The Thick of It: Series 3, Episode 4 (2009)

The end-of-season election looms throughout series 3, but its presence really starts to be felt here.  In this episode, Peter Mannion and his team pay a visit to DoSAC, getting the lay of the land.  As Nicola’s counterpart in the opposing party, DoSAC will be his if his party gains the majority, as will the non-party civil servants like Terri and Robyn.

 

Which, of course, means it’s the perfect time for an enormous crisis in Nicola’s camp:  a big juicy story involving her family that would ruin her if the media got a hold of it.  But beyond that, it highlights the huge amount of stress and strain the job is putting on her – Malcolm isn’t one to put things on hold so Nicola can take calls from her daughter’s school.  We’ve seen Nicola looking horrified before, as well as furious and why-did-I-say-that regretful, but this is the first time it’s ever looked as if she wants to throw in the towel.

 

Malcolm doesn’t quite know what to make of that.  It’s interesting; he’s described himself as being “so much worse” than a bully, and with his appetite for power and one-upmanship, you’d think that seeing someone else reach their breaking point would be his Christmas.  He’s made no secret of his exasperation with Nicola, and I think he’s probably gotten angrier with her than he ever did with Hugh.  But seeing her so defeated, so deflated, seems to perplex him; it stops him mid-insult, and he winds up making the world’s most awkward attempt to comfort her.  It’s kind of wonderful.

 

As the election gets closer, we’ll be seeing a lot more of the Mannion crew, which is fun because they’re pretty great.  They’re prone to some of the same boneheaded moves and squabbles as the DoSAC characters, but they have enough of their own dynamic that it doesn’t feel like a retread.

 

Stewart Pearson, the opposing party’s spin doctor, is a particularly hilarious character.  I’ve mentioned before that he and Peter clash a lot; while Peter is rather set in his ways, Stewart is all about the “new” conservative party.  He dresses business casual, drinks herbal tea, and talks almost exclusively in buzz words.  “Let’s imagineer the narrative!” he shouts to the rest of the team as they prepare a matrix of their foes in the enemy camp.  But despite seeming like the antithesis of Malcolm, Stewart’s feel-good persona isn’t unflappable.  He knows how to turn nasty, and Peter knows how to needle it out of him.

The Thick of It: Series 3, Episode 3 (2009)

 

Our favorite politicos are out of their element today – as it’s an election year, the prime minister and some of his people, including Nicola, have traveled to a conference for campaigning and speech-giving.  The DoSAC offices have been swapped for a hotel room with intermittent WiFi, and Nicola’s ace in the hole, the “people’s champion” she’s introducing during her speech, is proving to be more trouble than she’s worth. 

 

Everyone is off their game, none more so than Malcolm.  The clock is counting down to speech time, he’s lost his home-field Number 10 advantage, and it seems nothing is in his control.  Try as he might to contain them, critical pieces of information keep popping up on the blogosphere, and he can’t find the leak. 

 

We see Malcolm here at his most frantic and discombobulated.  In this episode, he commits probably his worst unintentional act.  Naturally, Malcolm is a diabolical man with a thing for power, and his gravest sins are always his most calculated, but this is something different.  It’s maybe a bit similar to the mess he makes of things in “The Rise of the Nutters,” but even there he was plotting, even if his plotting was desperate and haphazard.  Here, it’s literally a spur-of-the-moment screw-up, 100% unplanned and immediately regretted, and it’s interesting to see that from the man who’s constantly scheming. 

 

We also meet John Duggan, the staggeringly incompetent press officer who’s supposed to be ensuring the smooth running of the conference.  It’s a shame John only appears in one more episode in the series, because he’s great fun.  Throughout the course of today’s story, he proves to be ignorant about everything (“the nose can’t break; that’s a myth!” he insists) and unable to help with anything (after spending several days at a hotel where he’s meant to be following media coverage of the conference, he still doesn’t know the WiFi password.) 

 

There’s also an amusing little moment with Nicola and Ollie feverishly trying to finish her speech in the hotel.  As Nicola panics and shouts at him, Ollie attempts to buoy his spirits by comparing himself to a West Wing character.  Nice try, Ollie.

The Thick of It: Series 3, Episode 2 (2009)

Nicola’s first week, it turns out, goes even more disastrously than her first day.  On the same day she’s scheduled for a quiet meet-and-greet with the press, she discovers that her department has lost a huge amount of immigration data.  The plan is to play it cool if the press doesn’t know and handle it with aplomb if they do.  That’s the plan.  In practice, however, Nicola demonstrates her truly extraordinary media-ineptness, making an already-dreadful situation infinitely worse.  

