Other Doctor Lives: W1A: Series 1, Episode 2 (2014)

*Spoilers from episode 1*

Episode 2 follows pretty directly from the pilot. I’m not sure if we’ll see more serialized plots on W1A, with multiple episodes addressing the same crises—it’s certainly possible, especially because W1A has shorter seasons than Twenty Twelve—or if they just kicked off the series with something bigger. At any rate, this is an entertaining continuation.

In episode 1, right as Hugh was dealing with the guy accusing the BBC of anti-West Country bias, a BBC news anchor came forward with allegations of her own—she too cited anti-West Country attitudes, along with sexism and ageism, as the reasons she hasn’t advanced in her career. Now Hugh is heading up to Manchester by train to discuss the issue on a women’s radio program. Back in London, Britain’s Tastiest Village has hit a snag: despite a lackluster lunch meeting last episode, a new celebrity host is on board…only for the original host to suddenly announce she’s available after all.

Our character of the week is Lucy Freeman, played by Nina Sosanya. She’s one of the producers for Britain’s Tastiest Village and possibly one of the more competent people in the building. Her cohort is the one who never actually confirmed to the original host, Claire, that they were going to have to move ahead with someone else, a fact Lucy didn’t know until Claire got in contact to say she moved her schedule around. While the new host, Carol, isn’t yet contracted, Lucy is bothered by how readily everyone is to discard her in favor of Claire, and Lucy is adamant that she’s not the one left holding the bag here. So naturally, the higher ups leave her to twist in the wind.

Another reveal from the end of episode 1 is that the BBC has decided to reunite the “dream team” from the Olympics to handle the unfolding PR crisis over the bias claims. In other words, they’ve brought in Siobhan. Much to Ian’s dismay, she accompanies him and another member of the senior team to Manchester, pretty immediately making things worse. They’re hoping to deflect from the sexism/ageism allegations by announcing Carol as the cohost of Britain’s Tastiest Village, only for them to discover (while Ian is on air) about the whole Claire-Carol kerfuffle.

I got a kick out of this exchange between Ian and Siobhan:

SIOBHAN: “So, so you totally are on Twitter.” 

Ian: “What?” 

SIOBHAN: “As of now, you have 14,000 followers.” 

IAN: “What???”

The humor in David Tennant’s narration often boils down to one of two techniques: absurd details and amusing phrasing. The show uses more of the latter approach today:

• “Meanwhile, 180 miles south at New Broadcasting House in London, other events are happening, but at exactly the same time.”
• “For various reasons, whether they know it yet or not, this is going to be a decisive meeting for all those involved, especially for those who don’t know it yet.”

Joel Fry-days: Alice and Steve: Season 1, Episode 5 (2026)

*Spoilers for episode 4*

Oh man, here we are at the penultimate episode! I had definite misgivings about this show early on, but it’s really come around for me. It features continually excellent performances from Joel Fry, so that obviously helps, but beyond that, I’m liking the show itself too. Let’s get into it!

First, the main spoilers from episode 4. Alice had been staying with her mom while Daniel needed space, and at her mom’s urging, she shows up at the house to win him back. It’s while Marni’s there, which of course doesn’t help. It all ends in a pretty devastating argument between them. Meanwhile, Izzy gets some concerning medical news and calls Steve to go with her to the doctor, despite their breakup at the start of the episode. It turns out her tests came back normal, with one notable exception: she’s pregnant.

Izzy and Steve invite Alice and Daniel to a fancy restaurant, where they drop the baby bombshell. After an initial outburst, Alice fights a losing battle to hold back her emotional reaction and act happy for Izzy.

Our character of the week is Dom, played by Tyrese Eaton-Dyce. While Alice had already had Izzy when she and Daniel met, Dom is the child that they had together. He gets less focus than Alice, Izzy, and Daniel. In this episode, he struggles to let himself enjoy spending time with his crush Rome when he’s stressed over everything that’s going on with his family.

For a while, I thought this was going to be a bottle episode, set entirely in the restaurant. But this only makes up the first half of the episode, with the second half devoted to various character combinations—largely Alice/Daniel and Izzy/Steve, though there’s also a bit of Dom/Rome, with the mother-daughter relationship between Alice and Izzy looming large even when they’re not sharing the screen together.

In some episodes, it’s felt like Alice’s anger/desire to punish Steve has outweighed her love/concern for Izzy, but here, her relationship with Izzy comes to the forefront. It feels like this is the first time in the series that we’ve seen Alice make a genuine effort to put someone else’s feelings first, even if that’s incredibly hard for her and she’s only semi-successful. She stands up in the middle of the restaurant and shouts for someone to take their drink order, she goes to the bathroom when her “happy” tears are getting out of control, and she reminisces about vaginal tearing. But despite all that, she actually is trying, and there are some good moments between her and Izzy here.

