The Thick of It: Series 4, Episode 5 (2012)

 

Final three episodes of The Thick of It.  Just as a heads up, it’s going to be like the last few days of Neverwhere around the ole blog, in that the details will be much harder to come by.  More than any other, the show’s last season follows a very definite trajectory, and there are major plot developments flying left and right.  I’ll try and be as River Song as I can about spoilers.

 

The day of reckoning Malcom launched in the last episode tremors through the whole of this one, sending aftershocks as everyone begins to realize things about to get much worse.  Jamie once likened the British political machine to “plague pits,” the implication being that no one’s hands are clean and no one has the right to act superior.  However, getting one’s hands dirty in plague pits also has the nasty tendency to get one killed by the plague.  While no one’s life is physically in danger in this episode (although I wouldn’t have been surprised if Malcolm had had a heart attack,) all of their careers are very much at risk.  The stakes keep piling higher and higher until they’re all anyone can see by episode’s end.

 

Another character added for series 4 is Fergus Williams, junior minister.  I’ve not mentioned him before because most of his screentime so far has been in the Malcolm-less episodes I didn’t review.  But everyone is around for the remainder of the series, so I can talk about him now.  He’s a member of a third party that has formed a coalition with Peter Mannion’s crew.  He’s smug, thinks of himself as “innovative,” and can’t stand Peter (of course.)  The two spent a good part of episodes 1 and 3 trying to undercut one another.  Also, he has an incredibly goofy run that he wishes was as effortlessly hilarious as Malcolm’s.

The Thick of It: Series 4, Episode 4 (2012)

 

Oh, Malcolm.  He’s been plotting and scheming, carefully lining everything up to suit his purposes, and the day has finally come.  As he says, he’s been making a bomb, and today he lights the fuse.

 

Along with Malcolm’s shadowy dealings, we again see how truly, desperately devoted he is to his party.  His opinions on the individuals within that party are highly changeable, and he’ll gladly turn on someone for what he believes to be the greater good, but he’ll do anything in aid of his party.  In light of that, it’s no wonder his party-loyalty tends to go hand in hand with his most nefarious acts.

 

At this point, it seems it’d be far better for Malcolm to get out and let things lie; he’s aged so much between seasons 3 and 4, and it’s clear the job has taken a toll on him.  But he can’t do it.  Malcom + his party = that famous line from Brokeback Mountain.  No matter what, he’ll just go deeper and darker, offering everything he has to give.

 

All that sounds a bit serious.  There’s also Nicola trapped on a train with the insufferable, wholly unhelpful John Duggan in the midst of a political maelstrom.  Plus, not even appendicitis can get Ollie a day off from Malcolm’s browbeating; Malcolm shows up at the hospital for the express purposes of barking orders at Ollie, stealing Ollie’s grapes, and leaving with the flowers he brought for Ollie.  Malcolm Tucker:  bedside manner of a velociraptor.

 

Series 4 actually introduces a handful of new characters, which I supposes makes sense.  Three years have passed since series 3, and it’s only logical that there’d be some new faces on the political map.  One of them is Helen Hatley, Nicola’s number two.  Helen is a hard worker, but she doesn’t have great instincts – her attempts to prevent a press-conference disaster are pitiful.  Plus, she has more than a bit of contempt for Nicola, and she doesn’t make much of an effort to hide it.  Clearly, Nicola wants none but the best on her team.

The Thick of It: Series 4, Episode 2 (2012)

 

Why yes, we’ve in fact skipped the first episode of series 4.  The first half of The Thick of It’s final season splits its time evenly between Team Nicola and Team Peter, and as a result, Malcolm isn’t in episode 1 (or episode 3 for that matter.)  The Tucker-less episodes are still funny, to be sure – I always enjoy Stewart – but they don’t feel the same without the old gang.  Especially without Malcom; even though the series is really an ensemble, it just doesn’t feel like The Thick of It without Malcolm.

 

In the interest of avoiding spoilers, I’ll try not to reveal which party won the election between series 3 and 4.  Suffice to say, one party is managing DoSAC while the other is attending the “shadow cabinet” as the opposition. 

 

What can I say about this episode?  Well, you’ve got a really-not-all-that-heated-but-way-more-heated-than-you’d-think argument about equine terminology, the immortal words “quiet batpeople,” and Malcolm up to more than his usual Malchiavellian tricks.  We’re talking scheming up the wazoo, complete with secret meetings held in cupboards.  Also, there is possibly the greatest description of Star Wars ever given by a fictional character – good stuff.

