Season 37 - The Amazing Mrs Pritchard (2007)
What most of us turn to Masterpiece for is a good old fashioned period drama. Yes, there have been modern shows here and there, and many quite exceptional, but for most of us it's all about the period drama. Well, watching The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard now, it feels like a period drama. Looking back on a simpler time in politics before Trump and Brexit it feels so long ago that it's a different era. Plus with the cast, Steven Mackintish, Jodhi May, Janet McTeer, Carey Mulligan, Geraldine James, Tom Mison, Siobhan Finneran, and Harry Hadden-Paton to name a few, it is like the best of the best from British period dramas are represented here. Then factor in the Downton-esque music by John Lunn playing over several characters from Downton Abbey, and well, it might be modern but it feels like Masterpiece to me. Though it's an odd little miniseries, written by Sally Wainwright who has gone on to create the procedurals Scott and Bailey and Happy Valley, the feel good Last Tango in Halifax, and the sensational period lesbian romp Gentleman Jack, The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard never really finds it's feet and ends on an abrupt note, and that note was only on the DVD at that. Ros Pritchard is a woman with no political experience who ends up Prime Minister by just telling it like it is and vowing to never lie. While I adore Jane Horrocks, she doesn't have the heft needed for the role and is outclassed by everyone around her. But more importantly, I couldn't figure out the message of the miniseries. What was it trying to say? It is oddly pro-Brexit before Brexit happened with a bizarre streak of British exceptionalism. Also Ros's Purple party is almost all women, is this a commentary on women in traditional male roles and how they succeed or fail based on how much of the traditional female roles they're willing to give up, like motherhood? Also, while this was obviously written about a fake election it seems prophetic. I mean, look what we're living through here in the States! A person entirely ignorant of government being elected to the highest position in the land. Again! But in reality there have tons and tons of deaths and concentration camps instead of everyone banding together and riding a bus. So yeah... it now cuts a little too close to the bone... The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard just doesn't understand the implications of what it's attempting and failing to say.
Liam Mathews who writes for TV Guide said of season one of The Old Man that it "had one of the most precipitous in-season declines in recent TV history. If it had maintained the level of thoughtfulness and tension of its first two episodes, it would have been one of the best shows of 2022... But it fell apart as it went along, becoming mired in portentous monologues and baffling plot choices before ending with a reveal so obvious that I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be surprising or not." And I honestly can't disagree with that statement. At all. In fact I couldn't have said it better myself. And that's why I chose to quote another writer. This show thrives on one thing and one thing alone, Jeff Bridges kicking ass. So what do they spend all their time doing? Waffling around issues and bogging down the show in bewildering plotlines in what feels like a deliberate attempt to draw it out for as many episodes as they can. Because striped bare this show isn't about politics it's about daddy issues. And Alia Shawkat's "Angela Adams" dealing with her three dads. She's got her real dad, her stepdad, and her work dad... And is this really supposedly prestige TV because it sounds like it could be a comedy in the eighties? This bait and switch from action to family angst couldn't have been good for ratings. If it wasn't for the fact I respect the actors and was mildly intrigued by the annoying cliffhanger I wouldn't have even tuned in for season two. And if I'm honest, I wish I hadn't turned in. The poster for this season I think captures it all, they're treating the Middle East like the Wild West and it's all about exploiting the indigenous people and leaning into the white savior complex all our characters carry around like a millstone. I don't care if this is about a girl stuck between words, or whatever they were trying to do with Parwana/Emily/Angela. If they gave out Razzies for television shows Alia Shawkat would have taken all the prizes. This show was so out of touch with reality and with utlizing the talent they had at their disposal that they ended up making one of the worst television shows in recent years that, like an old horse, as been thankfully put out of it's misery. To show how badly this show dragged out it's plot Janet McTeer, who here plays John Lithgow's ex-wife, shows up in the second to last episode and in ONE SCENE summarizes everything that we have been forced to endure and explains why this has happened and what the goals are and I was blown away. You mean I could have been saved hours of my life by just having Janet McTeer show up and just tell me what was happening in a few short minutes? Can I opt for that in the future? Or maybe not. She and John Lithgow are on my shit list because of a certain long term commitment they recently entered into with HBO. At least I never have to her about Parwana/Emily/Angela again and that right there is a goal I never knew I needed in my life.