 

As you might imagine, this episode is an absolute feast of angry Malcolm.  There’s a stunned I-can’t-believe-the-incompetence anger, an out-of-control flying-off-the-handle anger, and an eerily quiet I-can’t-even-deal-with-you-right-now anger.  It’s no wonder PC went completely gray between series 2 and series 3; even faking that sort of stress and rage must put a lot of strain on your body.

 

Nicola’s time on the show seems to be marked with a bit more of that Ricky Gervais-esque cringe-humor, where the joke hinges on your second-hand embarrassment for the characters, than Hugh’s did.  I’m not sure why, since both of them make some seriously unfortunate mistakes.  I suppose it’s just that Hugh’s gloomy, exhausted reaction to everything was so funny that it canceled out the embarrassment.

 

Still, this episode is a positive riot.  Malcolm has a great meltdown in a car, during which he’s so furious he completely loses his ability to operate his seatbelt.  And there’s a fantastic sequence in the first part of the episode where everyone at DoSAC is trying to figure out whether or not Malcolm knows about the data loss; they’re desperate to know, but they’re terrified of accidentally tipping their hand and ending up on the receiving end of his wrath.

 

I’ll mention Robyn today.  She first popped up in series 2, covering for Terri while she took some time off.  Robyn is a timid civil servant who seems perpetually overwhelmed by everything.  She can’t quite comprehend the idea of the government lying to the press, which makes her a dangerous person to have around the office.  When she’s in a room with Malcolm or Jamie, you can’t shake the image of her as a baby rabbit that’s about to be devoured.

The Thick of It: Series 3, Episode 1 (2009)

It’s reshuffle time again, and DoSAC has a new minister:  Nicola Murray.  Malcolm has to pull a few teeth to get the position filled at all, and Nicola is far enough down the list that he doesn’t know much about her.  By the end of her first day, however, Malcolm has coined the term “omnishambles” just for her.

 

While Hugh Abbot and Simon Foster were ministers cut from the same lugubrious cloth, Nicola is an entirely different sort.  She’s all floral-printed dresses and energetic smiles, eager to get social programs off the ground.  She quickly proves, though, to be chronically bad with people, despite her very obvious efforts to the contrary.  She immediately gets off on the wrong foot with Terri, and Ollie and Glenn’s attempts to ingratiate themselves with her are riddled with awkward moments.

 

And of course, there’s Malcolm.  The two butt heads right from the gate.  Hugh was a minister who generally wanted to be told what to do, but Nicola has her own ideas and doesn’t appreciate Malcolm trying to dictate the less spinnable aspects of her personal life.  Malcolm, naturally, responds to any perceived threat with both barrels blazing, so he sets out to prove who’s really in charge.

 

The show has a different energy with Nicola at the helm of DoSAC, and thus, the humor is somewhat different, but it’s still very funny.  Likewise, the different relationship Malcolm begins developing here with Nicola is a lot of fun.  

 

Jumping back into The Thick of It after watching In the Loop also reemphasizes the fact that Malcolm is not the same in both projects.  They both have the comic rage and insidious talent for turning a phrase, and neither is afraid to get their hands dirty, but The Thick of It Malcolm has a different way about him.  This Malcolm knows that the Mad Sweary Man isn’t the only weapon in his arsenal; he’s got that disarming shark grin that can chat breezily right up until he bites your head off.  There’s that wicked gleam in his eye, because he thrives on the pressure, the confrontations, and – yes – the omnishambles. 

In the Loop (2009, R)

 

I’m putting In the Loop here since, chronologically, this is when it came out in relation to The Thick of It.  However, that’s not to say that it’s a continuation of the episodes that come before it or a preface to the episodes that follow it.  In the Loop very much tells its own story on its own scale.  In fact, most of the Thick of It actors who appear in it play different characters, and the characters who do carry over are extreme enough versions of themselves that the film can hardly be said to take place in the same universe as the show.

 

Since I first saw In the Loop five years ago and only watched The Thick of It recently, I didn’t notice this difference until I saw the film again.  It’s jarring to see the same familiar faces playing different characters with similar jobs – “Wait, Toby?  What happened to Ollie?”  I’m not entirely sure why they did that.  Perhaps because In the Loop operates on a much more international level, crossing the Atlantic more than once, and DoSAC was nowhere near important enough to be involved in its goings-on?  At any rate, it gives the film the effect that, while there’s only one Malcolm and one Jamie, every department has “an Ollie,” “a Terri,” and “a Glenn.”  Seen one, seen ‘em all.

