Roadkill: Episode 4

 "I will set my country free..."

Argh. You know how things are, essentially, good, bad or indifferent, and in reviewing something (not that I’d necessarily describe this blog as a “review” but me just pontificating however I want), one is essentially placing what one is reviewing along that scale, and why? Well, this episode- and by extension the series- is rather difficult to put on that scale. To show why, I’m going to discuss the episode twice- as a taut political thriller and as a state of the nation political drama from David Hare.

As a thriller, with Peter Laurence as an antihero who schemes his way to the top while still being recognisably human, this is bloody good. It’s admirable how nearly the places click into place in this final episode. The whole thing is extremely well structured, with no loose ends and some nice character stuff- the meeting between Peter and Rose is nicely heartwarming, and I like how they subvert expectations by connecting- although the comparison between the politician and the fraudster is clear. It's House of Cards for the '20s.

Unfortunately, as this is a play by David Hare, I think we're supposed to see some kind of depth of commentary on the state of the nation, wth Peter Lawrence being a thinly veiled Boris Johnson. But there's no attempt here to understand the Tory mind. While I'm sure many Tories are indeed cynical bastards, that's a fairly shallow point to make. Yes, Peter is allowed to have genuine libertarian principles, but this is essentialy taking House of Cards and expecting us to take it, not just as a bit of Machiavellian fun, but as a serious examination of modern Toryism. There's no sense whatsoever that Hare has made any attempt to look at how Tories see themselves. One doesn't have to be a Tory, or right wing (I'm neither: I'm a Whig) to understand that some people, whether I agree or not, may see value in a Burkean clinging to tried and tested institutions and caution about change lest we risk the chaos of change, or indeed in a more fundamentalist view of the free market, incompatible though these ideas surely seem. It would hard to extend this approach to the shallow and destructive Leninism of a Dominic Cummings, which would be fascinating, but most Tories would agree with me there.

I'll be generous, and treat Roadkill as a modern House of Cards. In those terms, it's rather good although not as good as the original. But it's no more than that.

Roadkill: Episode 3

 "I love your turbulence. It makes people think."

I may, while admiring the craftsmanship of the script, have been a little on the lukewarm side about last episode. Fortunately, and pleasantly, this third episode was full of incident, drama, wit, subtle characterisation and, yes, relataile characters.

We begin with two contrasts. Charmian is, indeed, dead. But we move swiftly to scenes of Peter smoothly speechifying as he leaves hospital. It's then sraight home where an outraged Lily has called a family conference- including environmental activist and Peter's other daughter Susan- to discuss his infidelity. It's a fascinatingly subtle series of scenes. Susan is closer to Peter, yet her politics are so different. And Peter's wife Helen throws him out of the house not for his infidelity but for the damage to her dignity of it becoming known, and her becoming an object of pity. These scenes feel very real.

Then Peter returns to Madeleine (still a surprisingly small role for Sidse Babett Knudsen), and a parallel reckoning as she lets out her own rage at being the other woman, used, never allowed into his life. Peter's personal life has collapsed, and all because of his past action- even before another consequence materialises as his secret daughter Rose, in prison, wants to make contact.

But Peter's secrets are being uncovered, as the barrister slowly pieces things together, ending with possession of the tape containing Charmian's last interview from before she died. The walls are seemingly closing in for Peter. Yet there also seem to be walls closing around the prime minister, and we all know that Peter is in the frame.

The concluding episode looks as though it will certainly ne exciting, but this episode was good fun, full of great dialogue and pithy observations, such as that the UK pretty much only does arms manufacturing, pharma and financial services. This still isn't Edge of Darkness, but it's good telly.

Doctor Who: Time Heist

"Still don't understand why you're in charge...?"

"Basically, it's the eyebrows."

My heart sank when I discovered this was to be written by the less-than-impressive Steve Thompson, and even more by the "and Steven Moffat"; is this a script so bad it's had to be largely rewritten by the showrunner? Still, perhaps I wasn't to worry; after all, Into the Dalek was by "Phil Ford and Steven Moffat" and that was ok. Still, what's with all these co-credits? RTD rewrote scripts all the time and never claimed a co-credit. Moffat had a reputation for not re-writing as much, but surely he must have done so a little, and if not then why so often this series? It's a mystery.

Still... this is actually quite good, and certainly the best from Thompson. I suspect it's not really down to the script, though; the pre-credits sequence is superb (is it just me who was reminded of Saw by the concept of four strangers waking up and being made to perform a task by a mysterious figure with a voice like Tobin Bell's?), but the rest of the episode, while exciting, doesn't really fulfil it's promise and the ending, while logical, feels a little abrupt, although I like the twist of the Architect being the Doctor, predictable though it may be. I'm afraid that this story, while good, is only my second favourite Doctor Who take on the Minotaur legend after The Horns of Nimon.

Still, there's much to like here. I like the tragic cyberpunk figure of Psi, who can delete his memory banks without the aid of those worms from The Snowmen. Its a heartbreaking tragedy to have to delete your loved ones to avoid harming them and... the character is essentially a walking metaphor for the Doctor. So is Saibra, forever apart from others and yearning to be free of her baggage. And Keeley Hawes makes a superb guest baddie as both Kabraxos and her clone. But are we to infer, from the Doctor's observation that she must be full of self loathing if she "fires" her own clones and that he "hates" the Architect, that he is full of self-loathing too? Is every major guest character here a metaphor for the Doctor?

So much for the good-but-not-great script. What really elevates this is the direction of Douglas Mackintosh, whose use of colour and camera angles is at once modern, brilliant and heavily suggestive of the visual grammar of the heist movie. I'm struck by the scene in which he shoots our four bank robbers, in a little room, from above. In fact, the general standard of direction so far this season has been universally superb. 

Oh, and Abslom Daak is now officially canon!

There's not been much in terms of the season arc this week, aside from Clara's upcoming date and another mention of that mysterious woman in the shop. But it all seems to be coming to a head this week.