A thread for 'The Thick Of It' (and 'In The Loop' as well)

Agreed.

I have to say that Joanna Scanlan as Terri has become my favorite character by some distance. Watching her is just amazing. She's the only one who doesn't fall apart, yet it's because she's utterly insane.

ollie is immature but one of the notable things about this series is that he's obviously grown - at least in the responsibility he's afforded - and taken on a higher role. when malcolm's not around, he's malcolm. speechwriting instead of buying cheese.

Malcolm is also obviously treating him as someone who is semi competent rather than just a shouting board as before

Some of my fave Malcolm moments are when he makes little friendly jokes with people as he's leaving post-bollocking.

the names for ollie are getting so good:
unbaked gingerbread man
man in the little red and yellow car

not sure anything will ever top 'the node of node hall' tho.

not that that was for ollie but still

wow

otm

for a comedy, that was better drama than most dramas. (thought it struck the wrong note that it was brought on by something as trivial as a mistake in the crime stats tho.)

I figured it was the bald mustachioed guy getting vengeance by taking advantage of a fuck-up he caused. Also the government is a total shambles and it's been building to this all season.

yeah, baldy taking advantage of a PM losing the plot, I thought. That's why he couldn't/wouldn't let Tucker near the PM. Was waiting for some actual violence, this time

the thin blue line guy killed it.

wow that episode was better than the movie.

it was weird to see malcolm actually relish being a double-act with his enemy. maybe it was just for appearances sake but if so, it was a convincing performance. not that anyone seemed to notice. in fact no one seemed to care about any of the efforts he made to hold onto his job. that, the journalist junket, actually doing favors for dosac..

the man from hellmonte he say FUCKIN AYE

i thought rebecca front was amazing this week, too - especially at the end, running away from malcolm's sacking, it had like a Godfather intensity...

I liked how even the bollockings showed baldy was a cock: he was sexist and misogynistic to Nicola. Tucker is an equal opportunity misanthrope, he picks on people for being shit in their actions, not because they are women.

A lesser bollocker would have, eg, picked on Terri's weight for an insult, but they never have that I can remember. You know baldy would, tho.

is that the end of the series or is there another one next week?

another one next week, i believe...

also really loved the (incredibly brief) scene where malcolm was comforting his scretary (?) immediately after he'd been sacked, while the guy from 4 weddings and the guy from the specsavers ad were badgering about...

it said to be continued at the end

also

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

what happens then? what does malcolm do?

Wow.
Also, Malcolm Tucker has my wallpaper!

Still haven't watched this again (this show basically demands to be watched at least twice) but I don't recall Malcolm engaging in a single "creative swearing" session at all? Until the end obv.

It will be very interesting if they have an entire episode without him.

Thanks to the BBC running this series at the same time as Match of the Day, I've missed almost all of this

The DOSAC guys will be desperate to have Malcolm back by next week I think. Think Nicola was already thinking it was better to be outright bollocked by Malcolm than smarmed into doing something by an obsequious twat like Steve Fleming.

Actually the dude playing Fleming was brilliant - that constant manic smile at all times even when really angry!

Wow.
Also, Malcolm Tucker has my wallpaper!

― Not the real Village People, Tuesday, 8 December 2009 02:58

Malcolm also had Chris Eubank's and Murray Walker's autobios on his shelf

I don't recall Malcolm engaging in a single "creative swearing" session at all?

Yeah his losing of plot/control coincided with the smart crude zings becoming boring profanities. Good bit of writing, I thought. Not sure I like my comedies becoming tense dramas mid-series but as tense dramas go it was very watchable.

Not liking Thin Blue Line dude :(

malcolm had some kids paintings on his office wall, what's that about? funny that his (attractive) secretary was so sweet on him (i guess they were firing her too then?)

Malcolm's unlikely to be bollocking his own secretary as much as hapless civil servants and MPs I would imagine, because she isn't doing very much that's public facing.

Not liking Thin Blue Line dude :(
Yeah, I thought he stood out as pretty pre-watershed sitcom-ish, not in keeping with the either the (semblance of) naturalism that everyone else seems to be bringing to their performances or the fly-on-the-wall style camerawork. Found him to be totally jarring, tbh.

he stood out as pretty pre-watershed sitcom-ish

thanks, you've perfectly articulated what it was that was annoying me but that I couldn't quite put my finger on.

for me the problem was he was so repulsive i don't particularly want to see any more of him

i thought he was terrific. as someone returning to the scene with a major agenda his ill fit with the rest of the cast actually worked for me.

that's what i thought was good about him!

he should be jarring: he's a figure from another era.

xposts

I agree he should be a jarring character but he struck me as too much of a comedy actor doing comedy acting and was unconvincing as a vindictive sneering political player. I think he was badly cast rather than badly written.

I dunno, I really didn't find him any less convincingly sociopathic than Malcolm. The intensity he projected was really unnerving when set against his cartoon character face.

Brilliant episode, but kinda predictable after last week, no?

A government doesn't spiral out of control like that in the course of a day, so it kind of had to be predictable.

i wasn't sure about the first two episodes and actually stopped watching, but i can see that they're trying to move away from comedy, to a extent. all the stuff about the mp's kid just isn't funny and isn't meant to be. and for some reason i identify with malcolm and feel really bad for him.

I think he was badly cast rather than badly written

But without him we wouldn't have had the "he looks like a lego policeman" line, which was perfect.

Super Mario was even more choice.

malcolm had some kids paintings on his office wall, what's that about?

He's mentioned a niece a few times, presumably hers.

My friend who who used to work at the Home Office told me last night she doesn't like TTOI because it's 'not realistic'. Huh. I told her she wasn't realistic.

A lesser bollocker would have, eg, picked on Terri's weight for an insult, but they never have that I can remember

pretty sure he has, tbh.

he told her to put her tits away or similar wrt peter mannion's visit

yeah but that's cause she got all slutted up innit

he's usually pretty inventive ("the little man in the red and yellow car" and "shitehead revisited" are probably my favourite two this series). he'll go there sometimes but this fleming guy is just old-school chauvinist and not a wordsmith.

malcolm's flat was lovely

Fucking snooker had better get to fuck in the next 20 minutes.

bravo

great to hear armando talking about the next series in such concrete terms, too

where was he talking about the next series?