 

The doomed cabinet minister forever eating his words, though, isn’t a doppelganger for Hugh.  Simon Foster, played by Tom Hollander, is a different sort of gutless sad sack, and while he makes the same sort of mistakes that Hugh does, his have much further-reaching consequences.  The film kicks off when, in an interview, Simon states that war in the Middle East is “unforeseeable.”  After having several new ones ripped for not toeing the party lines, Simon over-corrects and finds himself the unwitting spokesman of a pro-war movement.  Ham-fisted slips of the tongue aren’t new for The Thick of It, but this is the first time that anyone’s life is at stake over it.

 

Malcolm is recognizably Malcolm, of course – there’s the swearing, the threats of violence, and the patented Malcolm Tucker Run in two different countries.  Still, the Malcolm here bears some noticeable differences to the Malcolm in the show.  Malcolm’s underlying belief in his party seems to be absent.  When he does less than savory things in this film, there’s no sense that he views them as necessary for the sake of the party.  You get the idea that he literally doesn’t care whether there’s a war or not, and only does the things he does because the PM told him to, and maybe to posture to the Americans and show them what he’s capable of.

 

Still, it’s a great, hilarious film (Malcolm has some tremendous speeches, and there’s a fantastic sequence of Jamie in full mad-dog-off-the-leash mode.)  In a way, it might be better to see it before The Thick of It.  It’s a good way to introduce you to the world that the show deals with, but it’s more polished and self-contained than the show, whose loose, improv style can take a little getting used to.  By watching In the Loop first, you can get hooked by Malcolm and The Thick of It’s brand of humor, so you’re ready to dig into the show.

 

Same rules apply, though:  don’t watch In the Loop unless you’re okay with massive levels of swearing.

The Thick of It: Special – “Spinners and Losers” (2007)

“Spinners and Losers” follows immediately on the heels of “The Rise of the Nutters,” chronicling a frazzled all-nighter at DoSAC and Number 10 spawned by the fallout from the previous special.  Everyone is running around like mad: Ollie is anxious to place himself in the most advantageous spot, Jamie threatens bodily harm to everyone he comes across, and Malcolm is determined to get things back on track after the mess his actions made of things in the last episode.  Tensions are high, and it turns out you really don’t want to encounter a bunch of politicians in the midst of a crisis when they haven’t slept.

 

Malcolm strikes a good balance here.  He was flailing in “The Rise of the Nutters,” causing a lot of trouble for himself, and he works to repair it here.  And yet, he’s not the diabolical mastermind who took on Julius in series 2 either.  Not that he wasn’t amazing there – I still marvel at him in that episode – but what he manages in this long, hectic night is quite impressive and even more fun.  While Malcolm similarly goes on the offensive in some pretty underhanded ways, he’s making up his entire plan as he goes along, weaving and course-correcting every time a new roadblock is thrown up.  

 

Oh, and I kind of love it that Malcolm is a bad but highly successful liar.  I’ve noticed it earlier, but it gets a lot of screentime in this episode.  It’s funny; when he’s lying, everything he says sounds so obviously fake (and he seems for swear a lot less when he’s being untruthful – a huge tell for someone like Malcolm,) but the other characters almost never realize it. 

 

As for other characters, I’ll mention Terri Coverley today.    As the DoSAC director of communications, she’s in charge of fielding calls from the press and setting up media appearances for Hugh.    She has an opinion about everything, which infuriates Hugh, Glenn, and Ollie – in one episode from series 1, they book multiple meeting rooms so she won’t be able to find them and poke holes in their ideas.    Despite her strong involvement, however, she’s quick to call herself a mere cog in the machine when anything goes wrong:  she’s simply a civil servant doing what she’s told.

 

I have to say, when I watched The Thick of It the first time around, I was very surprised to discover that Jamie is only in the first episode of series 2 and this pair of specials.    I’d remembered him from In the Loop and had just assumed he was a major character.    I suppose it’s understandable, since he’s essentially a more extreme version of Malcolm.  Still, it’s a shame he doesn’t come back after this; his colorful threats and unhinged rants are just so entertaining.

