Not annoyed by the way - just pissing about. If there was a pissing about emoticon I'd have used it.
OK, fair enough.
Again, the second part of your paragraph is just a series of vague and generally meaningless assertions. If you put some meat on them with some concrete examples to illustrate what you mean then I might take your arguments seriously.
OK, first in general, let's try to achieve some common ground: I think that last week's episode was the best so far. Do you agree that last week's was superior to this week's, or do you think they were of equal merit?
If you can see a difference, then we'll know we're talking about the same thing. If you can't, then we're probably still not going to understand each other.
The difference I can see is a tightness of writing in last week's that wasn't there in this week's. That isn't about one particular thing, it's an overall presentation thing. The interweaving of the threads in the last weeks were better handled.
We have a developing story: first the minister's daughter has been placed in a state school, for political advantage. Do the opposition use that? How do they use that? We see the opposition team, and get to contrast them at work with the government team. (The impression we get is that the opposition chief spin doctor is far less effectual than Tucker, whereas the shadow minister is far more effectual - and, comparatively, has more integrity - than the minister). This develops into a story about the minister's daughter involved in bullying: who knows, how will they handle it, how does she handle it. (She handles it, as with everything, very badly, and the impression is created that she blames herself - probably rightly - though not enough to actually make any changes. If she knew how).
This is interwoven with her ridiculous and meaningless "policy" idea about pathfinders. The only concrete thing we know about this is that she considers the headteacher to be one.
All of this leads to dramatic tension, which is used to good dramatic and comedic effect. These are good ideas, and they are well used.
Contrast with last night's episode: the ideas are more sparse, and they are not so well handled, in the writing. The minister and shadow minister are on a late night talk show. The two teams are creating havoc in the studio. They have personal agendas and their bosses are badly briefed. Meanwhile two junior advisers aren't there, and their across-the-trenches relationship is on the rocks. Into this mix, a caller breaks a story about donations.
These are good ideas, but the execution is far less adept than last week. The moment the big news story breaks is not made the most of in the structure. It should be a dramatic climax, but it isn't used to as good effect as it could be, dramatically and comedically. It's a missed opportunity. Similarly, the fact that others know Olly is to be dumped before he does is a good tool to draw out comedic and dramatic tension, but in the end it is squandered. The way it is handled is like the way a poor Hitchcock copyist handles suspense: the elements are there, but the effect is spoiled because of the hamfisted way the scripting is handled. The actor playing Ollie is left to pull faces and emote, which he does very well; he's a skillful actor. But with better developed material, it could have been much better. As it was it was obvious, it was telegraphed (which
can be used well, incidentally, like suspense, but wasn't), and we get a weak smile where we could have had a laugh.
The first part of paragaph seems to me to be the real crux of your dislike of the show - you just don't find the gags funny. Well fine, you didn't need to go all Mark "massive hands" Kermode on our arses to say that.
Well, that's the thing: the gags were funny last week, but this week because of the weakness of the writing, they went off like damp squibs. It isn't that I don't like the type of humour. The reason that I bothered to watch so many shows, and to comment on the thread so often, is that I
do like the type of humour, and would like to see it better done than it is here.
(By comparison, I watched ten minutes of Miranda, will never do so again, and felt obliged only to blurt a perfunctory "it's shite" on the dedicated thread).
This is, of course, my opinion. Maybe other people were wetting themselves.
I won't blame anoyone who doesn't read all that ^, but I was asked to expand!
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