The Thick of It: Coalition - Episode 3 Review

rating: 2.5

I'll be honest, this week's episode was quite the disappointment. At best, it felt like a rather good online spin-off of the show which features the now-opposition. Don't get me wrong, the laughs came pretty thick and fast towards the end, but the whole episode seemed generally rather meandering and unfocused. I missed the fluent swearing, and the whole opposition team. The only saving grace here was Roger Allam as Peter Mannion, again the stand-out in the episodes that are focusing on the current coalition government. Everything was unbalanced. Things really picked up with Tickle's death, which made everything a lot funnier, but it still wasn't enough.Vincent's Franklin's Stewart Pearson is just not in the same league as Malcolm Tucker- I'm not saying they should be the same, but he hasn't enough bite, or enough to truly ridicule. I can't mock him or admire him enough. I think the biggest weakness of the coalition side of the show now is that they just aren't a team- you have Malcolm, Nicola and Ollie, but here you have a large group of people who all hate each other. Terri and Glenn don't get enough time, and whilst I was warming to Fergus, Adam and Phil last time, here they annoyed me intensely. Things may get better next time, as 'The Inbetweeners' have sanctioned a £2 billion community bank, but frankly this team is going to have to pull together and work as a farcical unit for things to get funnier. This felt less like a farce that gets worse and worse, and more like a rather weak bottle episode written as filler for much funnier episodes to come. And perhaps worst of all, Olivia Poulet's Emma was criminally underused. Criminally. I appreciate the show is trying to be fresh and go in a new direction, and two weeks ago it worked. Here, I just missed Tucker's gang. There were some very funny moments, Stewart and Peter being snapped on a slide in particular was hilarious, so it wasn't a complete loss- the way these people run is getting more and more idiotic! But I actually found myself getting quite bored until Tickle's death warmed things up. I saved itself just enough towards the end, but frankly the team must try harder. This is the last series we're going to get, so the coalition had better pull their socks up. Or maybe this is how clever the writing team are, and we are meant to feel this way about the coalition? If this is true, then it's sacrificing laughs for ingenuity, and in a political comedy like The Tick of It, that's just not on. I really do hate to be negative about such a wonderful show, but I was left seriously unimpressed, especially since it's normally anything but 'hit-and-miss'. Like a crusty old teacher writing patronising school report for a child who stares out the window all lesson, must try harder next time.