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So you know what's an awesome way to kill time at the laundromat? Watching an episode of TToI and taking notes, of course! From which, incidentally, I learned that I spend around an hour doing just that before I even get to writing these posts. Which, even though I don't come even close to covering everything, also take me about an hour. So let's get to it.
This is another one where I'm in a bit over my head politically - I don't know what Julius's office is, what his function is, why it's so problematic in this episode but has never been heard of before, etc etc, but you know what? I'm not really sure how much that matters. It's obvious that he's getting in there fucking things up, that he enjoys wielding the power of his association with the PM, and that he is totally awesome anyway.
The first time around watching this episode, I didn't really know what to think of Julius, but now I love him. He is just so ridiculous. I don't think it matters much in this episode why he wants to strip down our little department, or why he wants Malcolm's pantry to be his office, because the show presents him in this ep as so odd that his motivations are almost irrelevant, and possibly not even understandable to a more ordinary human being. Maybe he's just bored, or wants to use the reshuffle to stir shit up and reshape it to his satisfaction, or heard that Malcolm's pantry gets the good biscuits. Who knows? (Okay, the middle one is most likely, but I love the crazy ideas the characters attribute to Julius throughout the ep - see cut text for an example - and wanted to play, too.) I also enjoy Alexander Macqueen's performance, which is kind of a given with the consistently high quality of the acting on this show, but must still be mentioned since it is so much a part of Julius's character. Macqueen is so distinctive an actor, it just wouldn't be the same if someone else played Julius.
And again with the pantry! I love forever that Malcolm and Julius, you know, discuss some actual politics for a little while with a relative amount of civility, but then Julius reveals his nefarious plans for Malcolm's pantry and the shouting begins. It isn't about the damn pantry, of course, but it seems to be the only thing it is acceptable for them to shout about, and so they do, and Malcolm decides that the door doesn't work and Julius should put his hand over Malcolm's and try to turn the knob if he doesn't believe it, and it is fucking hilarious.
And then later on, Malcolm declares to someone on the phone, "He is not getting anywhere near my fucking pantry, I'll tell you that," and I don't know why all the precious little slash in this fandom is Malcolm/Jamie when this is the gayest episode I've seen yet.
I also like the Malcolm we see at the eight-thirty briefings - businesslike but relaxed, cracking hideous corny jokes one wouldn't expect him to touch with a ten-foot pole, and just generally being likeable, charming, and approachable. It's an important persona in his repertoire - he has to be able to make people like him if necessary - and I like seeing it in action.
We see several facets of Malcolm in this episode. There's shouty Malcolm, charming Malcolm, dismantle-you-in-five-minutes Malcolm, and even a little glimpse of overwhelmed Malcolm. This is also the episode that gives us what might be the best known Tuckerism aside from Tucker's Law:
"Come the fuck in or fuck the fuck off."
I love that quote. Who doesn't love that quote? My mom loves that quote and she hasn't even watched any of the show yet. But I also love Hugh's response to it - he replies, without missing a beat, "Well, I'll come the fuck in, then." At this point in the show's run, Hugh has gotten totally comfortable in his (non-bollocking) interactions with Malcolm; unlike earlier episodes, I don't really get the sense here that he's trying to ingratiate himself to Malcolm or to bond with him anymore. Even the bit where he goofs on Julius is just silly enough to indicate a comfort level that his earlier smartassery, like in the scenes with the zeitgeist tape, is missing. He even asks, when the aforementioned glimpse of overwhelmed Malcolm makes its appearance after Julius's departure, if Malcolm is all right.
Which is nice and we should savor it, because it might just be the last moment when Hugh is not a self-involved douche. I didn't notice it so much the first time I watched the show, but now it's clear that Hugh's character arc has, since 1x03, been built to reveal bit by bit that he's really a pretty vile human being. I'll discuss this more in the next episode's write-up, but we've already seen how willing he is to hang Glenn out to dry, and now we see him treat the death of Terri's father with complete disregard. The scene is set up so nicely, as we see Hugh's crude sign language passing the news to Glenn and Olly as he pays awkward lip service to acknowledging Terri's grief. Then he sits in silence long enough for us to hear poor Terri sobbing on the other end of the line, and THEN he starts in with demanding Terri's help for his latest woes. If we are supposed to like Hugh Abbot at all by the end of this episode, then they are doing it seriously fucking wrong. But I don't think we are, as will be demonstrated pretty brutally in the finale.
But rather than end on that note, let's talk some more about Malcolm, shall we? This is some prime work he does here, taking Julius's campaign against our department and turning it against him. He remembers Hugh taking the piss out of Julius with such enthusiasm, and he notices that Robyn was cut out of the briefings, and he draws certain conclusions, which he then presents to Hugh and company. (Was Julius really, as he claims, gunning for them specifically? Are there other departments he's going after? Does it matter? We're inhabiting reality as defined by Malcolm Tucker right now and, as he says in In the Loop, it doesn't matter if it happened, it's still true.) He has the three of them on the phone and within five minutes, Julius's plans are in shambles and Malcolm has positioned himself as the man who gets to tell Julius that not only is he the one getting revamped, but he'll never get his hands on Malcolm's pantry now. (Which, because Armando Iannucci loves continuity as much as I do, will come back to bite Malcolm later . . .)
And then - and this is another thing I like, because there's no way Malcolm got to where he is just by swearing inventively at people - he rewards them. The department is expanded to the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship (which means I can finally start using DoSAC to refer to them, thank god), which is about as meaningless as before but sounds impressive, and he's moving them to a nice new office space. And Julius gets the old crappy one. So Hugh needn't worry about the PM's wife after all: DoSAC lives!
