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Cabin Pressure Advent Day 9: Ipswich
IIIIIIPSWIIIIIICH!
In my opinion, Ipswich heralds a really key moment in the development of not just Cabin Pressure, but John Finnemore's (solo) projects in general- it's his first really genius episode in terms of plotting, where he first utilizes Chekhov's Gun with pinpoint precision while also building a watertight and well-structured plot that incorporates great character work.
He shows signs of it earlier in the show, obviously, but this is the episode where he first does it basically seamlessly. Douz is the closest, for sure, but the culminating moment of the plan, however genius it is, still handwaves away a few inconvenient questions like "is it any more legal to drive a plane on the highway than to take off without clearance?" Other episodes also have some good moments but the Chekhov's Gun placements are a bit obtrusive (Cremona and Edinburgh, for example).
(I'll make a note about Gdansk- it has some great Chekhov's Guns, but the plot is basically constructed AROUND them. That requires a lot of its own skill in plot construction, but is different than here.)
What I think is so great about Ipswich is that
a) the Chekhov's Gun is not just planted seamlessly, it's also planted unobtrusively- the masterful way that the number "nineteen" is hammered into our heads at the beginning, only for there to be a red herring appearance of the question/answer that puts us off our guard, and then that final moment of realization and resolution... it's just so good. Smaller ones like Martin's inner ear issue are also handled super well- we hear about it in a very specific context that is relevant to the plot and we don't even think twice about, only for it to come back in a new way later out of nowhere. Chekhov's Gun blends in perfectly with the decor.
b) everything is directly in the service of the plot, and makes sense. This is where there's the difference from Gdansk- there, there wouldn't BE a situation in the first place without some of those Chekhov's Guns that were planted (like the seven dwarves game), whereas here there is a very specific plot (how does MJN do when they need to prove their skills in front of regulators) and all of the Chekhov's Guns directly relate to that. Douglas's use of the "hey chief" line is hilarious both the first time and the second, and is used in utterly characteristic ways that also fit in completely logically with what they've been doing in this episode. There's of course a certain amount of coincidence that you have to allow because that's what makes it a sitcom episode rather than real life, but everything is still done incredibly realistically. (At least, from a human perspective- I don't actually KNOW whether the trainings are like that, but from what others have said they seem to be at least somewhat based on reality so that's cool!)
c) everything is directly in service of the theme! There is also a theme and it melds perfectly into the episode- who is the alpha dog. From beginning to end, we know that this episode is about power struggles, and the fact that something that just seems like a (fucking hilarious) joke- Douglas's whole "hey chief" routine- ends up coming back in something that he addresses, in a certain amount of seriousness, to Carolyn is just perfect. It shows what is only confirmed in the next scene- that Douglas knows who the alpha dog is. And, incidentally, one of the reasons why he knows this is his own realization that if they don't pass, it will "make him feel unemployed." He HAS to concede and that makes the moment only more powerful. (I'd also add that the "Marvin and Dougal" convo serves as a kind of textual evidence for Martin and Douglas, in this episode's power struggle, really being equal beta dogs, but that's not a Chekhov's Gun, just close reading.)
Anyway, I may be overly reading into any of this, but the upshot is that I listened to this, after listening to the prior eight episodes, and was just so massively impressed by the structural quality in a way that surpassed any of the prior episodes- but which I know, as an obsessive listener, is only a harbinger of some brilliantly plotted episodes to come- and the next one is, of course, the fantastic Johannesburg tomorrow!
#cabin pressure#cabin pressure advent#cabin pressure advent 2023#john finnemore#ipswich#i've stopped pointing out that the episodes have funny bits because i feel like that's something we should take as a given#but arthur is particularly on fire this episode in that department#especially “i know- that's why i'm worried!”#just... chef's kiss
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Cabin Pressure Advent Day 21: Uskerty
I absolutely adore this episode as the origin of my single favorite Cabin Pressure line: "You know, between the dames and the horses, sometimes I don't know why I even put my hat on." Nothing will ever beat it for me.
So yeah, this episode is super funny, but I do want to talk a bit about something that's come up as my go to "look, a THEME!" here- vulnerability. Because as I was listening, trying to figure out what I was taking away from this episode besides "this is all really funny and well plotted" because at a certain point that gets old, it struck me that there are ways that both of our (absolutely brilliant) pairings this episode really strike a chord when considering the role of vulnerability- and lack of it- in relationships.
This is a bit less so in the Douglas-Arthur pairing in this episode, which is inspired (and yay, there's finally a nice airport manager!)- there are brilliant set pieces, and the premise of the bar conversation allows two very different people to kind of sort of attempt to understand each other. There's also a really nice father/son element- we already can perceive, even if it's not said outright, that Arthur doesn't have much of a father figure- his life is very dominated by Carolyn's influence, even in the majority-male flight deck, in a way that I think even tints his interactions with Mr Birling about sports (there's a tinge of eagerness for acceptance), which he's clueless about. Would Arthur know more about sports if he'd had a dad who gave a shit about him? Who knows. But this episode giving him an older man who's willing to open an as-yet-shut door into a men's world that excites him.
The men's world is, of course, the world of the pub. We've already seen a glimpse of Douglas in that milieu in Kuala Lumpur, and usually I'd say the less said about that the better, but I think there's something interesting about how mean spirited and surfacey it could be there, alongside Arthur's misunderstanding what Douglas means about "talking about their lives." He asks a question that is so unexpectedly and deeply personal that Douglas isn't even upset that he asks, he understands that this is another rule of masculine bar/pub conversation that he has to teach Arthur. On a certain level, this is fine on its own- there's a time and place for everything- but if you look at it a certain way, it can reinforce tropes about men and expressing emotions and feelings. And yet... even by following the rules of pub chat that Douglas lays out for him, and trying to fall into its ritualistic norms (like creative insults), Arthur, in part through his own open-book vulnerability, is able to bring things to a place where Douglas is pretty unselfconsciously vulnerable himself, about the place in the world where he finds himself. And by the end, he's fallen more into Arthur's more atmospheric image of two men in a bar. He's loosened up, and isn't playing by the rules anymore. It's just really nice (in addition to being hilariously funny).
The Martin and Carolyn pairing is maybe a bit less novel than the Douglas and Arthur one, but it still works really well in this discussion of vulnerability. Both of them have had pretenses/barriers they try to keep up- and both, incidentally, are related to their own interest in expressing that they are in control- but by now Martin has learned enough to have started to relax his. This actually really helps, as his actions aren't hampered by pretense or pride- he's basically able to function ALMOST competently with the cabbie as a result. But Carolyn is almost on overtime trying to keep her barriers up against vulnerability and it is clearly driving her a bit bananas, hence her complete dysfunction this episode- she has to be ironic and invulnerable about her gift to Herc, to prove that she may be seeing him but she doesn't have feelings (which will of course come to haunt her in Vaduz), and as a result loses all her judgment. And her overtime craziness is, unusually enough, what causes Martin’s misfortune, not his own incompetence! He's the functional one here, not her, because unlike her he's not filtering all his behavior through this one very constricting lens.
