A formal complaint

[selenak]

Let's face it, the producers/headwriters of this show called "British Politics" have finally lost it. They suck. There's such a thing as shades of grey characterisation and flawed characters, sure, but they still need to be believable. Look, we'd have gotten the point about how that lame Francis Urquart wannabe, Boris Johnson, just was after power already. But leading a breaking Europe campaign so he could be PM, with the plan being that the vote doesn't actually go through, that's already over the top. Now his face at the first public appearance when the vote actually went Breaking Europe, that said it all, that was good tv. However, him quitting the resulting Tory leadership contest because he really doesn't want to deal with the resulting mess, that's just too much of a caricature.

Speaking of caricatures: what's with the Michael Gove characterisation? He already was set up to defy belief with his stanning for World War I and blaming WWI's bad public image on Blackadder, while being minister for education, no less. Did we really need that "we don't need no stinking experts" appearance? That's just a lame imitation of the main villain in the overseas spin-off. Cut it down, please.

But where the show has really lost the plot is this: downer episodes of apocalyptic dimensions are all very well, but then we need someone to rally. Where's the subsequent episode where the Labour people use the golden opportunity to denounce the government party who is responsible for the unholy mess? Where's the part where one of them, preferably the head of the party, uses departing villain Cameron's first appearance in Parliament after the Brexitocalypse to eviscerate him and the party he represents verbally? Instead, you give us Labour busy eviscarating itself, all of them screaming at each other how vile they were, no one giving an airtime minute of criticism directed at the Tories. And when Cameron - CAMERON - tells the supposed head of the good guys that he needs to quit, there's not even the teensiest weensiest reminder on the part of our hero that if Cameron had quit ages ago and had devoted himself to the joys of necroporkophilia in private, the current mess might not be happening at all. Nor does anyone else point this is out. Too busy with the infighting. I suspect the scriptwriter of this episode to be a secret Tory itching to spread the incompetent leftists stereotype, except for the part where the conservatives are made to look just as incompetent, and craven to boot. (Again: Boris' disappearance act.)

In conclusion: fire those writers and producers. And the cast as well. This show needs a complete overhaul.

Comments

[ratcreature]

It's at the point where it needs the "it was all an imaginary, drug-induced nightmare" plot twist revelation, that just cancels the continuity to a previous reset. ETA: I guess they could also do a radical genre hop from supposedly realistic drama/soap to SFF, and then go the Marvel route of "they were all impersonated by invading Skrulls" to explain any inconsistency and unbelievable behavior, because they were switched to aliens half-way through.

[wee_warrior]

Or to go with newest Marvel developments, maybe Jeremy Corbyn's past was changed by a cosmic cube?

[selenak]

I'm in favor of Skrulls myself. Then I could believe in actual plan behind it all, which the Bobby Ewing solution doesn't offer.

[ratcreature]

Yeah, I'm a big fan of having a continuity narrative (even a convoluted one!) over having none as well. Unfortunately the British politics showrunners seem to go for the episode based publicity stunt approach. They even did the inadvisable phone poll thing in reaction to fan backlash to decide fundamentals of their universe, just like DC did with Jason Todd's death. No matter that that has haunted the DCU ever since...

[wee_warrior]

I think it's all just a ploy to push the ratings for the rumoured Scottish-European spin-off we keep hearing about.

Let's just hope the US series doesn't repeat this whole plot when they start their new season in fall. I'm already sick of it.

[selenak]

But what about the Spanish network getting worried they might have to finance a Basque spin-off of their own, and thus not wanting to show the Scottish spin-off to their viewers?

No kidding about the US series.

[ratcreature]

They are probably more worried about the proposed Catalonian spin-off taking some big advertising money and desirable viewership with it.

The Basque one is that fan favored spin-off that has been forever lobbied for by a small but active and dedicated fanbase who are writing crossover fanfic slashing two minor characters from the French and Spanish series, when they aren't doing the nth network aimed fan campaign to get their favorite character a bigger part in the actual series (more successful in the Spanish series, failed with the French executives) .

[wee_warrior]

Well, one of their network executives already suggested a Gibraltar co-production with the UK, they might hope that will bring in the money.

[neotoma]

Obviously as an American who only recently learned who 70% of these people are, Michael Gove does what now about WWI?!

And who is left if the Conservative party and the Labour party both implode over this? Not just the UKIP, right?

[selenak]

Neat summary of the Michael Gove accusing Blackadder of WWI bashing and poisoning the minds of children event. Bear in mind that he was secretary of education then. (He's since moved on to justice.) This is the man who has a 50/50 shot at being the next PM, the one to lead Britain through the worst crisis since you guys split and became independent.

No, not just UKIP. There are also the Liberal Democrats, presumably hoping for a revitalisation as the result of all this. They already were almost there once within the last decade, but then they in a government coalition with the Tories gave in to the later's every demand and thus immediately lost their appeal to the votes who'd made the party important enough again for the Tories to need them in the coalition in the first place.

There are also the Greens, but as opposed to our (German) Greens, they don't seem to carry enough voters.

[wee_warrior]

(Someone on my twitter list mentioned that his mobile kept changing "Gove" to "Hastur" - seems there is a good reason for that.)

[raincitygirl]

Heeeee!!!! Oh man, you made me laugh so hard.

[selenak]

I'm glad, we need it these days.

[st_aurafina]

Hanging in there for the Scotland spin-off, tbh.

[selenak]

Same here!

[bimo]

I couldn't agree more if I tried to and feel rather anxious about the Scottish spin-off. In roughly ten days, Cavendish and I will go on an extended set tour...

[selenak]

I'm planning a set tour of the main show in August. It will be a weird experience.

[msilverstar]

Reality shows are SO WEIRD these days!

[selenak]

No kidding!

[clanwilliam]

Here via rainycitygirl. It's becoming clearer now - Andrea Leadsom is clearly shagging the producer. Why else has this actress, who has claimed she was top billed or had significant supporting roles (not to mention her alleged five Oscar nominations and seventeen Baftas), been parachuted into a role that makes US soaps look plausible. At least Buffy let you know it was a joke.

[selenak]

Yes, I wrote that rant what, a week ago, and talk about the monkey's paw effect! Writing Michael Gove and Nigel Farage out: great! Good decision, show. Two women in the leading roles? Also a good idea. But these wo? Seems they figured out Theresa May isn't a big hit with the more diverse audience, so my theory is they're building up Andrea Leadsom as a villainess in order to get viewer sympathy for Theresa May. At least, I hope it's the plan, because come on, her public pronouncements sound as bad as Gove's, if not worse.

[clanwilliam]

And Leadsom imploded at 12:15BST today, with a sideline in scuppering Angela Eagle's big moment. Dressing the same was just cruel.