Not Safe for Work

Look, it's decent enough. It's interesting--it's cutting--but it's not funny. And isn't that the litmus test for a comedy?

Every story is tragic, every character is tragic, every personality, quirk and inflection is tragic. Even the one-liners are laced with insecurity. The flimsy comedic packaging only serves to detract from what is otherwise a truly impactive tragedy. For that, I'd still give it an 8.

But these are incredibly accomplished actors, capable of intensely gut-wrenching drama and seemingly effortless wit alike, yet the scenes in which they are high are no better performed than a particularly bad preteen's attempt in drama class. They are as convincing as the press release for a metal condom on the 1st of April. When portrayed well, drugs can be as everyday as a torn carrier bag or as frighteningly intense as the very best thrillers. If you're sucked out of the moment to ponder whether the actors have ever spent time with someone on drugs, or have been so wrecked themselves they only remember the glaringly obvious, it's just not done well. It's 'high' at the basest level. That's a point off.

Another is removed for how blatantly political it is. The writer is painting a very clear picture of someone shouting "You ruined us! You ruined us!" with none of the accommodation of fallibility. She's right. They did ruin us, and it's a crying shame, but writing stories around an issue that all have the exact same moral doesn't give the issue any more depth. It actually does the opposite.

Finally, I can't even remember smiling, much less actually laughing. Even Broadchurch gave us a couple of grins. If it's just going to make you depressed, can you really call it a comedy?

Sacha Dhawan and and Zawe Ashton do their best best work to date, It is so so dark,so dry it will leave you sucking cat litter for a bit of moisture and hilarious. But also quite deep and moving. W1A fans will love.

Summary

This miniseries is a British office drama that offers a nuanced look at English public employment, the target of adjustment policies, without limiting itself to defending or attacking it, or painting private activity as its opposite and panacea. The same can be said about the immigration policies he outlines. And it offers that ability to go from sharp British verbal humor to drama, discomfort and even misery nonstop, hand in hand with a group of endearing, contradictory or toxic characters led by Zawe Ashton, a kind of brunette Jennifer Aniston.

Review

Katherine (Zawe Ashton) is a burgeoning manager of a newly divorced London public immigration policy office who is transferred to an obscure Northampton borough whose continuity is hanging by a thread.

This miniseries is an office drama that could be seen as the other side of Industry, with well-delineated characters. In this case, the public department (also in charge of immigration policies) is adrift, directed on automatic pilot by a drug-abused subject named Daniel (Sacha Dhawan), who is joined by a gallery of broken or devastated characters, in some toxic or naive cases, including a hiring manager, Jeffries (an excellent Anastasia Hille), Daniel's tremendous assistant and friend, Angela (notably Jo Hartley), two rather silly and endearing employees, and a former love interest of Katherine. Added to her personal dramas is the ghost of the dismissal hovering over her heads.

Not Safe for Work offers a nuanced look at British public employment, not limited to defending or attaking it, but as a target of adjustment policies, with the anguish of losing one's job as a permanent backdrop. Nor does it portray private activity as its opposite and panacea and offers the same broad, non-schematic view of immigration policies that it outlines.

The series works very well with its British verbal humor that quickly turns to depression, discomfort and the sufferings of its characters (or with the combination of all this), transits the romantic comedy, although it may not be as effective on the plane of physical humor (fortunately little). The dialogues, in all cases and climates, look welcome conciseness.

Beyond its choral elements, the axis of the series is Katherine, a quite damaged character, rich in contradictions, lights and shadows who is carried forward with charisma by a Zawe Ashton who is a kind of brunette version of Jennifer Aniston.

Then I got it. Given the heavy backstory, I expected it to be rather depressing. I was pleasantly surprised that the acting and, in no small part, the score made it light and humorous. The writers clearly prepped for a second season in the storyline. I hope they get it.

This is definitely a slow-burner but, wow, does it get good! I wasn't sure whether I'd stick with this after episode 1, but I did and I'm really glad. It is not what it initially seems to be. As the series goes on you get to know every character really well and find out why they are as they are. Each person is so realistically developed as it progresses. They actually speak and act like real people. That is so rare, and you start to really care about all of them. There are no villains or heroes, just like in true life, only people struggling to survive and to make sense of what sometimes seems like a pointless and ridiculous world. It is hysterically funny in places and genuinely moving too. The acting, writing and direction are second to none.