Y tu Luna también: Pan y circo: Season 2, Episode 1 – “Access to Healthcare” (2021)

“Season 2” is a slight misnomer, because Pan y circo doesn’t really have a full second season. By virtue of the simple fact that it’s a show about people coming together around a dinner table, filmed in 2019 but released in 2020, that made it difficult to move forward with a second season. As such, the show has only filmed three further “special” episodes, two in the fall of 2021 and one in the summer of 2022. This first special is really set in the “new normal” era, which makes for bittersweet viewing these days.

Understandably, the topic for the episode spends a lot of time looking back on the early days of the pandemic, examining the present in-between period of vaccine rollouts, and thinking ahead to the future. Diego Luna and the guests are concerned, not just with addressing inequalities in healthcare access during the pandemic, but with improving healthcare access in all areas of life for generations to come. Here are some highlights from the episode.

• Just generally, it’s striking to see the COVID mitigation strategies and considerations in effect here. In Luna’s opening narration, he stresses the work the show has done to ensure that they can film in the safest format possible, we see people wearing masks, and several guests participate over Zoom instead of attending the dinner. It’s thoughtful and inclusive in a way that we’ve since almost entirely lost
• The episode includes both a chef and a restauranteur, the latter of whom supplies the drinks for the evening – He mixes a cocktail using sake from his restaurant, billing it as “Japanese sake with a Mexican heart.”
• The first Zoom guest, the Mexican ambassador to the U.S., recites a familiar line that makes me want to weep in the present day – “No one is safe here until everyone is safe.” So much for that!
• The ambassador also explains the progress of attempted reforms within the WHO – “We’re trying to clearly establish that public health issues, once they become global, should be considered issues of international safety.”
• I really like this statement from a political scientist – “I’m troubled by this idea that health is only something that allows me to work. Why do I want to be healthy? To be able to work. Otherwise I can’t support my family.”
• A surgeon shares an excellent, succinct quote with the table – “The pandemic has been a triumph of science and the failure of political leadership.”
• One of the developers of the AstraVeneca vaccine, appearing over Zoom, has this to say (again, I weep in the present day) – “First of all, we need to get populations around the world vaccinated. Because we know that if we allow this virus to continue to spread without check in different countries, more mutations will arise, and then those mutant viruses will start to circulate around the world and possibly evade the immunity that we’ve managed to bring about by vaccination—and make things worse for everybody.”
•  An activist in the group discusses the issue of misinformation, noting that Mexico’s traditionally high vaccine uptake has taken a nosedive since the start of the pandemic – “In a country with so much inequality, with so many living in poverty, with no formal education, we need to find a way for everyone, regardless of education level, to come back to the belief that science is good for us. It’s fundamental.”
• A traditional healer contributes over Zoom by looking at the larger systems in the world that impact health – “Capitalism is trying to finish what the colonizers started. Capitalism doesn’t care about death and destruction or if it causes greater poverty.”
• I like this remark from the surgeon – “Even across party lines, we can agree on what we want. We may differ on how, but if you agree on the what, the rest can be worked out.”

Luna does a nice job with his hosting duties here. Again, it’s something of a balm to see him considering the safety and health of his guests, even as it’s disappointing to think about how much we’ve lost in the last few years. As for the dinner conversation, he tells the guests, “The nice thing about eating is that, while we chew, we have to listen. Unlike social media, where everyone yells and no one listens.”

As usual, Luna takes a light hand in directing the conversation, although he has some longer remarks to make at the end of the evening. I enjoy some of his lighter comments. One guest, the director of the Mexican Social Security Institute, takes issue with the prevailing opinion that the government fumbled their pandemic response and urges everyone to ask people in government about the actions they’ve taken. Not missing a beat, Luna responds, “They won’t take our calls.” And when the surgeon repeatedly grades the meal’s courses, giving everything an A, Luna tells him, “I’m going to invite you for every episode.”

Other Doctor Lives / Joel Fry-days: W1A: Series 3, Episode 6 (2017)

*Spoilers from episode 5*

This is the last episode of W1A, although there’s also a short special from 2020 that David Tennant narrated. So I’ve got a bit more for the show with Other Doctor Lives, but this is the end for Joel Fry-days.

The Less is More Initiative strikes again: it’s just come out that Head of Values, Head of Output, and Director of Better and being rolled into one new position. Matt has already cut his losses, so now Ian and Anna are left to decide whether they want to apply for it. To Izzy’s surprise, she learns that Will managed to pull out a last-minute save for the Hugh Grant fiasco. Everything comes to a head, where else? At the BBC Me launch.

Our last character of the week is Fiona Craig, played by Pooky Quesnel. She’s the civil servant who’s been working with the BBC on the contract negotiations. Fiona doesn’t have a very big role in the finale, but she’s at the BBC Me launch with everybody else.

I won’t get into spoilers, but there’s a little of everything quintessentially W1A here. Ian trying to pin things down in a meeting where no one wants to commit to anything. David not realizing he’s just thrown a huge wrench into things and Siobhan offering a very bad idea as a “fix.” Mostly unspoken love triangle stuff between Ian, Anna, and Lucy. A major crisis at a key movement that Ian has to step in and smooth over.

I like how things shake out with Will, Izzy, and Jack. Often, Will’s wins have been completely by accident, but this time, he sets out with a specific plan and it actually pays off. We also get a good full-circle moment for On Your Bike that’s nice to see.

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

• This is how Tennant introduces David making everything worse at the eleventh hour  – “Even though it’s already been a big week at the BBC, for those that haven’t managed to get out of the building yet, it’s just got even bigger.”
• As the characters deal with an unfolding/urgent crisis, this made me smile – “They need to think of something fast, and worse still, something good.”

Karl and the rest of Siobhan’s team are at the BBC Me launch. Ostensibly, they’re there to help run things (I think? they all have their tablets with them,) but more than anything, they wind up serving more of a hype man role. Most of their lines are simply “yay!”, shouted after Siobhan or anyone else says something significant.

As such, Joel Fry doesn’t get to do much for his final episode. It’s an improvement over the Twenty Twelve finale, but not by much. Karl continues his habit of often being a little behind the others, at one point chiming in with a “yay!” when Barney and Coco don’t do it. And when Siobhan’s explaining some plans involving a smoke machine to the execs, Karl adds, “With, like, real smoke.” Oh, Karl!

Okay, last thoughts on the Joel Fry portion of W1A (I’ll do my David Tennant wrap-up next week): 

Accent Watch

Southern British English.

Recommend?

In General – A soft maybe. It’s amusing, but it gets too repetitive for me.

Joel Fry – I would. It can be hard to watch at times when the others are mean to Karl, but he’s always hilarious and endearing to me! 

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.”