 

The Thick of It made one more special in 2007, a short showing the events of “Spinners and Losers” from the side of the opposition.  It’s very funny, but since PC isn’t in it, it won’t be popping up here.

The Thick of It: Special – “The Rise of the Nutters” (2007)

The Thick of It didn’t run a full season in 2007.  Instead, it aired a two-parter of hour-long specials.  The specials mark a shift in the series; while DoSAC and the characters there still receive plenty of screentime, Malcolm begins taking on a much more pivotal role in terms of storylines.  From here on out, we spend a lot more time in Malcolm’s world, viewing things from his perspective.  So, I’ve added “Starring Role” to the tags for The Thick of It, starting with this episode; I made that tag for The Love Child, the second day of Capaldi Fall, and this is my first chance to use it again!

 

The first special opens on Malcolm’s concerns about the extent of his authority.  We know from series 2 that this is a sticking point with him, and in “The Rise of the Nutters,” he finds himself suddenly out of the loop.  As director of communications, all media appearances within the party are supposed to be run by him, but more and more decisions seem to be getting made without his knowledge.  Julius is better informed than he is, and you can imagine how well that goes over.

 

Furthermore, the prime minister has announced that he’ll be resigning within the year.  (In British politics, prime ministers don’t really have “terms.”  The party in power is the one with a majority in the House of Commons, and their party leader is made prime minister.  So if the PM resign from their post while their party is still in power, a new leader is appointed.)  This means that the supporters of the next most likely PM, derisively called “nutters” by the current cabinet, have been coming out of the woodwork.  Though Malcolm has no respect for them, he knows that they’ll be steering the ship before long, and he’s anxious to know that he’ll have enough time to make the necessary alliances to keep his place when the regime changes.

 

Malcolm is both relentless and ruthless when it comes to protecting his interests, but things get out of hand in this special.  We see that his need for control has the potential to be his undoing; when it looks like he may be put in a precarious position, he panics and winds up torching a few bridges that might have been better left unburned.

 

There’s also a completely fabulous subplot involving Malcolm and Jamie babysitting a visiting “nutter” junior minister who turns out to be utterly unprepared for media appearances.  I mention it because 1) it’s flat-out hilarious, and 2) it gives us one of my favorite non-sweary Malcolm quotes of all time.  Upon seeing the minister’s twitchy TV interview full of nervous gestures, Malcolm likens him to “a sweaty octopus trying to unhook a bra.”  There’s only one Malcolm Tucker; I love it.

 

We also get our first real look at Hugh’s counterpart in the opposing party, Peter Mannion.  I enjoy Peter – he’s a bit of an old-school politician trying to acclimate to the new, “hip” image of the conservative party.  While trying to just get on with his job, he’s constantly butting heads with his side’s spin doctor, who thinks ties and tucked-in shirts are old-fogey moves that went out with the 80s. 

The Thick of It: Series 2, Episode 3 (2005)

Here we are at the series 2 finale already.  Yesterday’s episode saw Malcolm launching an attack to save his job and protect the party he believes in.  Today, we see the depths to which Hugh will go to save his job, and his own beliefs are swiftly on the chopping job.

 

Hugh has been tasked with promoting a bill to close schools for SPED children and mainstream them instead, a bill he’s firmly against.  As he says, it’s “the one thing” in his job that he really feels strongly about, largely because Glenn Cullen, his advisor and old friend, has a child who benefited greatly from special education.  Glenn understands that Hugh’s hands are tied, but when he insists that Hugh do whatever he has to do, he doesn’t realize the license Hugh will take with it.  Things get ugly, and while the episode is still very funny, there are moments that are hard to watch.

 

A little more about Glenn – he and Hugh have been in the political trenches together for years.  Like I said, they’re old friends, but while Glenn can usually get away with saying things that the rest of Hugh’s staff can’t, the power differential between them is always present, never more so than here.  He would call himself experienced, while Ollie would argue that he’s verging on obsolete.  Generally, he seems to be the least two-faced person at the department (which, since the reshuffle, is now the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship, a.k.a. DoSAC.)  Not that he doesn’t look out for himself when the chips are down, but he’s more loyal and less opportunistic than a lot of other characters on the show.

 

After yesterday’s feast of good material for Malcolm, he has less to do here.  He mostly sticks to playing the government bogeyman – Hugh literally tries to hide from him at one point.  DoSAC has moved to a new building after the reshuffle, housing several other departments, and plenty of humor is mined from the fact that Malcolm now has four ministers to shout at in the same building.