Daniel doesn’t like this turn of events any better than Alice does, but no surprise, he does a much better job of putting a good face on it. He asks after Izzy’s health and assures her it’ll “be lovely to have another little one running around the house.” As for his own reservations, he waits and voices them to Steve when Alice and Izzy are both away from the table. Shoutout to Daniel as the dad who stepped up! Joel Fry plays all of this wonderfully, navigating Daniel’s tension/apprehension but playing nice for Izzy’s sake.

To make matters even more difficult, this whole conversation is happening against the backdrop of the existing friction in Alice and Daniel’s marriage. They’re the first two to arrive at the restaurant, both under the impression that they’re just meeting Izzy, and Alice asks, “Is she parent trapping us?” At first, Daniel smiles along with her joking, but then she starts making light of their fight, which he doesn’t appreciate. So even before Steve and Izzy arrive, things are tense between the two of them, and yet they do still care about each other. There’s a good moment where Daniel sees Alice struggling to cope with the baby news and isn’t sure if he ought to reach out with a comforting gesture.

In the interactions that are just between Alice and Daniel here, there’s a bit of a theme of them starting to reconnect and then getting derailed. Daniel feels Alice doesn’t prioritize their relationship, and she’s not doing a stellar job of convincing him otherwise. Although it’s clear that Alice does want to resolve matters with Daniel, she keeps getting them off track, whether it’s by joking about something he takes seriously or coming in with some brutal honesty that just makes him feel worse. By the end, he’s retreated into his own worst habits—avoidance and a tendency to get a little petty/passive-aggressive.

One more episode to go! Will any of these messy, damaged folks work it out? At this point, I’m not quite sure what “working it out” would look like for them. Guess we’ll see!

Y tu Luna también: Maya and the Three: Episode 4 – “The Skull” (2021)

*The only way to talk about this miniseries involves spoiling the identities of “the three,” and that starts here. This is your official warning.*

I skipped reviewing episode 3, but you should watch it anyway—while episodes 1 and 2 are entertaining and magnificently animated, episode 3 is the one that first made me sit up and go, “Oh, this is really something special.” Those spectacular qualities only continue in episode 4.

The true prophecy Maya uncovered involves one great warrior from each of the four nearby kingdoms coming together to do battle with the gods. She has claimed the title of the little eagle warrior, representing Teca, and in the last episode she found her rooster wizard of Luna Island, a nervous motormouth named Rico. Traveling to the Jungle Lands in search of the great skull warrior, Maya and Rico are confronted with a broken, untrusting archer named Chimi, who’s exactly what they need.

I need to point out once more that, while Maya and the Three does a fine job of including characters with disabilities, that same inclusion isn’t extended to the actors. Chimi, voiced by Stephanie Beatriz, is certainly the most prominent example of this. Chimi has albinism, and she was thrown out of the kingdom as an infant, as those around her feared the curse of “el monstruo blanco.” (Side note: people with albinism have low vision. There isn’t a single acknowledgement of the fact that the greatest archer in the land is most likely legally blind.) She was raised in the jungle by the animals, and as such, she’s more than a little feral. She’s prone to growling, barking, and howling, she often moves on all fours, and she has a habit of sniffing people when she meets them.

At the same time, while Chimi is a girl of few words, she’s perfectly lingual and can speak with stark intensity about the betrayals she’s suffered. When Maya starts to relate her own tale of woe from the first two episodes, Chimi is quick to note that Maya’s gripes ignore everything she’s been blessed with. It’s one of the first experiences that makes Maya reckon, just a little, with the way she’s centered herself and recognize that her life hasn’t been such a struggle after all. And I really like that.

I should also mention that, while Beatriz is of course best known for Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the first projects of hers that come to my mind are this show and Encanto. And from them, I’ve learned that she can absolutely make me cry. The two characters are very different—Mirabel is an eager open book, and Chimi is a deeply-guarded badass—but both are nakedly vulnerable when they break down. Even in voice acting, these scenes are so intimate to witness.

Meanwhile, we also get Rico. After watching this show for the first time, I looked up Allen Maldonado and realized he played Dre’s assistant Curtis on Black-ish. If he was funny on that show, he’s stellar here. Like Chimi, Rico was badly hurt in his formative years, but his trauma manifests in an entirely different way. He plays the clown, constantly talking and cracking jokes, skirting around the fact that his lack of confidence as a wizard isn’t due to any deficit in his abilities—rather, he’s scared of what he’s capable of. Plus, he just gets great lines. During a tense audience with the leader of the Jungle Lands, Maya refers to him as her “insolent partner,” and he awesomely adds, “See? I’m insolent until proven guilty!”

Not a whole lot of Diego Luna/Zatz today. He’s just in one scene, but it’s a good one. While his opinion on Maya has been evolving pretty much from the moment he met her, she’s still understandably stuck on the whole “let me take you to the underworld so Lord Mictlan can sacrifice you” thing. So even as he starts going rogue from the gods, offering to help her instead of capture her, Maya can’t trust it. And yet, you can feel the love/hate vibe they have going on, and it’s really delightful. Their scene in this episode is a great mix of sharpness and softness.

Oh, and in a string of other insults, Maya calls Zatz a “bat hombre,” which tickles me to no end.