 

Dan Miller is a minister I’ve not mentioned before.  He first appeared way back in the first season, but I haven’t gotten to him until now because the show just has that many recurring characters.  Anyway, Dan is a minister in Malcolm’s party, the quintessential picture of what people want in a politician.  He’s good-looking and blandly inoffensive, and he doesn’t seem to cause trouble the way that Hugh and Nicola do; no wonder he’s gradually risen to prominence.  Within the walls of the party, however, he’s more than a little smarmy, and you never seem to see him actually doing any sort of political work.  Hugh probably said it best when he called Dan a “brushed aluminium cyber prick.”  Fine words, Hugh.

The Thick of It: Series 3, Episode 8 (2009)

A lot going on in the last episode of series 3.  I don’t want to give too much away, but it’s an excellent outing.  It’s very funny (there’s quite a bit of Julius, and he’s particularly hysterical here,) but more than that, it’s also a good story.  There’s some major plot stuff going on and some great interaction between the characters.

 

We see a different sort of Malcolm in this episode, playing a very different kind of game.  He’s very much the wolf in sheep’s clothing, but he’s such a wolf that it just makes him seem even scarier.  His behavior completely throws the DoSAC team for a loop, and they’re left feverishly speculating as to the nature of his plan.

 

On the other hand, we also see Malcolm absolutely in his element, albeit in a less typical way.  Normally, Malcolm’s anger, energy, and colorful language are channeled into berating ministers and civil servants for a job done poorly: tearing people down over their mistakes.  Here, though, he takes those same qualities and puts them to use buoying people up.  The election is imminent, and despite everyone’s belief that the party doesn’t stand a chance, Malcolm’s not ready to give in.  His rallying cry to “the troops” is a highlight of the episode, maybe of the season.

 

There’s one member of the opposition team that I haven’t mentioned yet:  Phil Smith, one of Peter’s advisors.  A card-carrying nerd who finds it difficult to talk without referencing Tolkien or Star Wars, he probably considers Ollie his arch-nemesis.  He’s Emma’s flatmate as well as the advisor to a rival MP, and he’s always made it clear that he hates Ollie personally and professionally.  He’s also an incurable suck-up who idolizes Peter as everything a politician should be.

 

One season left; we start tomorrow!

The Thick of It: Series 3, Episode 7 (2009)

 

Malcolm’s chief nemeses all have different forms of the same trait.  Malcolm, we know, communicates largely in profanity- and threat-laden rants, making himself known in a big way wherever he goes.  He’s scary Tucker, of whom cabinet ministers live in fear.  But all the people who really push his buttons are the opposite:  they rarely raise their voices and almost never resort to swearing (all of them, however, have their breaking points, of which Malcolm is usually the cause.)  Julius is buttoned-up and decorous.  Stewart is easy-going and relies on “innovative” corporate-speak.  And then, there’s Steve.

 

Steve Fleming is the party’s previous spin doctor, forced out by Malcolm a couple years before the show began.  Short and slightly round, he’s the visual antithesis of the tall, gaunt Malcolm.  While Malcolm is all about anger and intimidation, Steve has a constant smile plastered on his face and speaks in a syrupy tone.  Even when he’s pushed to anger, his words come out in quietly-restrained bursts peppered by nervous laughter.  It’s unsettling; Ollie describes him as having “obsessive repulsive disorder.”  And he’s back.

 

As you might imagine, Malcolm isn’t thrilled about Steve’s return.  He’s in full defense-mode, pulling all the behind-the-scenes strings he can to make himself look indispensable to the prime minister.  But of course, Spider-Man will tell us what comes with great power, and when the latest DoSAC crisis occurs, Steve may nonchalantly step back and leaving Malcolm holding the bag.

 

I’ve not mentioned DoSAC much yet.  I have to say, considering how terrified Nicola was of Malcolm early in the season, she’s made some impressive strides on that front.  She receives a “gang-bollocking” in this episode from Malcolm and Steve simultaneously, and she manages to keep enough of her wits about her to stick up for herself and even toss in a few wry remarks.  That’s nice to see.

The Thick of It: Series 3, Episode 6 (2009)

 

A lot about this episode feels like it could’ve been taken directly from the show’s first season.  True, Hugh was never as catastrophically awful with the press as Nicola is, but there’s something about the way an enormous crisis is born out of such a tiny mistake.  When Nicola, in an interview, refers to the prime minister as the right “man” for the job, she inadvertently starts a media frenzy.  The press, you see, believe that she feels she’s the right woman for the job and is gearing up to make a bid for the PM’s leadership.  DoSAC is put on lockdown, and everyone runs around frantically trying to brave the storm.