The Thick of It: Series 2, Episode 2 (2005)

 

The pressure is on in this episode as all the characters prepare for a cabinet reshuffle.  Hugh is thrown into a panic when he finds out that the prime minister’s wife doesn’t “click” with him, and he desperately attempts to raise his stock.  He knows that, when the dust settles, he’d like to at least keep his position at DoSA if not move to a more desirable department.

 

Malcolm feels his own position threatened by the character I’ll mention today:  Julius Nicholson, a former business big shot who’s become an MP and gained the ear of the prime minister.  Julius isn’t a regular character, but he pops in from time to time as a nemesis for Malcolm.  As such, he’s most of the things that Malcolm can’t stand.  He’s buttoned-up and decorous, more than a bit of a snob.  He has all sorts of big ideas about maximizing the efficiency of government, approaching it like he would a business, and he has a rather firm stance on coarse language in the workplace.

 

Malcolm would dislike Julius anyway for his pretentious elitism, but it goes deeper than that.  In his mind, Julius is little better than a delusional child who’s been, by some dire misstep, been given power to wield over policies and cabinet structure.  Because his background is in business, he doesn’t understand what it’s really like on the frontlines, so to speak, and that one-two punch of power and ignorance make him dangerous.  Everyone who knows government knows he’s wrong, but their jobs depend on doing what he tells them to.

 

I think here is where we get our first glimpse of how truly protective Malcolm is of his party.  It’s true that Julius’s rising star threatens his hard-won position, and Malcolm’s sense of self-preservation is definitely in play – we see his response to being backed into a corner, and Malcolm knows how to go for the jugular in the most clever, concise way.  But more than that, he’s afraid of the damage Julius would do to the party if he gains any more control, and that’s a major part of the reason Julius winds up in his crosshairs.

 

I mentioned Malcolm’s attack plan in the above paragraph, and I just have to say, it’s stunning.  In a single scene, PC takes Malcolm from a frantic man on the defensive, to a seasoned general with an eye for tactics, to a confirmed alpha quietly confident in his own victory.  It’s a fantastic scene, and PC is great in it.

The Thick of It: Series 2, Episode 1 (2005)

 

You’ll notice that series 2 of The Thick of It started the same year that series 1 did.  The show premiered in the spring of 2005, with series 2 beginning in that fall.  In some circles, the two are lumped into a single season, but I’ll stick with IMDb’s nomenclature, which places this episode in series 2.

 

This is the first time we see Malcolm away from DoSA for any significant period of time.  While Hugh is off visiting some constituents and (predictably) making a mess of things, Ollie is invited to Number 10 to spend the week working under Malcolm.  His young, ladder-climbing heart is thrilled at the thought that he’s been cherry-picked by the big boys for his special skills, but it turns out that it’s nothing so flattering.  Word has gotten around that Ollie slept with a member of the opposing party, and Malcolm has given him a desk and a phone for the express purpose of calling his girlfriend to glean intel.

 

Malcolm naturally spends plenty of time brow-beating and menacing Ollie, though he delegates a fair amount of it, but we also see a lot of Malcolm in his element ripping new ones into other ministers and civil servants.  There’s also a great scene of Malcolm bargaining with a pair of news editors, and Hugh coins a new adjective, “Malchiavellian,” to describe Malcolm’s personal brand of amoral ingenuity.

 

Additionally, this episode introduces my second favorite character on the show:  Jamie, Number 10’s senior press officer.  The joke, that he’s just like Malcolm but even worse, is maybe a bit obvious, but Paul Higgins plays it to perfection.  While being screamed at by Malcolm would be intimidating and mortifying, Jamie would actually make you fear for your safety.  Ollie initially believes him to be “the nice Scot,” but he soon finds that Malcolm likes using Jamie as an attack dog he sets loose on those who displease him.  In a lot of Ollie’s scenes, we see Jamie in the background berating, threatening, and sometimes manhandling his assorted peons.

 

Essentially, Jamie functions like Malcolm’s id, more unhinged and less calculated than the man himself.  He and Malcolm speak the same political language and follow the same by-any-means philosophy.  And more than anything, when they’re together, you can see how much fun they’re both having.  Whether it’s Jamie screaming threats to cut off someone’s ears or Malcolm grinning at the prospect of menacing some BBC News plebs, they both thrive on calamity.  They’re in their element when they’re surrounded by chaos and they have an enormous disaster to fix.  In a way, they remind me of those organisms that can only live at the bottom of the sea, amidst crushing pressure and sulfur-spewing volcanoes. 

