#tip toe

Do you ever think it's coming back? All that shit from the '90s? We were despised, but you read the stuff online now, it sounds just the same. Do I think it's coming back? Yeah. It's back, you fucking idiot. Right now, it's here.

So far it is okay to good, there are some Dramatic Serious Monologues that do feel a bit more doctor who than real drama and the writing definitely feels a little underbaked in places

I feel like it's struggling to gracefully straddle the line between its drama and social commentary and its comedy, esp bc like

I defo feel like i Know the sort of person alan cummimg's character is, who is so emotive esp in his trans allyship but is also just. Grumpy and bad at it

And is lazy when in community with trans ppl, is clumsy and often basically begs off asking for a free pass, but then when it comes to straight ppl hes like. Actually trans ppl rock and you should all die

Is ultimately like. A centrist wanting it all to Blow Over

The trans girl living w the polish lads felt a bit OTT - not that the actual VIOLENCE isn't real, or how it happens, but the lack of interiority afforded those men except as like. A gang of foreign thugs threatening a trans girl ended up feeling more xenophobic than genuine

In general there is just. A lot of xenophobia and vague anti-immigrant shit from the hetero man, but when you then have "the good gays" having similar problems from foreigners its shitty, esp when its like. Well if these immigrant men are awful to this trans girl, how is it for POLISH trans girls?

Even if i was willing to cede to the bigotry in the xenophobia, having such bigotry come from a gang of Bad Foreigners is so cartoonish, and i'm guessing that the intention is to show that like. The violence isnt from the foreigners but from Str8 Men but in the meantime it feels clumsy

Idk, I like russell T davies' legacy and i appreciate the work that he does, but a lot of his serious work unfortunately always lacks a bit of subtlety bc he just struggles to meaningfully show fear and anxiety without big speeches and serious convos, and Melba really shows that

Like. She really is just here to lecture alan cumming and the audience lmao, i think Paul Rhys is giving a powerful performance but when he's the only one bringing that energy it ends up feeling a bit cheap and silly at worst, and at best, out of place

I was like. God you can really tell that RTD spends all his days in manchester these days - Manc well-off isn't quite the same as London well-off, but it's a far sight off Welsh well-off

And L went, "well tbf he's older and richer than he's ever been" 💀

And idk i think that's largely what's making the show feel so shallow to me so far, there's a real lack of subtlety to its depiction of class in this VERY middle class drama, and how class and perceived class - esp a working class northern tradie - impacts experiences of gender and sexuality

Bc that's ultimately what makes the immigrant stuff feel shallow as well, the lack of meaningful class awareness, w them going "we've done this to them, they all live like this" and the implication that those four polish men, what, deserve to live in those boxes?

And don't even get me started on this evil illegal immigrant pretending to be 14 so he can lurk about as a foster child intent on raping young girls 😭 what in the Orphan fucking nonsense is this

Idk a big problem i had w Half Man is that it's a working class story that ends up kind of tugged around by more middle class sentiments, and the ways in which it's made to feel stage-play-y take away from it. It feels like it wanted the grit of working class pain but not like

The subtlety and reality of the experiences of working class glaswegians, even though those cultures and expectations are the driving factor for the pain and difficulty in every character's struggles and lack of resources

In general there is just. A dearth of working class talent in tv and it SHOWS