This is another one where I'm in a bit over my head politically - I don't know what Julius's office is, what his function is, why it's so problematic in this episode but has never been heard of before, etc etc, but you know what? I'm not really sure how much that matters. It's obvious that he's getting in there fucking things up, that he enjoys wielding the power of his association with the PM, and that he is totally awesome anyway.
The first time around watching this episode, I didn't really know what to think of Julius, but now I love him. He is just so ridiculous. I don't think it matters much in this episode why he wants to strip down our little department, or why he wants Malcolm's pantry to be his office, because the show presents him in this ep as so odd that his motivations are almost irrelevant, and possibly not even understandable to a more ordinary human being. Maybe he's just bored, or wants to use the reshuffle to stir shit up and reshape it to his satisfaction, or heard that Malcolm's pantry gets the good biscuits. Who knows? (Okay, the middle one is most likely, but I love the crazy ideas the characters attribute to Julius throughout the ep - see cut text for an example - and wanted to play, too.) I also enjoy Alexander Macqueen's performance, which is kind of a given with the consistently high quality of the acting on this show, but must still be mentioned since it is so much a part of Julius's character. Macqueen is so distinctive an actor, it just wouldn't be the same if someone else played Julius.
And again with the pantry! I love forever that Malcolm and Julius, you know, discuss some actual politics for a little while with a relative amount of civility, but then Julius reveals his nefarious plans for Malcolm's pantry and the shouting begins. It isn't about the damn pantry, of course, but it seems to be the only thing it is acceptable for them to shout about, and so they do, and Malcolm decides that the door doesn't work and Julius should put his hand over Malcolm's and try to turn the knob if he doesn't believe it, and it is fucking hilarious.
And then later on, Malcolm declares to someone on the phone, "He is not getting anywhere near my fucking pantry, I'll tell you that," and I don't know why all the precious little slash in this fandom is Malcolm/Jamie when this is the gayest episode I've seen yet.
I also like the Malcolm we see at the eight-thirty briefings - businesslike but relaxed, cracking hideous corny jokes one wouldn't expect him to touch with a ten-foot pole, and just generally being likeable, charming, and approachable. It's an important persona in his repertoire - he has to be able to make people like him if necessary - and I like seeing it in action.
We see several facets of Malcolm in this episode. There's shouty Malcolm, charming Malcolm, dismantle-you-in-five-minutes Malcolm, and even a little glimpse of overwhelmed Malcolm. This is also the episode that gives us what might be the best known Tuckerism aside from Tucker's Law:
"Come the fuck in or fuck the fuck off."
I love that quote. Who doesn't love that quote? My mom loves that quote and she hasn't even watched any of the show yet. But I also love Hugh's response to it - he replies, without missing a beat, "Well, I'll come the fuck in, then." At this point in the show's run, Hugh has gotten totally comfortable in his (non-bollocking) interactions with Malcolm; unlike earlier episodes, I don't really get the sense here that he's trying to ingratiate himself to Malcolm or to bond with him anymore. Even the bit where he goofs on Julius is just silly enough to indicate a comfort level that his earlier smartassery, like in the scenes with the zeitgeist tape, is missing. He even asks, when the aforementioned glimpse of overwhelmed Malcolm makes its appearance after Julius's departure, if Malcolm is all right.
Which is nice and we should savor it, because it might just be the last moment when Hugh is not a self-involved douche. I didn't notice it so much the first time I watched the show, but now it's clear that Hugh's character arc has, since 1x03, been built to reveal bit by bit that he's really a pretty vile human being. I'll discuss this more in the next episode's write-up, but we've already seen how willing he is to hang Glenn out to dry, and now we see him treat the death of Terri's father with complete disregard. The scene is set up so nicely, as we see Hugh's crude sign language passing the news to Glenn and Olly as he pays awkward lip service to acknowledging Terri's grief. Then he sits in silence long enough for us to hear poor Terri sobbing on the other end of the line, and THEN he starts in with demanding Terri's help for his latest woes. If we are supposed to like Hugh Abbot at all by the end of this episode, then they are doing it seriously fucking wrong. But I don't think we are, as will be demonstrated pretty brutally in the finale.
But rather than end on that note, let's talk some more about Malcolm, shall we? This is some prime work he does here, taking Julius's campaign against our department and turning it against him. He remembers Hugh taking the piss out of Julius with such enthusiasm, and he notices that Robyn was cut out of the briefings, and he draws certain conclusions, which he then presents to Hugh and company. (Was Julius really, as he claims, gunning for them specifically? Are there other departments he's going after? Does it matter? We're inhabiting reality as defined by Malcolm Tucker right now and, as he says in In the Loop, it doesn't matter if it happened, it's still true.) He has the three of them on the phone and within five minutes, Julius's plans are in shambles and Malcolm has positioned himself as the man who gets to tell Julius that not only is he the one getting revamped, but he'll never get his hands on Malcolm's pantry now. (Which, because Armando Iannucci loves continuity as much as I do, will come back to bite Malcolm later . . .)
And then - and this is another thing I like, because there's no way Malcolm got to where he is just by swearing inventively at people - he rewards them. The department is expanded to the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship (which means I can finally start using DoSAC to refer to them, thank god), which is about as meaningless as before but sounds impressive, and he's moving them to a nice new office space. And Julius gets the old crappy one. So Hugh needn't worry about the PM's wife after all: DoSAC lives!
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