Once Martin is able to open her up a bit in the discussion of his salary- where she starts off in control as the boss and is forced to face the fact that Martin is loyal to her even when he shouldn't be*, which could very easily pierce the defenses of her invulnerability as she has to accept this reality- she starts to mellow out. Whereas she starts off saying that she's “not a little old lady” so she can’t do the totally reasonable thing until Martin begs, afterward she manages to chill enough that she can do the, you know, sane thing even though it dings her a bit in the self-confidence. She's not quite as in thrall to her inner barriers anymore.
I'll just end off by saying- this episode may also, in addition to my favorite line, have my favorite closing lines of any episode, with the possible exception of Zurich 2. Though that one's mostly about the nostalgia and emotions. So maybe this is it.
*On this note- when did Martin stop looking for jobs? He was looking in Rotterdam… given my St Petersburg post I wonder if it was before or after that.
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Cabin Pressure Advent Day 23: Wokingham
WOKINGHAMMMMMMMM!
I absolutely love everything about this episode. Literally everything. It's just basically perfect.
It's also, like Vaduz, an episode that would never, ever, EVER have happened in S1. I mean, S1 had a dude literally die on the plane and "it "what to do" was turned into a comedy routine... this is a much more, Idunno, humanist approach, I guess. It's hilarious, but it takes its humor from things other than the actual medical situation itself.
But even beyond that- would S1 Douglas have played along when Carolyn said that he cried when confronted by the bird strike in St Petersburg? Would he have even put a pause on the game? Would he have even shown up? Almost definitely not. The only constant, of course, is Arthur, who would have been equally willing to show up to keep Martin's mother busy in any season you can name. Lovely, lovely Arthur, and what an absolutely perfect scene by the way.
Now, there's the meta way of looking at it where people are like "I appreciated it when JF was writing a darker and more cynical show," which a) I disagree with factually (I think there were always hints of what the show would become from the beginning- I mean, as far back as Abu Dhabi, Douglas helped Martin out with the match) and b) I disagree with as a matter of taste (the heartwarming episodes are GREAT). But I have to hope that the meta people at least concede that the development FROM S1 to S4 in terms of the very different ways that people behave is extremely consistent with the character development. Douglas and Carolyn have both made some strides in the way that they relate to Martin that allow them to go run interference for him, but at the same time Martin has grown to become the kind of person who they mind less running interference for. He's mellowed, he's started to be less hung up on his rank for the most part, he's less obsessed with his self image. S1 Douglas would have never done it- but S1 Martin would have given him little reason to, and we've seen that change pretty organically.
It also helps, obviously, that Douglas and Carolyn know exactly what they're dealing with. Some of it, maybe, is seeing how Martin (and, to be honest, Caitlin!) ended up that way, with Simon to cut him down to size- and, as we've heard, his dad as well back when he was alive. (Incidentally, I meant to mention this in Uskerty but I found the fact that Martin has worn his dad's signet ring since the funeral to be both really sweet and just... gah. Emotional.) I feel like we've also all, at some point, met people who are, if not Simons themselves, have Simonistic qualities, so to speak. Carolyn and Douglas, as people who love to put on performances like this and have a bit of a proprietary feeling about Martin (in an "only we get to tease him" kind of way), presumably did it at least partly for the fun of it!
That said, this episode would not have been what it could have been without Wendy. Prunella Scales is amazing, and it's worth noting that (as JF mentioned in a podcast interview I heard once) she was in the early stages of dementia and, according to JF, was not always with it offstage but was just absolutely astonishing as soon as they started performing. She plays every note so perfectly, and adds a really interesting note of, well, momness (or I guess I should say mumness) that is really easy to identify with and also a VERY striking contrast to Carolyn, both for better and, occasionally, for worse- Carolyn would have never said anything remotely like "maybe Simon knows best" lol.
All in all, just really really good fun, hilarious, well plotted, all the usual... oh, and with another amazing audio humor joke with the doctor asking about the costume party. Just perfect.
Important question though: how on earth in this whole brag-off with Simon did Martin never slip that he's dating the freaking Princess of Liechtenstein?! How?!?! I'm not going to call it a plot hole because that's not how these things work, but I can imagine that he had to REALLY hold himself back from blurting it out.
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Cabin Pressure Advent Day 4: Douz
DOUZZZZZ!!!
OK so after my previous posts, where I was like "well these episodes aren't fully baked yet but soon we'll get to Douz which is where it gets really good," I kind of knew that I'd have to describe WHY I think that once I got here. So here's my attempt.
First of all, that's not to say that this is fully matured Cabin Pressure. The show builds and builds on itself and in my opinion consistently gets better. But I do think that Douz has some things that the prior episodes don't:
The obvious one is that we first see the cracks in MJN Air. Carolyn is vulnerable for the first time on the show (and TBH probably the first time ever? lol) and we now know not only that Carolyn's a bit of a tartar about money, but that she has to be to keep the company going.
Plus, Douglas now knows what the real stakes are, because now HIS job is on the line too- so he can't just mess around as easily with Martin anymore to sabotage him in revenge, like he did here by planting the idea in Martin's head that Jutteau was trying to scam him and sitting back to await the disaster. There's a boundary now- his revenge or hijinks can't risk the operation of the airline. We also now know that it's not just that there's a general power struggle and Douglas tends to be pretty sneaky- we know that Douglas is the guy who always has a plan, and that's a role he's going to stay in for the rest of the show.
A lot of this does end up coming down to Yves Jutteau just being kind of an amazing cartoon villain, and that's one of the great things that allows the zaniness of the plot to work. Not to ruminate excessively over Cremona, but that one fell flat to me plot wise, partly because it felt just a bit too complicated and contrived. The Douz plot is less complicated (it also doesn't have a B plot, besides for Arthur taking the airline photo, but everything has more space to breathe), and I think it's paced a bit better so that it feels like a relatively natural setup, but in some ways the ending is equally unlikely, if not more so- why is it a massive legality problem to take off but not to DRIVE AN AIRPLANE ON A HIGHWAY?! (After looking on Google Maps, Douz to Qibili is moving AWAY from the desert TOWARD more populated areas, so it seems kind of risky.) That's where Jutteau is so brilliant, and Hester Macaulay fell short- she was just an unpleasant woman, and Jutteau is a cackling adversary- and incidentally also played HILARIOUSLY by John Sessions. When you're dealing with the fallout for a situation involving a normal-scale unpleasant woman, you expect that fallout to feel normal-scaled; when your adversary is a veritable comic book baddie, the big daring escape can feel more cartoonish in scope.
So basically what we have now is- the show's still growing and changing, but now we know that the existence of this airline is going to be the thing that drives them forward. (Well, not Martin, exactly, because as of two episodes ago he was looking for other jobs- but he's always going to do his best anyway, and we don't know yet that he's not being paid here.) Douglas and Carolyn, both VERY strong personalities, know that they will sometimes have to sublimate themselves for the sake of the airline- which is basically doing that for each other and for the other members of the team. (Arthur, of course, benefits from this because we already kind of know that this is the sort of guy who's living his best life and that shouldn't be fucked up for him.)
Which means that something really important has had ground laid here- the idea that they all need each other, rely on each other, and are all identified with this airline/airdot. And where would the rest of the show be without that?
Also, at some point this will stop being the kind of thing that's specifically noticeable to point out, but Benedict Cumberbatch by now has gotten veritably enthusiastic in the credits! It's very fun.
