Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 29, 2024, 10:05:30 AM

Login with username, password and session length

Chivalry (Steve Coogan/Sarah Solemani, Ch4)

Started by Captain Z, April 20, 2022, 09:06:10 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Captain Z

Starts tomorrow, apparently. Who knew.

QuoteChivalry skewers and satirises the complex state of contemporary sexual politics, while asking if romance can survive in the post-#MeToo era.

An unlikely couple are put together by a cynical studio exec to salvage a failing movie. Bobby is a woke writer/director and mother of one with a precarious relationship and a dodgy visa. She's lauded as the potential next-big-talent after a successful, low-budget indie debut and is promised studio funding for her feminist Biblical biopic if she can rescue this sexually controversial thriller first.

Cameron is a successful film producer and "ladies' man", who has just been dumped by yet another twenty-something girlfriend (via WhatsApp). He knows he must detoxify his sexist movie or face ruin, and thus an unlikely partnership is forged.

As Bobby and Cameron work through their gender tensions, a creeping attraction and the nagging feeling that they are just pawns in the studio's agenda for a Saudi buyout, reshooting a toxic sex scene becomes the tip of the iceberg.

How fluid are our politics and how political are our fluids? And can romance blossom - not in spite of #MeToo, but because of it?

https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/chivalry/

dr beat


lauraxsynthesis

I've seen the first 2 episodes - the whole box set is up on All4. I hadn't known Sarah Solemani and enjoy her very much in this. Interestingly the All4 website describes it as a drama not a comedy though there are good jokes and comedy performances. I'm guessing that means it's going to get dark as it goes on. Perhaps like I May Destroy You? I'm enjoying it and expect to keep watching to the end.

Episode 1 had a cameo from Paul Rudd which was particularly fun as a fan of Ideal Home.

neveragain

Enjoyed this very much. Delightful and intelligent script which was well-paced, brilliantly performed, funny (intermittently, more of a drama) and examined the issues very well, but I'm at a loss as to what the ending meant. If anyone can help, please let me know what I missed.

Spoiler alert
cake
[close]

up_the_hampipe

I got through all of this quite quickly and I think I enjoyed some of it, but ultimately I'm not sure. A lot of the writing was a bit heavy-handed and the plot got very cheesy. Wanda Sykes is great, though, and Coogan played what could have been a very unsympathetic character pretty well.

The scene with the uncomfortable stand-in in episode two seemed to be quite hypocritical (Lark yells at him, Bobby sexually assaults Cameron) but it isn't addressed. Are we supposed to recognise that or were we supposed to be laughing at the dumb stand-in guy who won't just do the scene?

neveragain

Quote from: up_the_hampipe on April 24, 2022, 08:39:50 PMThe scene with the uncomfortable stand-in in episode two seemed to be quite hypocritical (Lark yells at him, Bobby sexually assaults Cameron) but it isn't addressed. Are we supposed to recognise that or were we supposed to be laughing at the dumb stand-in guy who won't just do the scene?

I like to think the show is intelligent enough to realise that, and Lark and Bobby (and Cameron) are flawed characters who we aren't supposed to support at every turn.
If you don't believe me saying that, there is a Radio Times interview in which Coogan and Solemani say that neither of their characters are perfect.

up_the_hampipe

Quote from: neveragain on April 24, 2022, 10:46:36 PMI like to think the show is intelligent enough to realise that, and Lark and Bobby (and Cameron) are flawed characters who we aren't supposed to support at every turn.
If you don't believe me saying that, there is a Radio Times interview in which Coogan and Solemani say that neither of their characters are perfect.

Ah okay, well that's what I was hoping. Given what happens with Bobby's character as the episodes progress, that does make sense.

kitsofan34

Seven posts in and the mystery of the final scene remains unsolved for poor old neveragain and I. This show isn't popular enough to google "Chivalry ending explained" and gain an answer. Please, somebody, anybody.

up_the_hampipe

I thought the ending was just
Spoiler alert
she loved that cake (which is previously referenced), he races to the airport to give her the cake as a gesture of love, he can't get her attention on the plane because he's swarmed by security so he just lobs it at the window. She sees it and presumably realises it was him, so she smiles to herself suggesting she's going to get with him at some point in the future, or she's just reflecting on her time with him.
[close]

lauraxsynthesis

I had forgotten the previous cake mention.

