It's Murray Time!

[meddow]

I wanted to contribute to halfamoon and decided I would celebrate Nicola Murray, lead character and Secretary of State for the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship in the third series of The Thick of It. I'm not sure how well known it is, but The Thick of It changed last year from a show with a male lead, to a show with a female lead, and really,

Comments

[arathesane]

So beyond awesome I don't have the words.

I agree with everything you said about Nicola and I love the quotes you chose.

I love Nicola and Rebecca Front so much!

(Oh, by the way, the link you put in TTOI comm doesn't seem to work. I had to come to this comm directly to see this. Or rather I went to that comm and then linked into your lj!)

[meddow]

Crap. Fixed the link. Thanks!

I love her so much as well, and Rebecca Front who's back catalogue of work I'm working my way through at the moment. She's fantastic. I can't believe I hadn't come across her before she showed up on TTOI.

[arathesane]

Hee, I(and some others on my flist)are doing the same thing! I'm watching anything that she(and Capaldi too)is in, that I can get my hands on. I had see her before, apparently, but in bit rolls that I didn't remember her from like AbFab. I am completely infatuated with her right now.

Doesn't really compare to yours in awesomeness but I recently was sick and did this massive picspam when I began to feel better. Toward the end of it there are a lot of caps of Peter and Rebecca. I love both of their faces! Their expressions are always so brilliant.

[meddow]

I've very sadly pretty much run out of Peter Capaldi's back catalogue (that I can get my hands on) :( My love for both of them increases the more I see of them.

I love the pictures you've got of those two (and the activate Scottish Ninja's one make me crack up laughing). I must know - where are those first few pictures of Rebecca Front from?

[meddow]

That was the moment I fell in love with her too :)

I actually struggled with picking Nicola for halfamoon, because like you, all the other women I tend to love are just amazing, such as Laura Roslin and CJ Cregg. Nicola in terms of achievements and general ability to do her job just pales in comparison.

But as you say, you've got to love her drive and that even though she has to fight to do anything and regularly is humiliated and taunted in the media, she keeps going. And within the context of the show, she shines as being rather selfless.

[arathesane]

I think one thing I really love about Nicola, is that while she is flawed, she never really puts herself down. Others might(Ollie, the unseen James, Terri, etc) but she does not. There is a tradition in female comedy of being self-deprecating which is fine but it often taken beyond that. It can get into self-loathing and that I sometimes have a problem with.

I mean, I adore Tina Fey and Liz Lemon but sometimes I hate how often Liz rags on herself. Jack builds her up more than she does herself. And while I love their relationship(and the show overall) that can be problematic. I wish that so much of the humor wasn't about laughing at Liz.

[meddow]

That's true, and a really great point. And Nicola's belief in herself really is one of her great strengths since otherwise she would never get her forth sector policy off the floor what with not even Ollie and Glenn bothering to even pretend they think it's a good idea.

[icecrystal2k]

These are really nice! The quotes, too! Heh, the one about "I'm using fucking vanilla extract!" never fails to make me laugh.

I love your point about women being allowed to be funny.

[meddow]

Thanks! I love how the show managed to find the comical value in the names of everyday items, vanilla extract being one of them (Ford Focus being another). Seriously, those two things make me smile whenever they come up in other contexts.

[oddrid]

Oh my god I love her so much. That quote when she tells off Malcolm, about how male power obsession is making people despise politics, I LOVE her for that because it's SO TRUE.

I'm definitely bookmarking this so I can come back to it whenever I need cheering up. Thanks!

[meddow]

Watching that scene for the first time, my jaw dropped because it is just the best, most cutting and true retort ever hurled at Malcolm and the way he operates in the history of the show. She had my eternal love for that one statement.

[meddow]

I love that about it too. And same goes for the men, really. None of them are traditionally handsome (not like that stops me from having a massive crush on Peter Capaldi). The show has been cast on talent, which totally explains why it one of the best (if on the best) comic ensemble working on television today. Besides, I think having a 'generic totty' character would undermine the show mission to strive for realism.

[meddow]

Peter Capaldi is a silver fox!

"Look, we're so real! Yeah, we don't have any women over the age of 40 and they're all tiny and look like supermodels, but we're so real" ;)