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Cabin Pressure Advent Day 13: Molokai
(Or shall I say, for some reason, Moloquai?)
It's always fun to listen to a holiday episode during the holidays! By which I mean Chanukah, of course (I listened to Molokai on an hour-plus car trip between two Chanukah parties). Now, as someone who is not a Christmas person I always judge a Christmas episode by how well I'm able to enjoy it despite not being a Christmas person. For the record, most episodes pass pretty easily. But Molokai is an interesting one, because it passes despite being very, very, very Christmassy.
Why does it pass? Well, first of all, it helps that it's on a British show, which means that some stuff I genuinely can't tell whether it's a Christmas thing I don't know about or a British thing I don't know about (what the hell is a sugar mouse?), and the latter is something I basically have to be okay with to listen to the rest of Cabin Pressure to begin with (I'm still not sure what a Wimpy is over a decade after first listening to this episode, after all). So it's just kind of immersing in another culture, except it's really two cultures, English culture and Christmas culture (as, of course, epitomized by The Auspicious Pig and Whistle of Tokyo).
The second (and bear with me, it gets a bit involved) is that it might be very specifically about Christmas, but it's also just about happiness, community, and, best of all for me, ritual and the way that that can make holidays even better. To a certain extent, that's something that I know is subjective- I grew up in a religious culture which values religious and holiday ritual very strongly, and so that's something that I'll always find to be meaningful, even if sometimes that comes from creating your own meaning or emphasizing the parts that mean most for you. But at the same time- lots of the "ritual" that I prize on various holidays isn't religious at all, but just the product of family tradition in ways that bring us all together. Particularly as an adult, I've found that holidays make only as much of an impact as you WANT them to- and including ritual makes that impact stronger, because it forces you to DO something that separates this day from other days, and that, incidentally, keeps you busy and absorbed.
It's why I found Martin's disliking Christmas in this episode, only to get really into it when it comes to creating the rituals of Christmas for Arthur, so interesting. I don't recall any real REASON being given for Martin disliking Christmas- it could be an affectation along the lines of Arthur's attempt at sounding grown-up by calling Christmas over-commercialized, but it sounds more like, as an adult living in shitty circumstances (we don't really KNOW what kind of shitty circumstances yet because we haven't heard Qikiqtarjuaq yet, but still) who isn't super close with his family and for whom any Christmas he has, he'll have to make for himself, he doesn't have much reason to like it! What, indeed, WOULD make Christmas different than a typical day for him? But as soon as he's given a reason to cling to the trappings and rituals of Christmas, he gets into it, and I really do love that.
Now of course, Arthur is really the poster child for the whole above concept. But- I was going to say that that's almost too obvious, but that's not really it. It's that Arthur is the one who does this ALL THE TIME. We know already that he's the heart of this show, and what it seems to really come down to is that a large part of that is creating a life around rituals or practices that bring joy. On the most basic level we have that list of events and holidays that he likes, all of which are defined by ritual in some way (I admit to not knowing much about Lent). But I think it goes beyond that- first of all, he CREATES ritual: while it's unclear who exactly invented the name Birling Day, he's the first one to use it in Edinburgh and he's the one who creates a "Happy Birling Day" song in Paris. Even more than that, though, we know his life philosophy from Fitton- create meaning and happiness from things that you DO (sinking into a bath at just the right temperature) rather than from things that happen to you (happening to be in the moonlight with the love of your life). In so many ways, that's what ritual is- rather than treating a time of year or a life cycle event as a thing that happens to you, you create your own meaning through your own actions. You're active and in control of your own joy.
So anyway, all this to say, Molokai continues the Arthurian tradition of Cabin Pressure which is that we have power over our joy by creating and expressing it, and just so happens to apply it to Christmas as a specific example. Gah. I have no idea if that makes sense written out- it does in my head.
And I've barely gotten to the actual episode!
One thing I'd forgotten til I turned it on- Molokai is the first post-Sherlock episode to be recorded. I'd heard a lot from people that the laughter gets louder as a result, which leads to the show seeming funnier as you laugh with the audience. I was skeptical- and I was SORT OF wrong. I do think that the show gets funnier in no small part because JF becomes a better and better writer, but at the same time... the laughter DEFINITELY gets louder. Oh my gosh. I'm not sure how I'd never noticed it. Like, it's loud in Limerick, but this is another level. And what's nice is you can kind of hear the actors feeding off the crowd energy, which is yet a third reason why S3-4 might seem even better.
(On that note, I don't know how much JF pre-planned his rendition of Get Dressed, but it is note perfect. It would have just been normal-funny if he'd sung it, but the Chri-i-i-i-i-stmas/Chri-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-histmas Days took it up another level. Kudos to him- and his "you'd better not pout, you'd better not cry" is just as great. Incidentally, as a non-Christmas celebrator I didn't get that joke until way later, but his performance is so funny that honestly it didn't matter.)
Of the two plot lines (each with its own set of Chekhov's Guns) in this episode, I vastly preferred the Secret Santa plot. Not that there's anything wrong with the Mr Alyakhin plot- but the resolution, however clever, is just a LITTLE bit too unlikely and over the top. Which, again, sounds weird to say about Cabin Pressure, a show where in a few episodes they'll be dragging a piano to a pub in Devon, but I do still believe that it's all about proportionality- a crazy antagonist justifies a crazy resolution, and this resolution was just a trifle too crazy for the antagonist (and relies a little too much on him missing some major red flags). But it genuinely doesn't matter, because it's still hilarious and sweet, and ends on just the right outrageous note- in particular, the note in Roger Allam's voice (playing to the audience beautifully) as, after an almost-too-long pause, he says "mulled it." Just beautiful- all of the setup and the pitch-perfect payoff.
There's probably other stuff, but please excuse me, I have some latkes to eat. Tomorrow, we're off to Newcastle, one that I haven't listened to in AGES- and I'm dying to know what I'll think!
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Cabin Pressure Advent Day 24: Xinzhou
To quote Stefon from SNL, this episode has everything! It's actually pretty crazy how much it manages to fit- seamlessly!- into less than half an hour. We have the introduction of such iconic concepts as Fizz Buzz and "here I am don't tread on me," the excellent Film Double Bills game, bacon shirt, baby chicken and baby lamb... I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but honestly the big things is that this all fits around SO many conversations that move the plot forward.
So many of the important things that we need to do before moving on toward the end of the show happen in this episode. We establish that Martin is dating Theresa (even if he won't put a label on it) and is invested enough to potentially want to choose a job in proximity to her. We know that Carolyn hasn't given Herc any kind of real answer and is pretty avoidant of the consequences. We know that Douglas did not know that Carolyn is essentially cutting his job out from under his feet.... and we know that Arthur doesn't know what multiples are. Oh, Arthur, I love you so.