I felt an episode was missing before the end. It really wasn't clear to me
Spoiler alert
that Cameron was falling for her so that confession just came out of nowhere. I get that he's shallow and falls for women all the time but even so it was kinda unearned that whole payoff.
[close]


up_the_hampipe

I assumed he did when
Spoiler alert
he offered to take her to the ranch, then his upset at finding out she hooked up with the editor. All of it happened quite suddenly from both sides really.
[close]

Des Wigwam

I liked it. Made me laugh quite a bit. I did think Coogan tapped into the subtler parts of his more famous role - and I feel bad pointing it out.

It seemed a bit muddled and breathless to start with but calmed down. Glad that seemed to be the plan all along. Wanda Sykes was great. Probably used just the right amount but I could have listened to her phone calls for hours. Thought it was interesting listening to her justification for being a complete cunt to everyone and probably the most interesting character for me when it came down to it. Thought Coogan's character was set up to be not that bad in the scheme of things which meant he could be reconstructed with minimal effort. He mainly seemed guilty of negligence (wilful and otherwise). He didn't seem to come out on top with any of the women.
Spoiler alert
Christian / Chris the intern / replacement was a very creepy character. I've only spoilered it because of his final appearance
[close]
.

I thought the romance was a bit forced and even unnecessary. I assume the cake was just a Grand Gesture but I liked how pointless they made it. I did think he was quite lucky not to be shot dead, though.

The husband seemed to get the shittiest end of the stick overall - unsuccessful, a bit incompetent, and a love rat.

I saw The Mail hated it so I liked it even more. I haven't got a link to the story though and tbh wouldn't want to post one either.

dissolute ocelot

I feel the ending would have been clearer
Spoiler alert
if the cake had looked more middle-eastern, more pistachios and spices, not just cream and chocolate.
[close]

Otherwise I enjoyed it. It sometimes did feel kind of fragmentary or bitty; often that was good when it was showing different sides of their personalities, or different parts of the filmmaking process. But there were a lot of things which cropped up briefly and were then dropped, and it didn't have much of a through storyline
Spoiler alert
aside from the romance which I felt was a bit lazy/retrograde, even if there was some nice sexual tension in earlier episodes.
[close]
But the flipside of the loose structure was that there were lots of great cameos and guest stars and little bits, a lot of whom could have had much bigger roles in it. I thought we'd get more of Lolly Adefope saying filthy stuff, for instance. And I liked the story with the dim hunky stand-in in ep 2, the way he managed to make everything about him; does this mean intimacy coaches are no longer the heroes of the film industry?

All the performances were very good, which definitely helped ground the characters, tie it together, and stop it being just stupid Hollywood people being silly. They left it very open for another season though.

Des Wigwam

I felt the thing about him getting Lolly Adefope's character's name wrong was funny but was everyone meant to look unreasonable / pretentious in that bit? He thought she was called Anna. Bobby, out of nowhere, asked if it was Ama or Anna. Ama said it was a common mistake that she often doesn't bother to correct (unless I misunderstood and she said she had told him but he'd ignored it).

jaydee81

Quote from: kitsofan34 on April 24, 2022, 11:09:14 PMSeven posts in and the mystery of the final scene remains unsolved for poor old neveragain and I. This show isn't popular enough to google "Chivalry ending explained" and gain an answer. Please, somebody, anybody.

Just binge watched this. Just wanted to add my tuppence. In the trailer with the stand in, he says he likes the end of her movie where you see the main character smiling and you're not sure what they're thinking (or something along these lines.)

This was essentially recreated in the last shot of Solemani smiling

The Mollusk

Thought this bolted out of the gate really strongly and the first three episodes were very good, but wow it dribbled into textbook melodramatic pish in the last two. Ohh I'm in love with you oohhh. And that's good is it?

Captain Z

I'm afraid to say I didn't even finish it. My attention started to drift around episode three and a couple more went by without me taking anything in. I have absolutely zero interest in the world of Hollywood, actors and directors etc, so it's probably just not for me.

Menu

Quote from: neveragain on April 22, 2022, 03:41:47 PMEnjoyed this very much. Delightful and intelligent script which was well-paced, brilliantly performed, funny (intermittently, more of a drama) and examined the issues very well, but I'm at a loss as to what the ending meant. If anyone can help, please let me know what I missed.

Spoiler alert
cake
[close]

I thought it was all pretty good but I can't remember the ending.

Hope this helps!