It's Murray Time!

[meddow]

I wanted to contribute to halfamoon and decided I would celebrate Nicola Murray, lead character and Secretary of State for the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship in the third series of The Thick of It. I'm not sure how well known it is, but The Thick of It changed last year from a show with a male lead, to a show with a female lead, and really, how often does that happen? That in itself is pretty awesome and that way, she is actually quite ground breaking.

But, really, what I love most about her in terms of being an awesome female character is that she is not the singular and not-so-funny female island of competency in a world of screwed up and hilarious males. No, Nicola is just a screwed up, hilarious and incompetent as all the men in The Thick of It. That sounds contradictory, but the above trope seems to be the norm in comedy these days and I think it's fantastic when women get to be funny.

Comments

[arathesane.livejournal.com]

I think one thing I really love about Nicola, is that while she is flawed, she never really puts herself down. Others might(Ollie, the unseen James, Terri, etc) but she does not. There is a tradition in female comedy of being self-deprecating which is fine but it often taken beyond that. It can get into self-loathing and that I sometimes have a problem with.

I mean, I adore Tina Fey and Liz Lemon but sometimes I hate how often Liz rags on herself. Jack builds her up more than she does herself. And while I love their relationship(and the show overall) that can be problematic. I wish that so much of the humor wasn't about laughing at Liz.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

That's true, and a really great point. And Nicola's belief in herself really is one of her great strengths since otherwise she would never get her forth sector policy off the floor what with not even Ollie and Glenn bothering to even pretend they think it's a good idea.

[arathesane.livejournal.com]

Yes, and she believes in herself in a really realistic way. She is by no means arrogant about it or self-involved. I just adore her character so!