It's interesting, because the arc of Douglas moving from being obnoxious to Martin about his interest in Swiss Airways is not super clearly laid out. What we do perceive is that he isn't necessarily being snarky at first because he genuinely has no confidence in Martin- he's having a knee jerk reaction to the idea of losing this situation. He's basically exactly where he wants to be- and I think to him that's the depressing part, because he has an image of himself as being so much more than he currently is and if he's happy regardless then that can feel like a weakness of its own... it's hard for him to admit he's really happy where he is. I think that what really changes his mind is realizing that Martin genuinely does have bigger dreams, and that those dreams have nothing to do with being a captain. As I've mentioned in one or two of these, Martin's motivating factor for trying to rescue MJN, every other episode when they have to work to save the day, is that nobody else will let him be a captain and being captain is massively important to him. But now, he's prioritizing flying airliners and being near the girl he's dating over that ego thing. He's grown up, and I think seeing that proves to Douglas how selfish his earlier thought is.
And Carolyn... it's so hard to know what Carolyn is thinking exactly. On the one hand, she's pushing Herc away by telling him not to consider her as he takes the Swiss Airways job, and at the same time she's encouraging Martin to leave for his betterment, which will eventually (as far as we now know) lead to the end of MJN Air. Is it some kind of weird self sabotage? Is it her being a more selfless person than one might imagine her being in S1? She's probably the most emotionally bound-up character, and it will of course be fun to see how she navigates the next few episodes...
But also, as already discussed, this episode has so many amazing amazing moments in it and I'm just so in awe of JF for pulling it off so flawlessly- while Limerick is the bomb, I think this one might be even more skillfully pulled off, with a lot more demanded of it. I also have a nice nostalgic memory related to Xinzhou as I made a friend through this episode! A friend and I were out for dinner with a group of people, some of whom we knew and some who we didn't, and someone (for some reason) mentioned baby food- possibly in the context of them liking to eat baby food? I don't recall. Anyway, I made a sotto voce comment to my friend about eating chicken flavored baby food and I suddenly heard a British accent a few seats down- "is that a Cabin Pressure reference?!" Turns out, she was IN THE AUDIENCE for Xinzhou and said it was even better in person, I was very jealous, and while we've drifted apart since then it was very nice to get to know her- and all because of a Cabin Pressure reference.
Next episode is Yverdon... can't believe this is almost over!!
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Cabin Pressure Advent Day 22: Vaduz
In which everyone pronounces Liechtenstein differently. Including, sometimes, the same actors from sentence to sentence...
So I love Vaduz because of course I do- I've said before that I love the show's turn toward the heartwarming side, and Vaduz is a symbol that we are somewhere that we could never have been in the S1 headspace. There are two HIGHLY specific ways that that happens, one of which I greatly prefer to the other (though overall I enjoy both).
The Carolyn and Herc plotline is, obviously, catnip for me. You've seen my long screeds about vulnerability as a running theme in Cabin Pressure (as recently as yesterday!) and Carolyn has always had an issue with people seeing her for who she is rather than for the image she portrays. It's easier to be feared due to leverage and a loud bark than loved because of something intangible that you can't actually control... and that's even before one hits the hurdle of discussing one's own feelings! Because there's also the element of considering a partner's needs- Carolyn's very much been in the habit of steamrollering over people, and now she's in a relationship (loath as she is to admit it) with another person who needs something from her, whether reassurance or an outright commitment, and she needs to decide whether it is worth giving those things to him and, in the process, acknowledging what that means to her.
And the way it's done is great- and credits to the two EXCELLENT actors playing the scenes, who really manage to give that final bit a real sense of drama that has the scene end on a silent, emotive and suspenseful note that I shiver at every time. It's a sitcom, but it's also a little snippet of human drama. And arguments from people who love to argue and are sharp-witted are always so fun to listen to! The bit where Carolyn reuses Herc's "overreacting" joke, Herc calls it out, and she says "it's funnier because the stakes are higher" is both entertainingly meta and very true to the two of them as people- and the fact that it ends in medias res, and we know that this won't get resolved for a while, just makes the whole thing feel even more resonant.
Now for everyone else- so obviously this is a hilarious plot line (and very, VERY well plotted) and I DO like Teresa. I do. I love the reversal of the "slaying the dragon" thing and think the plotting here was great. For me, though, the major flaws were Maxi and Martin's plotline with him. Maxi's scenes with Arthur are fantastic, but I feel like he's a bit over the line from "cartoon villain" to "cartoon fantasy villain" in a way that kind of brings the episode a bit over the line into actual absurdity, especially given how relatively grounded Carolyn's plot line is. All of the royal stuff just feels very random, and while it matters less for Teresa, it's a bit more over the top for Maxi. And Martin's plot line with him... I don't know, it just felt a bit clunky in a way that I feel like late-season Cabin Pressure is usually better than. Sort of forced and with odd dialogue. I don't know, it's just a feeling I have, and it's not overwhelming enough to keep me from enjoying the episode.
But anyway, I am very glad that Martin got someone to go to Duxford Air Museum with him!
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Cabin Pressure Advent Day 18: Rotterdam
This is one of those episodes that I don't listen to much, and now that I have I'm really not sure why because it's so, so funny.
For a bunch of the other write-ups I've done, I've generally sidelined the humor- in a "well obviously this is funny, let's talk about some other thing about it instead" kind of way. And I'm going to talk about other kinds of things related to this episode, but I do want to start with how hilarious it is because it's basically perfect from that perspective. All four of the main cast are at the top of their game, and if anything having Martin and Douglas be confronted by their potential replacements only accentuates even more what makes them awesome, and their actors so good at playing them as extremely distinctive characters. All of the jokes about movie-making and airplane safety demos are super funny, and for an episode with a relatively straightforward and uncomplicated plot, the humor and the set pieces need to be top notch and thankfully they are.
This is also the kind of episode that relies on the visual humor that comes from making audio comedy- everything relies on us imagining what the characters are describing/inferring, which a) makes the writing and performing of the dialogue so important and b) allows us that moment of putting pieces together that makes things just a little bit funnier. The comparative descriptions of Carolyn and Douglas in the life jackets, and which fruit they can be compared to, are hilarious not only because it shows us Douglas being punished for making fun of Carolyn when she did the video, but because by doing it via audio they force us to imagine Douglas as looking far worse than Carolyn, which would be potentially doable but a lot less foolproof in a visual scene.
And speaking of Douglas... I always get some schadenfreude from seeing Douglas suffer, if only because he doesn't seem to very much. But I wonder if I'd have the same feeling about it if I'd listened in broadcast order rather than alphabetical, because in broadcast order Rotterdam came right after Ottery St Mary, another Douglas-suffers episode. As it is now, I feel like he's getting a bit more of what's coming to him but in a relatively balanced way (he did, after all, just flatten Martin in Qik and Paris)- I'm curious about people's impressions of these two episodes sequentially.
(It makes me wonder about some other plotlines this season, as well; listening to this right after Qik made Martin's grasping for whatever dignity he can get out of his rank feel a bit more urgent, and even though he didn't get any at the end, his general emotional victory this episode is very satisfying as a bit of a post-Qik followup, and a nice foreshadower that Martin's fortunes will start to turn next season. In the broadcasted season, the episodes are very far apart. And I also think that this episode being so long after Ottery St Mary, with that episode being right after Newcastle all the way at the beginning of the season, made Herc and his role here feel a bit more lived-in than I'd imagine it would feel to have Newcastle, Ottery St Mary, and Rotterdam right in a row. But I'm curious about people's opinions!)
