03. all hail the queen of delayed reactions

[grenadine]

So, The Thick of It, 3x08.

(This post brought to you by meddow's excellent best of 2009 post, which reminded me that I wanted an icon of Nicola making that Very Complicated Face at the end of 3x07, so I went and capped that, which led to rewatching all of 3x07, which led to rewatching 3x08, too, which led to my being up waaaaay past my bedtime last night

Comments

[meddow]

I don't really know how they ended up with this amazing, lovely, fucked-up dynamic, but it's brilliant. They spend all their time screaming at each other, but underneath it she sort of really does trust him, and he sort of really is fond of her.

It is the most gloriously wonderful fucked up dynamic. It's life flirting, I've decided. They disagree over something, she plays (or just is) hard to get, he chases after her and eventually she gives in. I have to wonder if the show was aiming for it, or if it just kind of achieved itself by accident. I know Nicola was brought in to be more of a challenge for Malcolm, someone who he can't just yell at, but whether that amazingly complex dynamic that they have which I have yet to find appropriate words to describe was deliberate.

I totally did not know about the deliberate Malcolm-Gandalf comparison. Just when I think I cannot love this show any more than I do right now, I find I can.

Tom Hollander was the best in-joke casting ever. It's like Malcolm's actions from In the Loop have come

[grenadine]

Those two. I don't even know. It feels like they're playing this long, elaborate game of chess with each other that they're not even aware of most of the time, in addition to all the surface maneuvering. And I think it's all down to Nicola being that challenge for Malcolm. Like, in the first episode, she deadpans that bit about her daughter and heroin, and you can see him crack this smile like oh, hey. live one and they're off to the races.

Just when I think I cannot love this show any more than I do right now, I find I can.

If they'd literally come to me and said: "We're going to write you a TV show! What would you like?" it would be this. I thought that right about when Cal Richards showed up, like, are they writing this show just for me now? Because basically I think it's perfect?