 

But what’s really noteworthy about this episode is how badly Malcolm handles the crisis.  Pretty much every call he makes only worsens the situation, and as the day wears on and things get crazier, his bad decisions start to snowball.  When Nicola is telling you you’re not on the ball, you’re really off your game!

 

We’ve seen Malcolm make mistakes before, of course, including some terrible ones with wide-reaching consequences.  However, I don’t think he’s ever been as utterly ineffectual as he is here.  There are few reasons for this:  first, the party’s previous spin doctor, who Malcolm unseated, is coming back on the scene.  He’s cozying up to the PM, and we know how well Malcolm reacts when he feels his job is being threatened.  Also, the state of affairs at Number 10 is apparently atrocious.  With the upcoming election, it seems the writing is on the wall, and Malcolm is, as he puts it, “sweating embryos” to bring his party through it in one piece. 

 

In other words, he’s completely wrung out, but he’s desperate not to show it because he’s worried that this old spin doctor is trying to usurp him.  Stressed, panicked, and paranoid – no wonder things are starting to catch up with him.  There’s a tremendous scene where he drags Terri into a conference room and just unloads everything he’s been dealing with.  It’s fascinating, because Malcolm is not one to let anyone see him looking concerned or overwhelmed or afraid.  And yet, after some initial raging, he really opens up to Terri and has one of the most civil conversations we’ve ever seen Malcolm take part in.

 

At the start of the episode, fellow minister Ben Swain drops by DoSAC and winds up stuck there throughout the lockdown.  Ben first appeared in the 2007 specials as the incredibly media-inept junior minister Malcolm and Jamie had for breakfast.  He’s a dangerous combination of cocky and stupid, and as such, has a far higher opinion of himself than he should.  In addition to the nervous blink that crops up whenever he’s in front of a camera, he acts like a boorish frat-boy politician.  His completely-unearned arrogance is very funny, as is the way you can practically see the alarm bells going off in his head whenever Malcolm rips him a new one.

The Thick of It: Series 3, Episode 5 (2009)

 

In today’s episode, Nicola and Peter go head-to-head in a BBC radio interview.  Both arrive with their advisors in tow, but once they go on the air, there’s not much anyone can do to help or advise.  Just as a general rule, Nicola should never be put in a situation where no one can shut her up.  She has a talent for gabbling on an ordinary day.  Placed in a soundproof room with her political rival and absolutely no ability to interpret her team’s panicked nonverbal communiques on the other side of the glass?  I’d call it a bloodbath, except Peter isn’t Mr. Radio either.

 

Of course, Nicola and Peter’s respective entourages have more to do than just watch the radio train wreck unfolding before them.  Both camps were stuck in close quarters for the duration of the interview, so they also snipe at each other and get into all sorts of kerfuffles on their own.

 

One of Peter’s advisors is Emma Messinger; though she was first mentioned as the “enemy” Ollie was sleeping with in series 2, she didn’t actually appear until the 2007 specials.  She seems to take her job pretty seriously and spends most of her time navigating the conflicts between Peter and Stewart.  She is, however, almost as terrible a girlfriend as Ollie is a boyfriend.  She has a chronic tendency to leak intel to Peter and co., and by this point in the series, she’s definitely more interested in her career than in Ollie.  Nicola and Peter’s interview happens to coincide with a large dollop of relationship drama between Emma and Ollie, which plays out at the radio studio as well.

 

And where’s Malcolm in all this?  He and Stewart are both at their offices, listening to the interviews on the radio and yelling at advisors over the phone to get their people back on track.  By now, you probably know that Glenn and Ollie aren’t exactly capable in a crisis, and Peter’s team isn’t much better, so it’s only a matter of time before the two spin doctors show up at the station to fix things.

 

It’s a lot of fun to watch Malcolm take on Stewart.  Malcolm’s knack for scary intimidation makes Stewart seem feckless, while Stewart’s penchant for soft language makes Malcolm seem unstable.  In the end, they completely abandon Nicola and Peter and zero in on each other.  It’s intense – a knock-down, drag-out battle between two men who’ve worked in politics long enough to have dirt on everyone.  It’s probably a good thing they’re on opposite sides; if they ever joined forces, they’d be unstoppable in a very megalomaniacal way.