Douglas Is Cancelled

A hugely enjoyable series although it did start off a little silly. The jokes did hit and were funny but they just seemed at odds with the story & didn't seem to fit the situation. However episodes 3 & 4 are absolute belters.

The entire cast are great with Hugh Bonneville, Ben Miles and Alex Kingston all playing their parts extremely well with Miles particularly being superbly creepy.

But head and shoulders above this exceptional cast stands Karen Gillan. A still beloved Dr Who assistant She has since provided the Marvel Universe with one of its best character arcs with Nebula, while writing and directing her own films. But IMO Douglas is Cancelled is easily the best work of her career so far, she is absolutely formidable in the final 2 episodes.

Giving a phenomenally brilliant performance. She makes you laugh, makes you cry, makes you hate her and then makes you love her and it's the sort of award worthy performance that makes watching this drama worth your time all on its own.

A very timely story with a timeless lead performance, Douglas is Cancelled is worth checking out.

The whole first episodes are a drag, and they are played like a farce. 3/10. I nearly turned it off. And then the last two episodes are great drama and written far better. 9/10. They should have done it as a two or three episode miniseries instead. Some characters are so overdrawn they feel out of place. And for a series that is (in the end) so squarely in women's corner, why write the wife's character basically as a stereotypical nagging jealous wife? It adds nothing to the point the series makes. There are some baffling decisions in this, so it's quite flawed, all in all, but it was a joy to see Gillan being able to show what she's capable of as an actor.

This show is a strange animal, but also somewhat entertaining, thanks in no small part to its brevity. The plot moves quickly and mercilessly, similar to the way the public internet court can pass judgement on someone like Douglas. As with everything written by Steven Moffat, the dialogues take center stage: they are snappy and spirited, often relying on quick repartees to drive the narrative.

The lead cast is excellent across the board, and I could listen to Karen Gillan's soft Scottish accent all day long. Where the show slumps however, is when the secondary players get any screen time. It's hard to believe that Moffat is the creator of such pointless characters as Douglas' unbearable daughter, or his clueless manager, or Nick the comedy writer, whose lifeless sense of humor is certainly meant to be ironic in and of itself, but really only ends up being discordant.

All in all, it's an interesting project and it's topical enough to generate discussions worth having in this day and age. I just wish Moffat had been more judicious when choosing his characters and a little braver when detailing the actual cancelling.

I am a Moffat-devotee however I had not watched this series until now firstly because trying to watch television on itvx is like trying to catch sunbeams with a butterfly-net and secondly because nothing interests me less than cancel culture not least because I don't really believe it exists however I am pleased to confirm it's awful title to be a total misnomer. This is not a story about the woke mob run amuck, and certainly not a horror story about some poor sod being cancelled for being overheard to make a drunken, sexist joke, this a gripping humanist drama set showing the stark contrast between the surface level optics of rule-by-mob virtue signaling versus what we really should care about, our responsibilities to our fellow humans and why we care about anyone else in the first place. As much as it seems ridiculous to say on a review for a series with such a sensationalist title and description as this does: this is the apotheosis of drama. The first episode was boring, the second thrilling and the third and fourth are poignant think-y feel-y stories about the human experience.

I nearly turned off a couple of times near the start (and I see that many other viewers did, their loss) but ended up bingeing all four episodes in the early hours. I have great respect for writer Stephen Moffat and it was a great cast. I confess to being a Dr Who fan and this reunion of Karen Gillan and Alex Kingston in the main female roles and as powerful characters from kept me glued to my screen (other Whovians from and in smaller roles also featured). The third episode is scary, and skin crawling, but wait .... the fourth is the key. Keep watching. There's always a twist at the end. Yes, I know that's Russell T Davies, but honestly, do keep watching or you'll always be wondering. 100 stars to Karen Gillan in this.