Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Favorite Characters: Jamie MacDonald (The Thick of It)


(The picture is actually from In the Loop - pretty much everything I could find from The Thick of It were gifs with dialogue printed on them.)

This may feel like a bit of a retread, since I talked a fair amount about Jamie in The Thick of It posts during the Capaldi Fall days, but I figured he’s entertaining enough to warrant a write-up of his own.  I’ve also previously mentioned my appreciation for “narrative wildcards,” loose-cannon characters who are good at shaking things up (Dead Like Me’s Mason and, more recently, The Goldfinch’s Boris are two other such characters I’ve reviewed on the blog.)  Though Jamie’s a pretty minor character and doesn’t generally have a huge impact on the major direction of the series, the placard on his desk probably has “loose cannon” written below his name.
 
Number 10’s second most notorious Scottish spin doctor, Jamie has served under the tutelage of Malcolm Tucker and learned (certain) lessons well.  He doesn’t possess Malcolm’s finesse and relish for manipulative machinations, but he’s well-versed in using fear and intimidation as motivators.  Though he makes some use of Malcolm’s patented filthy insults – he tells a loose-lipped coworker that she’s “about as secure as a hymen in a south London comprehensive” – he much prefers threats of straight-up violence.  He offers to kidnap the same coworker when she doesn’t want to come in for an all-nighter, making it clear that he’s not kidding about keeping a balaclava and gaffer tape in his car and, in a fit of pique against another, vows among other things to “have [his] guts as a skipping rope.”  With an unhinged grin and a powerful case of Crazy Eyes, Jamie isn’t a press officer to mess with.
 
Furthermore, Jamie is one of the few characters in the series who isn’t the least bit afraid of Malcolm.  Even those with the nerve to take him on quail when he unleashes his fury on them, but not Jamie.  If anything, he vibes on it – he’ll throw the same accusations and insults Malcolm’s way as he does anyone else’s, and Malcolm’s fierce diatribes just up the ante.  And that’s good.  Though Malcolm has some opponents, as well as underlings who occasionally buck up enough courage to try and challenge him, Jamie’s the only one who will get in his face and let him have it when he’s gone off point.  I think Malcolm needs someone to genuinely go toe-to-toe with him; apart from saving everyone else the quavering and heart palpitations, he sometimes needs reminding that he’s not the omnipotent bogeyman of Whitehall.
 
It’s easy to think of Jamie as nothing more than a violent, rage-filled satellite of Malcolm, a walking bundle of Scottish vitriol only a few steps from homicide.  However, that’s not entirely true.  As I said, Jamie isn’t as much of a behind-the-scenes puppet master as Malcolm is, but he’s still savvy and highly proficient.  He can bully results out of the staff with the best of them (although his methods aren’t what you’d call HR-approved,) and he knows his way around a scandal – I love the moment in one of the election specials where no one can understand why their top pick doesn’t want to be Prime Minister, and Jamie coaxes her secret out of her in under a minute.  He’s smarter than he often gets credit for, and I’d wager that at least a portion of his attack-dog persona is put on for show.
 
And just as a point of interest, the In the Loop version of him commits a bit of the old ultraviolence against a fax machine and berates a coworker for listening to opera on the grounds that “it’s just vowels!” and argues that said coworker only listens “because it’s bad form to actually wear a hat that says ‘I went to private school’” – I love it.

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