The Thick of It: Coalition - Episode 2 Review

rating:4

It was like welcoming back an old friend- 'the opposition', as they are now known, returned to our screens in typically sterling form. And whilst it wasn't quite as funny as last week's opener, perhaps because we weren't as accustomed to the new coalition, it was still a solid piece of comedy and still funnier than most comedies currently on TV (Quite what Danny Cohen is thinking with his friday-night triple bill of In With The Flynns, Mrs. Brown's Boys and Miranda is beyond me). For me, the star of this week's episode wasn't Malcolm Tucker- though he was played in an interesting new way where the glimpses of him having something resembling a human heart came to the fore to an extent- but actually Chris Addison's Olly, who hogged the best lines and dominated the back-and-forth. This was a four-hander between Capaldi, Addison, Front and Harrington and all bounced off each other beautifully. This is what is so great about a series like The Thick of It- it is constantly refreshing itself and never getting stale. No one is in power forever, and seeing Pitbull Tucker and his Omnishambles brigade looking in from the outside. Rebecca Front almost equalled Roger Allam's brilliant Networked Nation balls-up last week with her awkward response to backing a toxic policy that 'starved infants'. The writing was on top-notch form again- "I'm getting a coffee, do you want anything?" "Yeah, I'll have a f***ing Fanta". The higlights of the episode are Tucker's Star Wars analogy, and Nicola's bizarre Remembrance Sunday routine at the very end. I don't want to give too much away... He may not have gone red in the face this week, or produced his usual eloquent profanity to such a large extent, but Tucker still proved to be a nasty piece of work- He's recruited Olly and Dan Miller to gently overthrow Nicola Murray, and the cogs are already turning after a brilliant gaffe of 'Quiet Batpeople' (You would've had to have watched it to understand- why haven't you already?). It wasn't same old, same old with old Malcolm- he actually proved more sinister in that he was weary, almost subdued- but still as clever and sharp as ever. The happenings of the Opposition will prove to be very interesting over the coming weeks, and there is every chance they may sneak their way back in, or Nicola will prove to be a worthy leader of the opposition- I genuinely can;t tell at this point. It's unpredictable, and all the better for it. Will the showrunners decide to completely mirror the Political residence, or rewrite it for the show's sake of a dramatic arc? All in all, just as funny as usual. I like the fact it seems the series is going to be alternating each episode between The Coalition and The Opposition, with the show doing a U-Turn and making The Coalition the new bumbling morons doing what Nicola Murray's gang would've done, and The Opposition seems to be a lot more interesting- whether hey will prove to be just as funny as they once were will be interesting. But all in all, the most laughs I've had this weekend, and full of surprises. You'd expect it to be stale by now, but The Thick of It is far from it.