TV Meme Day Two: The Thick of It
Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching
The Thick of It
I probably sound like a broken record when it comes to this show. Really, I could go on and on about the absolutely fantastic and hilarious and deliciously offensive the writing is, or how Peter Capaldi's performance is one of the most amazing you will ever witness, or the fact that the show is constantly evolving, or how wonderfully zeitgeist-y it is. Those factors alone would make it a show I would recommend for everyone to watch.
But of course, the reason why I want everyone to watch it is because I love it and the reason for that is because I've fallen for the characters. Somewhere in the third season I realised I really cared about the bunch of misfits and their fate. The writers and actors created some of the most unsympathetic protagonists in television, but in refusing to make them two-dimensional and instead writing and preforming them as flawed human beings trapped in the workplace from hell by this elusive concept of power, they also became strangely sympathetic.
As one of the writers put it (I can't remember with one), these guys are the dregs of government, barely capable of anything without a massive fuck up happening, but at the same time, they're underdogs - even the Lord of Darkness himself Malcolm Tucker is from the specials onwards - and hated by the public, under siege from the press and with an election looming they're more doomed than the Titanic.
This all makes for terrific drama - when you notice it. Because the drama of course pales to the fact that is is just so incredibly funny - every episode is like watching half an hour of the funniest moments of the West Wing only with a lot of foul language and a tonne more public humiliation. It is freaking brilliant and deserves to always been included without thought when people list great British comedies such as Blackadder, Black Books and The Office.
Anyway, this is a pretty good introduction to the characters:
Link to the meme Master List
The Thick of It
I probably sound like a broken record when it comes to this show. Really, I could go on and on about the absolutely fantastic and hilarious and deliciously offensive the writing is, or how Peter Capaldi's performance is one of the most amazing you will ever witness, or the fact that the show is constantly evolving, or how wonderfully zeitgeist-y it is. Those factors alone would make it a show I would recommend for everyone to watch.
But of course, the reason why I want everyone to watch it is because I love it and the reason for that is because I've fallen for the characters. Somewhere in the third season I realised I really cared about the bunch of misfits and their fate. The writers and actors created some of the most unsympathetic protagonists in television, but in refusing to make them two-dimensional and instead writing and preforming them as flawed human beings trapped in the workplace from hell by this elusive concept of power, they also became strangely sympathetic.
As one of the writers put it (I can't remember with one), these guys are the dregs of government, barely capable of anything without a massive fuck up happening, but at the same time, they're underdogs - even the Lord of Darkness himself Malcolm Tucker is from the specials onwards - and hated by the public, under siege from the press and with an election looming they're more doomed than the Titanic.
This all makes for terrific drama - when you notice it. Because the drama of course pales to the fact that is is just so incredibly funny - every episode is like watching half an hour of the funniest moments of the West Wing only with a lot of foul language and a tonne more public humiliation. It is freaking brilliant and deserves to always been included without thought when people list great British comedies such as Blackadder, Black Books and The Office.
Anyway, this is a pretty good introduction to the characters:
Click to viewLink to the meme Master List