The Thick of It: Series 1, Episode 3 (2005)

Things go predictably pear-shaped in the series 1 finale (yes, you heard that right – complain all you want about Sherlock’s short seasons, the entire first season of The Thick of It was as long as a single Sherlock episode.)  Hugh, who’s been successfully pushing a housing bill through Parliament, hits a snag of personal scandal.  When you’re trying to reform housing, it turns out that having a second, largely unused property is a no-no.  Everyone as DoSA waits with baited breath to see if a conspiracy “to not sell a two-bedroom flat” will be deemed a sackable offense.

 

What can I say?  There’s an utterly ludicrous mega-scandal, patented The Thick of It panicking at its best, and a low-key scene of nervous biscuit-eating that shouldn’t be nearly as funny as it is.  We also get our first glimpse of Sam, Malcolm’s PA.  Sam is a character used sparingly throughout the series, but I really like her inclusion, because Malcolm seems to genuinely like her and vice versa.  It’s weird to see someone that he’s never tried to reduce to tears.

 

Speaking of Malcolm, PC has some fine material here.  He’s upped the ante from the pilot – rather than simply inform a minister that they’ve resigned, he’s here tasked with convincing a minister why it’d be a good career move to resign.  It reminds me a bit of the scene from Fortysomething where Pilfrey tells a deceased patient’s grieving loved one that dying was the most cost-effective option.  But while Pilfrey is a snake, Malcolm is a crocodile:  keeping even-keeled and quiet just long enough that you’re off your guard when he goes in for the kill.

 

Episode 3 also showcases PC’s great physical comedy with his patented Malcolm Tucker Run.  When he finds out Hugh is in the middle of a potentially-disastrous interview, Malcolm races full pelt from Number 10 to DoSA, careening around corners and demanding to know where Hugh has disappeared to.  It’s a gloriously funny scene to watch, and it should neatly allay any concerns that PC isn’t up to the physical demands of playing the Doctor; the man has energy in spades.

 

I highlighted Hugh yesterday, so I’ll spend a little time on another character today – since we’ll be on The Thick of It for a while, you might as well get to know who the non-Malcolms are.  Ollie Reeder is one of Hugh’s advisors, a young, standard-issue Oxbridge politico.  He’s fresh-faced, prone to ill-timed/awkward jokes, and not nearly as on top of things as he thinks he is.  Ollie is also probably the most opportunistic person at DoSA, maybe on the show entirely.  He’s quick to cozy up to anyone he thinks could help him get ahead, and he doesn’t have too many qualms about throwing others under the bus.

The Thick of It: Series 1, Episode 2 (2005)

When a journalist prints a slew of unflattering remarks about Hugh, Malcolm prepares to let slip the dogs of war.  Assuring Hugh that the prime minister is behind him all the way, the man behind the Number 10 media curtain arranges retaliatory press pieces and does everything in his power to make the hopelessly-out-of-touch Hugh seem “clued up.”  Of course, Hugh and his team decide to do their part to combat the article as well.  It’s only a matter of time before they’ve made the situation infinitely worse.

 

The Thick of It, however, doesn’t divide its characters neatly according to competence.  The pilot gave the impression that the show would be “the terrifying, always-right Malcolm cleans up everyone else’s messes,” and don’t get me wrong, that will be some well-trod territory by the time we’re done here.  But Malcolm gets his own share of the screw-ups in episode 2, and it’s not exactly inconsequential.  I like that; he’s much smarter than most of the people he interacts with, and he often comes out on top, but he’s not bulletproof.  It’s an important shade to his character.

 

This is a good episode for PC.  Malcolm is terrific as he quizzes Hugh on modern pop culture, getting more and more incredulous as Hugh reveals the depths of his cluelessness.  And I love the moment when Malcolm realizes how badly he’s stepped in it – you get the sense that, in his head, he’s giving himself the same sort of abusive tirade he regularly uses on cabinet ministers and their staff.

 

This is also the episode that cements my undying approval of Hugh as a character.  I suppose, in a way, he’s similar to Toby from The Office, or even Ted from Scrubs – a dully lugubrious sad-sack.  It’s done so subtly and slyly, though.  One of my favorite Hugh moments ever is when he tells a colleague that he didn’t go to bed because he didn’t think it was worth taking his trousers off.  He’s just such a defeated Eeyore of a man, and I love it.