The other thing that occurred to me in the context of previous episodes this season is- I'm kind of sad that JF got rid of the cold opens. Those were always really fun in S1-2. Ah well.
Anyway, a really great episode that I've apparently been SIGNIFICANTLY underrating... that is definitely heading right back into my usual rotation! Tomorrow, of course, an episode that is impossible to underrate, my favorite one of all...
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Cabin Pressure Advent Day 17: Qikiqtarjuaq
Or, if Arthur had his way, Quikiqutarjuaqu?
Q (because The Name is very annoying to type) is, as I said back in my Boston post, not one of my favorites. And I wish it were, because, like Ottery St Mary (which has its own divisive moments), it has SO many classic bits. The traveling lemon! Le bear polar! Farewell bear facts! From that perspective it's incredible.
But it has a weird tone problem, and to me, the whole thing comes back to Nancy Dean Liebhart.
Yes, yes, it's because she's American and Americans on British sitcoms are never great, fine. But I think in this case it goes beyond that, because a lot of the episode ends up circling around her and her reactions. Martin wants to impress her; Douglas seems to (though it's not explicit) want to piss her off, if it'll mean dinging Martin in the self esteem in the process; Carolyn wants to show her that she doesn't matter. (Arthur, of course, just wants to tell people bear facts. Lovely Arthur.)
To be clear- the Martin-Carolyn plotline would have happened regardless, because he's genuinely pissed about having to cancel a paying job. Their whole scene feels a little bit... almost too much? Like, Carolyn is actually pretty cruel to him in her response to his request, and Martin's rant back to her is almost too pathetic, if that makes sense. It's internally consistent from an emotional standpoint, but it feels out of sync tonally with the rest of the episode- which is one of the reasons why I felt genuine uncomfortable when Douglas wanted to continue the traveling lemon game and Carolyn was like "oh well maybe not"... because Carolyn had just had a serious come-to-Jesus moment with Martin and Douglas was still in his own stupid world about trying to be an asshole.
Because here's the thing. Douglas was SUPER unprofessional throughout. The episode knows this obviously, and acknowledges it outright in the end. There's a power struggle between Martin and Douglas about it, and we've seen that before. But the difference is... I don't think that this one was actually very funny. It just feels like Douglas being a jerk for the sake of it, and then when that ends up involving things like the Bear Polar and Captain du Creff, which are gut-bustingly hilarious, they just go together like chalk and cheese.
To get back to Nancy Dean Liebhart- it's all her fault, in my opinion. She's just not funny, and as I said about Hester Macaulay in Cremona (who I don't think was as bad as this...), she needs to either be really funny or really wrong in order for the hijinks of the plot to work, and she's neither. All of the above conflicts circling around her (entirely reasonable!) complaints, and her weirdly arbitrary decision to pick on Martin about them which of course ends up being the place where the plot starts... it's just uncomfortable because she's basically right but the episode treats her like she's ridiculous.
I'm curious if any British listeners will disagree with me on this- I'm wondering if there's just a British trope of "naggy American woman" that makes this funny in the UK. Maybe some kind of Karen trope, but where it doesn't matter what the complaint is as long as the accent is (mostly) right? I don't know. Nancy is definitely somewhat Karen-y in how she comes across and how she talks to people, but her points are largely valid (and therefore not super funny) and that's fatal for a character like her. It forces us to pay more attention to Douglas's response and how he's being deliberately spiteful specifically to screw with Martin, and to the weirdly intense Martin-Carolyn subplot, and then contrasts it with the nutty Bear Polar subplot and Arthur and his bears, which are all super silly. And it leads to it just being... strange, tonally, and not in a way that I personally like.
Without her, I think a lot of the same things COULD have happened, but they'd have happened on their own terms. We could have seen Martin be annoyed at Douglas for the Hitchcock cabin address and seen that as "Martin being a stickler" rather than "the paying customer being annoyed," and it would have been more like other similar episodes where Martin is the safe pilot and Douglas is the good one. We'd have seen Martin be annoyed about not being paid and having his paying work sabotaged, and maybe even him taking that out on Douglas a bit. And I think it would have de-intensified certain things in a way that would have helped. Nancy Dean Liebhart just fucked with the rhythms of the show and wasn't even funny enough to justify it.
This whole rant makes it seem like I hate the episode, and... I don't, really. There are too many good moments. But I have to watch it with my finger on the "skip" button.
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Cabin Pressure Advent Day 16: Paris
PAAAAAARRRRRRIIIISSSS!
There are not words for how much I love this episode, there really aren't. I actually listened to it early this morning because I was so excited, and then had to deal with a difficult personal situation and was like "oh dang I wish I hadn't listened to it yet so I could cheer up from it now!" But I had, so I listened to Hot Desk (from Double Acts) instead. Also very effective.
Anyway- I love everything about this episode, because I LOVE Golden Age mysteries! I'm not super well read on all the different authors, but I've had a lot of fun over the years reading Conan Doyle (and Poe and Wilkie Collins, if we're going that far back), Chesterton, Christie, and more recently Sayers, and even more recently have read a smattering as well of John Dickson Carr, Margery Allingham, Anthony Berkeley, and a bunch of others. To digress a little, I highly highly recommend Martin Edwards's excellent book The Golden Age of Murder and his wonderful short-story anthology compilations and reprints- it really got me on a kick of trying to read a bit more broadly in the genre after discovering how much I loved reading a few specific authors growing up. It's been really rewarding and I highly recommend it!
Now, the thing with Paris is that the popular backstory is "John Finnemore had Benedict Cumberbatch on the show, he became famous as Sherlock on Sherlock, Finnemore thought it would be funny to do a mystery themed one as a result, and so we have Marin Crieff as "Miss Marple." Which is apparently not UNtrue per se, but JF himself has said that he always planned to do a mystery episode. Which makes sense, as in the first link just now JF makes clear that Golden Age mysteries are his "trashy fiction of choice," about which I can only say amen!
Which is what makes the episode so great- because it's super clear what kind of love for the genre he put into the episode as a result. There's the Christie- obviously the Miss Marple references but also the "gathering everyone together in the parlor" thing (which she doesn't do ALL the time... but she does PRETTY often lol). There's obviously the Conan Doyle reference, which is "snappily put," as Douglas says. There's a fun reference to Raffles- who may not be a detective himself but is definitely a cousin to the whodunnit genre (or shall we say brother-in-law, as he was Conan Doyle's...), and there's "Crieff of the Yard," which is a phrase that I'm confident has a basis in detective writing but that I'm not able to pinpoint, which is annoying. Arthur's example of the monkey at the circus also evokes a few stories of MASSIVELY varying quality involving unlikely murderous animals, which is always fun. (And parenthetically, while there are no Sayers references that I can find, I will say that I continue to be confident that the dog-collar plotline in Here's What We Do from Double Acts is a reference to the dog-collar plotline in Gaudy Night. He has never confirmed it but like, how could it not be? Or at least so I tell myself.)
But all of that is window dressing- the episode itself is a beautifully written impossible crime mystery, and I love that about it. JF has mentioned that he likes John Dickson Carr, who was big for locked room mysteries/impossible crimes- though loads of writers wrote them (including, incidentally, AA Milne, who you likely know better from Winnie the Pooh, who wrote a fun early example of the genre that you can read here for free because of that magical phenomenon, copyright expiration). And this episode is just such a good example of one that it makes me wish that JF would get into the whodunnit-writing game more broadly (beyond his Cain's Jawbone sequel). If Richard Osman can do it...!
