Thick of It (2005)

RATING:	60%
FORMAT:	DVD

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Blunt Satire

Nowhere near as good as Yes Minister, it lacks significant insight into British politics in presenting bite-size humor for small minds. Essentially an outsiders' view, the characterization is poor as the humor is not really about human beings at all (& their social affairs) but about playing with words to get cheap laughs.

The unreal world in which White politicians live (referred to as the 'real world') closely follows the world in which Whites, as a whole, live. But the writers offer no appreciation of the metaphysical world in which they claim to be operating; hence, the generalized unreality of a satire that needs to be more strongly reality-centered - otherwise, what is the point of satire?

As in Western politics, in general, politicians seek to obtain, maintain and, ultimately, to grow their power, but can only do so by creating increasingly-crazy policies in a desperate attempt to be popular rather than practical. The failings of democracy are implied but never fully explored, except to point out the rather obvious fatuity of focus groups. Moreover, the female characters are shown as possessing all the common sense the males lack, without no explanation as to why this is so.

Because of these failings, the sometimes-hilarious comedy relies on continual swearing, incessant sexual references and single-joke episodes in the absence of genuine wit. These are the politically-impotent whose continual references to the size of their penises makes it seem that the writers have as much of a phallic problem as do the politicians, and that there is, in fact, more sucking-up to politicians here than any genuine attempt to satirize them.

The basic question this series raises is: Is the UK run by witless incompetents or is the BBC? The comedy here is too focused on cleverness with words than meaning, in a victory of form over content. As we get the politics we deserve; we also get the tv comedy we deserve. At least it’s not as self-congratulatory as The Hour.

Copyright © 2012 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.