 

Plus, he references Mr. Gradgrind from Hard Times!  (On a side note, how great is British comedy?)  In an episode about how behind-the-times he is, pop-culture-wise, references to lesser-known Dickens characters are that much more apt.

The Thick of It: Series 1, Episode 1 (2005)

I’ve decided to get started with my reviews of The Thick of It.  I didn’t want to save it for last, and I figured, thematically, it’d be better to do it earlier rather than later.  Give the Christmas special a wide berth.  Plus, it’s just so much fun.  Are we ready to begin?

 

I’ve heard The Thick of It described as The Office meets The West Wing, and that seems fairly apt to me.  The series wades through the mess, mayhem, and mudslinging of the British political machine, focusing specifically on the drab little Department of Social Affairs (DoSA for short.)  I really enjoy it, because the characters are continually getting themselves into teeth-gnashing levels of screwed, but it’s almost always over the most mundane things, which makes the intensely-frenzied reactions to the various “scandals” that much more amusing.

 

Case in point:  in episode 1, we meet Hugh, the browbeaten cabinet minister who has the misfortune to be the face of DoSA.  Thanks to a series of mistaken assumptions and crossed lines of communication, Hugh and his staff find themselves hurtling down the road toward a press conference with absolutely nothing to announce.  Their frantic attempts to dream up a free, non-offensive, universally-popular initiative are absolute gold.

 

Now, after teasing Malcolm Tucker in assorted posts, let’s finally talk about him.  PC’s most high-profile role pre-Who, Malcolm is the government’s spin doctor.  In essence, his job is to make sure any and all information reaching the press is Number-10-approved, mopping up any flubs along the way.  In practice, he’s the bogeyman that cabinet ministers fear – a shrewd political animal with a knack for cascading bouts of profanity-laced abuse.  

 

The pilot introduces Malcolm handily.  Whether he’s informing a minister that he (the minister) has just resigned or explaining to Hugh the important difference between “should” and “yes,” he’s a force of nature.  The man gets things done, and he’s not terribly bothered about things like feasibility, conventions, or actual truth.  A fabulous first look at a magnificent character.

 

Accent Watch

 

Malcolm is very much the Angry Scotsman.

 

Recommend?

 

In General – Yes.  It’s ridiculously funny, and despite the strong Office vibe, it somehow manages to avoid those squirmingly-uncomfortable Ricky Gervais cringe-humor moments.

 

PC-wise – Absolutely.  PC is commanding and hilarious, and he has excellent material to work.

 

Warning

 

Here’s the rub:  do not, repeat, do not watch The Thick of It unless you’re okay with copious amounts of profanity.  We’re talking f-words flying fast and furious, multiple uses of the c-word, and inventive sexual insults, among other things.

The Fifth Estate (2013, R)

It’s a Capaldi Fall field trip today!  I’ve just returned from my friendly neighborhood multiplex, where I saw PC on the big screen in The Fifth Estate.  No doubt you’ve seen the trailer dozens of times in recent weeks, like I have; I must say, I was a little unsure about Benedict Cumberbatch’s Julian Assange, but seeing the whole performance in context, he’s extremely good.

 

The Fifth Estate is, of course, the story of WikiLeaks.  Actually, because the film is based on Daniel’s Berg book, it tells Daniel’s story more so than Julian’s.  Daniel is the central character, the tech wizard wiling away his days in a drab German office until the charismatic Julian draws him into the thrilling life of hacktivism.  We watch Daniel throw himself into the work, but gradually become disillusioned with some of Julian’s methods and ideals.

 

PC plays Alan Rusbridger, editor of the U.K. newspaper The Guardian.  The paper becomes aware of WikiLeaks early in its rise and helps to organize the international media coalition that shines the spotlight on its most prominent leaks – chiefly, the Afghan war logs and the diplomatic cables.  There’s an uneasy mixture of feelings behind the alliance.  You have a print media outlet desperate to stay relevant in a changing world of information, being offered colossal scoops on a silver platter.  On the other hand, you have a free-thinking maverick who doesn’t play well with others and may prove unmanageable if his profile gets any more public.

 

You may have noticed that I’m talking about The Guardian rather than Alan specifically.  That’s because most of this aspect of the story is shouldered by investigative journalist Nick Davies.  Alan is the man in charge, so he’s the one ultimately making the decisions, but Nick is the one interacting with Julian and Daniel and getting the lion’s share of the screentime.  As such, we don’t know much about who Alan is apart from his job and the dilemma that comes with it.