In one of the above-linked blogposts, JF mentions that it's "pleasing how naturally my main cast fitted into familiar roles from the detective fiction genre - the meticulous detective, his devoted assistant, his no nonsense boss… and his nemesis, the Napoleon of crime." Which is awesome, but I think there's even more there. I particularly love that it's an impossible crime mystery in a closed circle. While there's a genre of whodunnit where you have the corpse or whatever and have to cast a wide net to find witnesses and clues, writers there often either have to make the potential dead ends in the detective work REALLY interesting or rely a lot on coincidence. Closed circle crimes (like ones at a country house or within a workplace or somewhere with guards at all the doors or something like that) can help mystery writers focus in on the story without having to worry too much about the logistics of "why these people?" and it's why you get so many mysteries set on trains or ships or islands or whatever. And an airplane is one of the best closed circles there is, because unless you're DB Cooper you're not getting out. Agatha Christie did an early one in Death in the Clouds which is a lot of fun, and this episode is a great example.
The fun thing about closed circle whodunnits and impossible crime mysteries is that the whole point of them is that usually, the author is just straight up lying to you. There's a vent for a snake to go through, or a secret doorway to the outside, or the time when the door was locked or the circle was closed isn't actually when the crime took place, but a fake gunshot makes you think it was. And that's why I love this so much- because the author/liar of the mystery is Douglas. He's the genre savvy one. He's the one who's lying, he's the one who's turning it all into a whodunnit, and he's waiting to see if he can get away with it. He's the Napoleon of Crime- and a Columbo villain setting up the false trail that he hopes Columbo will fall for.
Because... and JF notes this in both blog posts... there's no mystery here! Obviously Douglas did it. The point here is that this episode is like if Columbo was as dumb as he seemed and the criminal managed to lead him down the garden path and got away with it. It's "what if Poirot were a moron but still had to solve the murder of Roger Ackroyd." Douglas is the one who creates an impossible crime scheme, anticipates that he'll still be suspected because, well, he's him, and manages to come up with alternative scenarios- including ones that open the seemingly closed circle of the crime- that are convincing enough to throw Martin off the scent. Without him, it would just be "so how did Douglas do it this time?"
Now, the impossible crime is still important, because while we all kind of know that Douglas did it, we still don't know how he did it. And from that perspective alone, JF's impossible crime puzzle is genius. The clues that he drops are really interesting (I'm not 100% sure I see the nail polish bottle as being fair play, but plenty of whodunnits aren't so I don't really care) and it's something that, even as we see Douglas writing a whole separate decoy mystery (reminiscent of his decoy apple juice?) on top of his own scheme, keeps us intrigued throughout even once it becomes pretty clear that Douglas has been snowing all of them. So all of that is fun- but it's far more fun with all the other tropes and schemes and false trails laid on top of it, giving it so many more dimensions.
And then, at the end, nobody solves it- the detective's reveal, after all the carefully left false trails, comes from the thief himself.
It's just... so beautiful. Ahhhh.
I feel like (and one of the blog posts mentions this) that there's a question of whether Douglas actually pulled it off, particularly in the context of whether Martin would really need to pay Carolyn at the end. My opinion is: practically, yes, Douglas stole the whiskey. If Birling hadn't offered them the cufflinks, he'd never have revealed his trick and he'd have had ample opportunity the rest of the trip to empty his decoy apple juice in the sink, replace it with whiskey, and fill up the bottle with cheap whiskey from the plane's bar or the Paris airport duty free. (Or whatever his plan was- but that seems plausible.) Carolyn would have never known once they returned. And the episode leaves open whether practically speaking Martin actually does have to pay Carolyn, but thematically... yes, of course he does, the whole question here is "is Douglas the organ grinder" and the answer is that he obviously is. The monkey's gotta pay up!
I love, incidentally, so many more things about this episode- the humor, Mr Birling, the ways in which everything is so true to character, basically everything about Arthur... but I've already gone on long enough.
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Cabin Pressure Advent Day 12: Limerick
LIIIIIMMMMEEERRRRIIICCCCKKKK!
OK so full disclosure, I wrote this yesterday. The two reasons are a) I knew I'd be busy today with no time to do it and b) after Kuala Lumpur I needed to get in a listen of my third favorite Cabin Pressure episode to remind myself what I love so much about this show. It was a Good Decision.
I mean, what is there to say that hasn't already been said by so many? It's hilariously funny, beautifully constructed, full of great character moments, and gives us a game of 20 Questions to play alongside of. (Though I WILL admit, the visual of a game of charades to try to convey/guess what's in the box... does definitely tickle me lol.) There are so many different moving pieces and they all slot in together SO WELL.
I said in a previous post that Limerick is the episode I listen to when I'm feeling lonely. (Incidentally, it's also probably the episode I've listened to the most, period. I wish there was a way to figure out how many times, because I wouldn't be surprised if it's 100+.) I decided that while listening this time I'd try to bear that in mind, and see what it is about the episode that just works for those moments. And I think that there are a bunch of different things that all work together-
For one thing, and this almost doesn't need to be said, but it's just... really funny! And listening to funny things is just generally a great way to feel better about things. Pretty self-explanatory.
It's also the episode that, more than any other, is us basically eavesdropping on a bunch of people talking to each other and hanging out. It's in real time, as though we're just listening in on the satcom or whatever, and there's something nice, when you're alone, about listening in on others, especially others who you've come to love, having a nice time.
More than that, loneliness is a bit of a theme in this episode. Martin and Carolyn admit that they're lonely in their personal lives, and Douglas, after initially lying through his teeth about it, admits that he's newly alone as well, after being betrayed by a wife who he loved (I'm still not over the brown sauce thing). For one thing, when you're lonely, hearing other people say they're lonely is always nice; for another, knowing that Martin and Carolyn, at least, will end up meeting people who make them happy is a nice booster.
And for a third thing... well, it plays into what I've been saying about how so much of what I love about this show is how characters become closer through showing vulnerability. Feeling alone can be (almost tautologically) isolating, and admitting it to other people can take a lot of courage, especially when it's tied up in other related insecurities. Martin's loneliness is tied in, in his mind at least, with his not being a "real" paid airline pilot; Carolyn's is admitted to despite her wanting to project that feeling of control and fulfillment that running her own business gives her; and Douglas's... well, it's basically a semi-deconstruction of a mythos. Being left is bad enough, but being cheated on... especially for someone who said back in Fitton that he and Helena were united by a shared belief that he is terrific, this is a pretty big sea change to admit to having happened. And it's a big thing for him to admit he's upset about, and to accept condolences about from Martin; he moves past that part pretty quickly by making jokes about tai chi, but he's much less bitter than he was back in Gdansk, when it was a lot fresher and he felt a lot more unbalanced. An episode where Douglas is vulnerable will always be an interesting episode- and one that really symbolizes that they're becoming inextricably connected.
(I'll also add parenthetically that the flight being one that carries horse sperm from one end of the world to the other is an interesting symbolism for loneliness and lack of connection... and leave it there because, like Arthur, thinking about it too long mildly grosses me out lol.)
