead-end job and a husband who doesn’t pull his weight. Her affair has given her pleasure, but it’s only a temporary escape from her frustrations and dissatisfaction. And yet for all that, Linda isn’t resigned to staying where she is. When she’s laid off, Johnny assures her, “Hey, we’ll manage!”, but Linda replies, “I don’t wanna just manage. I wanna do something, you know?” While she might be stuck right now, she doesn’t see that as an inevitability, which I appreciate.

Whittaker does a nice job showing Linda’s inner conflict—her desire for something more/better vs. the things that are keeping her here. A big part of the latter, of course, is her daughter. Linda has a lot of regrets in her life, but Tammy isn’t one of them, even as Linda is anxious to ensure Tammy doesn’t repeat her mistakes. There are some really lovely scenes between the two of them. I like when a late-night talk between them turns into singing as Tammy recalls Linda’s stories about the night she met Johnny, with Whittaker giving us a lovely rendition of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now.” I also really like a moment where Linda finds Tammy upset in the middle of the street party. “Come on, Tam,” she urges gently. “You can’t cry on your big day.” I love that, because all the royal wedding stuff feels a little silly and frivolous to Linda, but she knows how much it means to Tammy and gives that the respect it deserves.

Accent Watch

Welsh.

Recommend?

In General – A soft maybe. It is very “made-for-TV movie,” but I came down on the side of enjoying it.

Jodie Whittaker – I think I would. It’s a decently complex role, and Whittaker does well with it.

Warnings

Language, sexual content/references, drinking/smoking, and thematic elements.