swerytd
Thursday 25th October 2012 8:56am [Edited]
Guildford
7,542 posts
Quote: joebloggs69 @ October 21 2012, 7:29 PM BST
I never really liked Stewart and his schtick precisely because it's been done to death. Management/neo hippy speak was already old hat ten years ago, in fact we've all parodied it at one point or another, and for me that has been one of my main problems with this series because it focused even more on that aspect. Having said that, I think this is the best he has ever been (but that's not saying much), because within the context of the inquiry (and the real life Levison) it was more poignant.
I've also felt that this series suffers from a lack of realism, which was the life blood of previous series. This episode also had that problem, as it relies on realism more than any other. There is just no way Malcolm would have said so many of those things, or that the inquiry would simply have ignored him and moved on to the next question if he did. His final speech was ok, but again, the writing was clumsy and it was, at best, a thinly veiled moral lesson and mouthpiece for the writers. It was too on the nose. He might as well have just looked straight at the camera and said "Do you see what we're doing here, girls and boys? This is called 'Satire'".
That's my expert opinion, which I have gleaned from years of not writing comedy and moaning about what's on telly.
Stewart is at his best when in combination with Mannion. Not as effective here.
I think it was very good, lots of laughs for me. But, even as a massive TTOI fan, I couldn't buy into Malcolm's diatribe at the end. It was just too far out of reality and, having seen a lot of real-life enquiries recently, no-one would say that sort of thing or even be allowed to say that sort of thing. Not even Malcolm Tucker.
Having said that, the funniest line for me was:
"No, it is not CSI:Miami, despite your shirt."
Dan