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Party Animals shows the new face of British politics,
following the political power brokers of tomorrow as they
work hard and play even harder. It may tackle big political
themes, but with style and wit. You don't need an interest
in politics to enjoy the series. It's a workplace like many
others, but with its own special brand of office gossip and
competition. Like
most twenty-somethings, Scott, Danny, Ashika and Kirsty spend
much of their day worrying about love, sex, friendship and
paying the rent. Unlike most twenty-somethings, the rest of
the time they're worrying about running the country...
With
the departure of Menzies Campbell from the British Liberal
Democrat Party, due to his age, maybe it is time to reassess
the BBC's Party Animals, a show which depicts the lives
of the hedonistic thirty-somethings which work in the back
offices of Westminster.
Party
Animals was first shown on BBC Two from January 2007 and
this set represents the first eight episodes. It's an odd
show, not quite a political drama and not quite a soap opera,
leaving it in a no man's land as far as the audience is concerned.
This lack of focus might explain why the show only gained
a modest audience.
The
other problem is that politics is just not a sexy subject.
Previous shows which have trod this path have either shown
the political process from a unique perspective as in Jane
Horrocks The Amazing Mrs Pritchard which highlighted
the process from the perspective of an ordinary housewife
who succeeds in becoming Prime Minister, or the must see spectacular
House of Cards staring Ian Richardson as the manipulative
and murderous Francis Urquhart, who will stop at nothing to
achieve ultimate political power. What both these shows had
were an interesting twist on an otherwise dull subject.
Unfortunately,
Party Animals asks you to care about a bunch of relatively
unscrupulous bland young things, who don't even seem to care
that much about the work that they do. Their passion seems
to be almost exclusively reserved for their sex lives, so
if they don't care why should we? Even the subject matter
of each episode leaves a lot to be desired.
Episode
one introduces the various characters when Danny Foster (Matt
Smith) looses a folder in the loos, meaning that his boss,
Labour Minister Jo Porter (Raquel Cassidy) is made to look
a fool by her Tory counterpart James Northcote (Patrick Baladi)
in front of the Commons. The proposal about rehabilitating
ASBO teens misses the point. The teenagers should, as My Chemical
Romance so succinctly puts it, scare the living sh*t out of
you. After all that's their job - youth should represent rebellion.
Against this backdrop the lives and loves of the characters
are introduced in a very lacklustre way. Even the death at
the end of episode one leaves you cold as you really don't
find much to empathise with.
Episode
two carries on the theme, this time the controversy is around
a novel which offends the Muslim community - Salman Rushdi,
how quickly we forget. Scott (Andrew Buchan) is still chasing
Ashika's (Shelly Conn) skirt, which gets up Sophie's (Clemency
Burton-Hill) nose. Do they use the opportunity to examine
religious rights in a secular country or even the dichotomy
of whether you define yourself by your religion or your country?
Well of course not.
Episode
three and the shenanigans continue. Ashika is approached to
become an MP. Obviously, given the show's desire to hang the
soap element on a cause, we have the treatment of bears in
China. To tackle this heady subject Scott is teamed up with
vivacious Vienna Lurie.
Episode
four and... oh dear, sometimes a party is not a great idea
when various attempts to have a good time go wrong. The political
freebee this time is two fold, drugs reform and Russians wanted
for extradition; just don't expect any look at the problem,
just a lot of bitching, kissing and navel gazing. Danny arranges
a date to prove that he is not infatuated with Kirsty. He
then arranges a party for Jo which does not sit well with
her husband.
Episode
five and what do you do when the love of your life takes off
with your brother? Danny discovers that Kirsty has bumped
uglies with Scott, which sparks off another hour of people
nattering about their relationships.
Episode
six, and the last episode I received for review, and Ashika's
plans to become the next MP continue. This time the show is
hung on Iraq. Kirsty gets a death threat.
Overall
the show lacks the wit or drama which it would have needed
to become a hit, the examination of the emotional lives of
the main characters has been done better elsewhere, as has
the political backdrop. The characters lack passion and the
acting is so low key that it is difficult to care what happens
to them.
No
doubt the show will find an audience, but not with me. It
didn't help that the PR company only sent out two of the three
disc set, with only two episodes left to go I'm presuming
that the last disc contains some extras, but I'll never know,
as they apparently ran out of review discs.
The
three disc set has a pristine print and a stereo audio track
with an optional subtitle track.
Charles
Packer
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