Anyway, so much else to say about it but I won't belabor the point- just to say.... this episode, like Gdansk, has been so incredibly important to me for so long that it's almost hard to even try to break it down into elements. And I'll take this moment to thank John Finnemore for having written it.
Tomorrow (so to speak)... Molokai!
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Cabin Pressure Advent Day 27: Zurich Part 2
Okay, now that my face has loosened up from the grin it's been in for the last twenty minutes...
I think that it is important for me to say here that this is my favorite finale of anything ever (obviously in combination with Part 1). In any medium.* It's just so so perfect, emotionally resonant (which I don't need to devote SO much time to because as I noted JF did it perfectly here) and one of the funniest episodes JF ever wrote of anything.
It's also got some absolutely GENIUS plotting and impeccable attention to detail, including such tiny things as having Theresa establish in Part 1 that Martin has told her time and time again about the St Petersburg saga, and therefore she remembers enough about it to contribute when they're planning in Part 2 by pointing out that in St Petersburg Gordon would have been able to take anything small out of the aircraft. It's unnecessary- JF could have given the line to someone else- but the fact that he not only gave it to her but gave us enough information for it to make sense that she said it works so well. And then when there's "stop quickly" "that I can do," and Arthur screeches them to a halt, it's a perfect reminder from last episode about the brake pads, which is such subtle set up for Martin to suggest that they be given in lieu of payment. (Sure, if I were Bruce Fraser I'd be a BIT more suspicious that the guy who offered 14k only showed up with 12, but he's also the kind of guy who likes Arthur's Goofy painting so maybe it's just better all around not to trust his discernment.)
When I first listened to this episode exactly nine years ago, I was a couple of minutes late, and so it wasn't until months later that I first heard the amazing cold open with Tiffy. Which, by the way, is so so funny... I love it so much, it's just perfect as a recap-without-being-too-info-dumpy and as just a peek into Arthur's world. Which is fitting, because I really see this as Arthur's episode. There are very few episodes that feel that way- St Petersburg was KIND OF one, but it ended up being more about how the rest of them jump into action to protect him than him being able to do anything. But here... this is Arthur's moment! He's INCREDIBLY active in this episode, whether solving the ID problem or realizing that Gordon is trying to trick them. He doesn't usually get to be so it's really great
If I had to rank the others in terms of their relevance to the plot after Arthur, it would probably be Douglas, Carolyn, Martin. Douglas is definitely the key one, and I'd argue that without his key role, Martin would be basically irrelevant to the plot here- the episode tries to convince us that Martin might not take the job, but even once he has a real practical way to stay with MJN we kind of know he won't, and have known since Yverdon. But Douglas, as JF noted in Farewell Bear Facts, has to prove he's worthy of being captain and put himself on the line- and he has to be able to serve in a mentorly capacity for Arthur (where it's a bit more paternal, even) and Martin.
On that last note, I used to be a bit annoyed by Douglas telling Martin to take on his shtick, because I was like "Martin is fine just the way he is, imagine if he turns into DOUGLAS"- I still kind of think this way (though of course I'm sure it's more metaphorical than him pretending to be Douglas exactly) but relistening to the whole show, including some of my least favorites, reminds me that Martin could kind of use being someone else... who he used to be was really fucking annoying lol.
As far as Carolyn, I WILL add something about her journey here because JF doesn't mention it in his post. He talks about how her journey is to be more vulnerable to Herc, but I think it goes farther, in a way I've talked about here. The question she finally asks Herc- why does him saying he loves her mean something different now than it did to his previous exes- is her being vulnerable to HIM, but also an expression of an inability to be vulnerable that she'd shown to everyone, not just him. The whole time- til at least late S3, at least- she couldn't trust people, she felt like she needed to rule by fear, and it takes vulnerability for her to accept that eventually she's not the one in total control and people are doing things for her because they care about her and the company as something bigger than her and that it's not totally in her control. Maybe this episode it manifests itself in the question to Herc and being vulnerable to him... but it also manifests itself in her changing the name of the airline. It's OUR Jet Still.
A few smaller notes:
Martin, Douglas and Arthur all saying Yellow Car is my favorite thing ever
I use the phrase "a thousand strawberry lollies and the Princess of Liechtenstein" all the time and it's one of my favorite lines ever
The scene with Douglas-as-Gordon and Martin-as-Douglas is possibly the funniest exchange JF ever wrote (I feel like I say that kind of thing a lot)
And... "I hate flying into the sunset" is such a fantastic line to very-nearly-end on. It's a tie back to Limerick, but it's also an expression of how they literally are ending with a fairy tale ending, flying off into the sunset... which they'd all said wasn't possible in Zurich Part 1! Though Arthur was still right- it wasn't a totally fairytale ending, it was more like The Jungle Book. Martin's not there, he goes off with the girl to the human village. And so it's not a fairytale ending, where everything freezes at an unlikely ending point- it's BETTER. They're all in the best possible places for them, as characters, to continue, even if it's bittersweet, and it's amazing.
I do have to say- doing this every day has been such a joy. I may come back tomorrow to do a final thing but I'm not sure, but in the meantime, thank you for being here and I hope you enjoyed as much as I have!
*It used to be tied with the finale of Detectorists, and I still love the S3 finale, but they then fucked it up by doing that Christmas special last year which was honestly horrendous.
#cabin pressure#cabin pressure advent 2023#cabin pressure advent#john finnemore#zurich part 2#also for all who celebrate#merry christmas#or should i say#GET DRESSED YOU MERRY GENTLEMEN
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Cabin Pressure Advent Day 19: St Petersburg
I fucking love everything about this episode. When someone asked me for a top 5 a while back, after a great deal of VERY difficult determination this came up at the top and has been unassailable there ever since.
The only flaw in it, and it's one that JF says was left out for time, is that we never find out what Douglas means by saying that Gordon tricked Carolyn into letting him book the office in her name. But that's so minor that it really doesn't count.
Everything else from here on down (and there will be a LOT) is going to be unmitigated gushing, so get ready:
The thing that makes this episode really great is the stakes. Stakes that have been unspoken until now- or at least, since Douz, to which this episode is a fantastic mirror- are explicit, but they're also bumped up a level.
The stakes, of course, are the continued existence of MJN Air. This is something that was first established in Douz, when Carolyn tells Douglas that she runs the airline on a deficit, they're always one bad day away from folding, and she's basically holding on to preserve her dignity and self-image. At that point, we see Douglas realizing that his job is on the line, and he becomes the "Douglas saves the day" guy. This recurs over the course of the show, with things like needing to pass the training in Ipswich and needing to get the contract from Mr Alyakhin, among many others, implicitly important because without them the airdot will fold. Douglas needs to either a) get over his massive ego or b) come up with a clever plot, as the case may be, to help out.
As I noted in my Douz post, Douglas realizing that he will be unemployed if he can't solve the problem is not just him getting his act together, it's him deciding that saving the day is more important than fucking with Martin. And, in the end, it's also him (even if only incidentally) taking Carolyn's feelings and dignity into account. And while we still definitely see him taking selfish moments to get back at others, especially Martin (see Qik, though he does kind of tone things down when Carolyn asks him to, in his own deeply weird way), the well-being of the airline is more important most of the time, if they're in a real fix.
