Perverse but sometimes brilliant short series about a pair of newscasters (presenters, or what have you), Madeline and Douglas, who, outwardly, at least, have “chemistry”, until some anonymous person tweets that Douglas made an off-color “sexist” joke while drunk at a wedding.
The first mistake in this series is Douglas seeming to admit that he made the joke without remembering what it was (he is asked to repeat the joke over and over again). The second major mistake is having Douglas– supposedly a well-known media personality– be completely clueless about how to manage a softball lob from an anonymous hater (or, as far as we know, a prankster) until, when necessary for a plot twist, he suddenly and dramatically seizes the moment. His sudden assertiveness is as if from a different character altogether.
Douglas and Toby, his producer, immediately act as if the tweet will be believed by everyone and can’t be readily disputed. The most obvious path, to simply dismiss it as fake news, doesn’t seem to occur to them. If he doesn’t remember the joke, why confirm it at all? Add to this the ridiculously preposterous suggestion of crafting an actual anodyne joke of mild offensiveness for Douglas to admit, and one begins to lose faith in the narrative.
Then we go back in time to have the scintillating conversation in Toby’s apartment between Toby and ambitious young presenter Madeline. Toby, like Harvey Weinstein, suggests (without saying so directly) that Madeline will get the position she lusts for if she has sex with him. Spoiler alert!!! This is big problem for the series. Madeline doesn’t leave, in disgust, even when Douglas appears at the door to invite her down to the bar. Douglas, seeing “Do Not Disturb” on the door handle, assumes, without judging harshly, that Madeline has accepted the proposition and goes away. Madeline later blames him for not rescuing her. From what? Herself? She could have walked out, obviously, at any time. Why is Douglas at fault here, as the story obviously firmly decides?
And here is where the series is, finally, gutless: the story would have made sense and could have been powerful if Madeline had, in fact, made the bargain. But “Douglas is Cancelled” wants it both ways. They want to condemn Toby for making the proposition and Douglas for not stepping in, while preserving Madeline’s dubious virtue by having her reject Toby’s advances and then, ridiculously, photograph him naked in his bathtub as if that could be used to blackmail him.
But Madeline did not– when Toby’s intentions became clear– reject the offer and leave. The writer (Steven Moffat) also seems to have forgotten that Toby is single. Why should he give a damn if a young ingenue broadcaster posts pictures suggesting that she was in his bathroom while he was taking a bath? It’s plainly ridiculous. And it would still be his word against hers as to how the circumstance came about. It would also look like Madeline had accepted the bargain. It also definitely shows that Madeline did get her position through manipulation rather than merit (Moffat seems to assume the audience will believe that she automatically has the merit). And it is also clear that Madeline has manipulated events to get rid of her co-host, Douglas, to have the program platform all to herself.
For all it’s flaws, the one brilliant segment, Madeline’s dialogue with Toby in his hotel room, is remarkable, daring, and provocative. Too bad the rest of the series doesn’t live up to the quality of this sequence.