 

The always-great Laura Linney is in this film as well.  Also, the Guardian plot features David Thewlis (Lupin from Harry Potter) and Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey’s Matthew Crawley.)  And, obviously, Benedict Cumberbatch – he might have the slightest bit of screentime here.

 

Accent Watch

 

A very nice-sounding RP – well done, PC.

 

Recommend?

 

In General – A cautious yes.  Overall, I think the film isn’t as good as its cast or the story it’s telling.  The start is pretty slow and scattered.  Once they start gearing up for the Afghan war logs, however, it starts to feel more cohesive and cinematic.

 

PC-wise – Not necessarily.  Pretty small role, not much to it.

 

Warnings

 

Sexual content, some language, and brief scenes of violence.

Shooting Fish (1997, PG)

I hadn’t heard more than middling things about Shooting Fish, so I assumed it’d be one of those films that I politely see once for a favorite actor, enjoying their scenes and putting in my time for the rest of it (see Weisz, Rachel: Envy.)  However, this turned out to be a fun little film with some engaging characters and amusing twists.

 

Dylan and Jez are two young men who take a delight in their gainful self-employment as con artists.  With Dylan’s savoir faire and Jez’s technological know-how, they busk their way from grift to grift.  Some of their cons are really fun and inventive, and I like their deep/dysfunctional friendship.  Naturally, this movie shakes up their status quo, and the monkey wrench thrown into the works is Georgie, a lovely young woman they both have their eye on (I know – never would’ve guessed, right?)  So yes, parts of it are predictable or silly, but overall, it’s great to watch Dylan and Jez get into scrapes just to see how they’ll wriggle their way out of it.

 

PC plays Mr. Gilzean, one of many potential marks for the duo.  He seems to make his living evaluating new inventions.  Dylan and Jez come to him with an impressive, if entirely ersatz, breakthrough that the stuns the seen-it-all weariness right out of him.

 

It’s a small role – he’s not in more than a couple of scenes – and Mr. Gilzean doesn’t really have much characterization to speak of.  However, the sequence of Dylan and Jez trying to con him is very funny and enjoyable.

 

A number of familiar faces in this film.  Dylan is played by Dan Futterman, who I’ll always remember as the son in The Birdcage, and Kate Beckinsale plays George.  Additionally, Ralph Ineson (Finchy from the British Office) and Phyllis Logan (Downton Abbey’s Mrs. Hughes) both appear in small roles.

 

Accent Watch

 

Scottish.

 

Recommend?

 

In General – I think so.  It’s creative and a little kooky, and plenty of fun.

 

PC-wise – Not necessarily.  Pretty small role.

 

Warnings

 

A little swearing and general criminal activity.

The Vicar of Dibley: Series 2, Episode 2 - “The Christmas Lunch Incident” (1996)

One more offering from The Vicar of Dibley.  I quite enjoyed this one as well.  The premise is pretty sitcommy – Geraldine gets invited to multiple Christmas lunches from different parishioners and doesn't have the heart to turn any of them down – but overall, it's fun.  There are some fun twists and good gags as she valiantly struggles through course after course.

 

After seeing a second episode, the characters are differentiating themselves more.  The parishioners aren't all the same flavor of West Country bumpkins – there's a lot of variety, which allows for more kinds of humor.

 

I won't get into how PC comes into play exactly – it's a fun sequence, and I don't want to spoil it.  I will say that I like the way Geraldine just melts for him.  It's so cute, and it's nice to see him portrayed as an obvious catch.

 

Oh, and for some reason, though, he's now called Tristram instead of Tristan.  Apparently Richard Curtis isn't a stickler for continuity!  

 

Now, for the final Vicar of Dibley round-up.

 

Accent Watch

 

Okay, so I know he's not using his own accent.  Absolutely not.  It sure sounds like RP to me, but Geraldine mentions him being Scottish again in “The Christmas Lunch Incident.”  If I really listen, I can maybe hear it a little bit in the 'OO's, but that's being pretty generous.  I give up.

 

Recommend?

 

In General – Yeah.  While it would definitely feel out of place next to modern single-camera sitcoms, it's still very funny, and I like a lot of the characters.  Touché, Netflix – you were right.

 

PC-wise – Maybe.  Like I said yesterday, it's good fun, and it makes for an enjoyable way to spend a bit of time.

 

Warnings

 

Nothing further to report.