Martin, interestingly, is getting there also, but in a very different way, and he's not QUITE there yet. He is very crucially NOT privy to the conversation between Carolyn and Douglas in Douz, and he's also not aware that Gordon keeps trying to buy Gerti, even though WE know that from Fitton (and Douglas presumably knows that from years prior). But he doesn't need to know any of this, because his motivation is to be a captain, and he knows that nobody but Carolyn will let him do it. He just tries to make things work each time because it's in his interest. But the way that he's grown over the course of the show, he's mellowing out a bit, trying to reclaim his dignity and control over his finances, etc... he's about to hit the point where it's natural for him to want to leave the nest even if it means he's no longer a captain, as shown in Newcastle, where we see him looking for a job opportunity elsewhere for the first time since Boston. So he's, in theory, going to get less invested in staying with MJN, and that's a good thing... except that like Douglas, he's been learning to value these other people who he works with and the airline that they are holding together "with gaffer tape and string." That way, in S4, when Martin hears about Swiss Airways going international he is concerned about the fate of MJN if he leaves- something that never crossed his mind in Boston or Newcastle.
In other words, Douglas grows because he is forced to care about the well-being of the airline, and Martin grows away from the way that he started off caring about the airline. But they still both grow in the same direction, which is their mutual care for the airline, Carolyn, and Arthur.
Because that's how we get to the genius of this episode, which is Gordon Shappey.
Arthur is someone who has taken a lot of shit from basically everyone else at MJN basically forever; it's why I don't find Ottery St Mary to be too much, and it's why I find the ending of Ottery St Mary to be so satisfying. We know they care about him, but they're not always great about showing it. But faced with Gordon Shappey, saving MJN isn't just about the airline, Douglas's job, or Martin's (still-important to him) captaincy- it's about defeating Gordon. He's a proper mustache-twirling villain, partly because of how he treats Carolyn but mostly because of how he treats Arthur. THEY can be mean to Arthur, but not HIM, not like THAT...
That's another way that this episode is a great mirror to Douz. There are a surprising number, actually- the hot desert vs the freezing Russian winter, a hairy landing with Martin landing rather than Douglas (which has such DELICIOUS parallels of its own)... and of course the existence of an unmitigated bad guy who they must foil. The other episodes actually mostly don't have that- they have situations with people who may be annoying, but ultimately they have to please or mollify or just plain deal with. Yves Jutteau and Gordon Shappey they can just defeat.
The thing is, with Jutteau they defeat him in order to save MJN. Those are the stakes. He's held them hostage and they manage to escape. In St Petersburg, they've already basically confronted the fact that MJN is over, and that they'll have to sell Gerti for parts. It's when Gordon sneers at Arthur, and they see why Arthur is so freaked out about him, that he becomes the enemy. (He also smears Martin and Douglas, and they're clearly none too pleased. But do we really think that's the motivation?) When Douglas saves the day, he does it for Arthur.
And I think that happens in two ways. The first is that when they're in that flight deck with Gordon, the (beautifully, BEAUTIFULLY laid out and Chekhov's-Gunned) plan circles around Arthur- they manage to make their point about how they've seen the way he treats someone they love, and they are taking revenge. But in a more metaphysical way, Douglas has clearly, even after he sees no way forward, put some thought into how he can solve this. He knows that Arthur is relying on him, and thinks that he can do it- and we'll see in Zurich that this will continue to be a motivator for both Arthur and Douglas, that Arthur believes Douglas can do anything and that Douglas (a bit in loco parentis) therefore has to do it and take responsibility.
Martin is along for the ride, but his growth doesn't come from the scheme against Gordon- his is manifested in the landing. He's panicking but he's technically sound, he takes control and Douglas accepts it, and he manages to land competently in dangerous circumstances. He's grown so much! He's been pushing his captain-ness because it makes up for all the ways he's not the pilot he dreamed he'd be (a paid one, a cool one, a skilled one...) but this is proof that he's gotten so much closer than he's been. And I love how at the end he manages to not just get a point in the rhyming journeys game, he rhymes MULTIPLE cities and they're so proud of him- this isn't him being helped out (as in Gdansk) or winning and then being undercut (as in Limerick), it's him just being able to be competent at something, even if it takes a while and he's not as good as Douglas. He's just allowed to be happy about that and that's beautiful. Overall- this episode, he is able to just be GOOD, and not to feel like he needs to be the best (and fail). That's going to be vital next season.
You'll notice that I haven't brought up Carolyn and Arthur here. Arthur, well, the main thing here is that this situates his happiness at MJN- and what he'll lose when it's gone- as a contrast with the way others in his life treat him. Arthur may be teased at work, and his mother works him hard, but we've known since Fitton that this is where he wants to be. His fear of Gordon, and the contempt we see Gordon show him, show us another one of the stakes that we need to bear in mind moving forward.
With Carolyn, though, I think it's a bit of a moment of learning. She knows that Douglas, and to a lesser extent Martin, are there and helping her because they want to be and they're invested, not because she's the alpha dog or because she scares them into it or because she's bribing them (mostly Douglas). They're doing it because they care about her, her son, and her business- and their places in it. She already had to show vulnerability in Douz to Douglas by revealing why she keeps MJN running, but there's another layer of vulnerability in realizing that people care about you and accepting it,. It's the same vulnerability she'll have to learn to express in Zurich to Herc.
By the way, if you notice that a lot of these are similar to- in the sense of being prior versions of- what JF wrote in his magnificent Zurich post as what the characters need for sitcom graduation... you can believe me or not but I promise I didn't realize until I was doing Carolyn's. It's just a sign of how seamless and strong his character work and forward planning are, that's all I can say.
And on that note, actually- I'm really curious to know at what point JF decided on the actual ending of the show, as in what the mechanics would be. There are three years between when S3 came out and when Zurich came out, so presumably about the same amount of time between the writing of each, and I really want to know when he made the decision about the mechanics of the ending. Because I found the moment when Gordon corrects himself about why he wants Gerti back to be FASCINATING, because we know why he does, and that it has nothing to do with getting back at Carolyn, but the dialogue still makes it seem totally natural that he corrects himself. Did JF have in mind the gold-lined airplane, or just some more general plot?
(Incidentally, and I was going to wait for this til Zurich but may as well do it here because it fits... I also want to know because the S5 finale of Community came out in April 2014, about eight months before Zurich, and it also included a plotline with a machine made with gold wiring. I've been dying for years to know whether JF had the idea first or not- he uses it very differently regardless, but still something I've been so curious about. If he HAD already planned this out years in advance, to the extent of planning the mechanism... I can imagine he'd be very annoyed to see it on screen months earlier lol, though I don't know whether Community was really popular in the UK and if he'd have known.)
Anyway... obviously, besides for all of the above, the episode is perfectly written, amazingly plotted, hilariously funny (and the COLD OPEN IS BACK!), and just all around amazing.
#cabin pressure#cabin pressure advent 2023#cabin pressure advent#john finnemore#st petersburg#incidentally#i should add that i love how this episode created a sherlock meme#that to this day people still think was ACTUALLY in sherlock#it's just really funny
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