"The blade itself incites to deeds of violence"
- Homer
This quote has an undeniable truth to it that I love. Violence leads only to more violence. It's something that history has proven over and over again. This season Tyrant seems determined to explore and highlight the injustices of the current war being waged across the Middle East. This led to the show deciding to depict a drone strike gone horribly wrong in last week's episode, an event I think the show handled relatively well.
Including such things in your show can give it a sense of relevancy to make it stand out. "Ripped from the headlines" storylines are a common practice among TV shows these days, and indulging in them too often can come across as being cheap and exploitative. So when, in this episode, Barry reluctantly decided to send troops to the university where people were praying in protest to the closure of the university's prayer centres, I feared the show would go too far, depicting another tragedy for the sake of it. The Homer quote above is undoubtedly true, but that doesn't mean it has to be proven in every episode of a show - and on such a huge scale - for the sake of being topical.
Thankfully, I was wrong. Just as tensions between the protesters and the troops seemed to be reaching a boiling point, Al-Qadi, the religious leader running for President on a platform of peace through Islam, intervened, succeeding in calming the situation down, thus averting a potential massacre. By doing this, Al-Qadi became a much more interesting character than I at first thought he would be, and the type of character you don't often see on television: a deeply devout Muslim that renounces violence, just as the huge majority like him have done in reality. Television has the (mostly unintentional) tendency to make Muslims the bad guys, and this makes Tyrant somewhat important in today's television landscape.
This is related to issues of type-casting. Just as black actors are often cast as "the sidekick" or "the gangster", Middle-Eastern actors are often cast as "the terrorist". This shows that diversity isn't just about the number of people you have on your show that aren't white males, it's also about the types of roles these people play. Tyrant is not great television, but it has a rarely seen diversity in its cast and characters. Jut look at the show's protagonist, who is a progressive, liberal Muslim, the type of role not often seen in film or television.
You all may be wondering why the hell I'm spending this review writing briefly about the issue of diversity in television. And truthfully, it's because I can't find much more to say about this episode. This doesn't mean I didn't like it. I liked it quite a bit. But nothing else happened that I can talk about at any great length. Regular readers of these reviews probably know I'm not a big fan of simply doing a recap of an episode. Instead, I prefer to discuss episodes more broadly in terms of theme and character. And maybe Tyrant is the wrong show for such discussion, but I do my best anyway.
For example, Molly's suicidal thoughts and her decision to check herself into a treatment centre in Germany is something that I don't have much to say about, other than that it's probably a good thing for the show going forward. Molly has always been one of the series' weaker elements, and her temporary absence could give the rest of the ensemble more to do (unless the show, starting with the next episode, decides to follow Molly's wacky misadventures in Germany).
All I can think of to say about Barry and Daliyah finally having sex is "Good for them" and "It took long enough". Leila's not so promising poll numbers are hardly surprising. I commend Jay Karnes for attempting an English accent (though I can't speak to its accuracy). Thankfully, Sammy's affair with his professor got the opportunity to slow down (at the rate it was progressing, I was expecting them to run away together by this episode). Nafisa's Caliphate brother seemed to imply Al-Qadi's days are numbered due to his talk of peace, which would mean the show losing a character who has all of a sudden become interesting (sadly, I can't say the same for Nafisa herself). Leila and Barry remembering the good ol' days was a nice scene for both characters, and Chris Noth's Cogswell declaring his love for Leila once again made me question the purpose of that character in the narrative.
Again, I did enjoy this episode. I'm liking Ahmed more and more given his meagre attempt in this episode to get close to his father, and his more successful attempt to get close to his half-brother (Sammy: "I'm still trying to wrap my head around being an only child" - DRAMATIC IRONY!). This show, over the last several episodes, has done a bit of a purge of its less successful elements. It doesn't mean some aren't still present (who's ready for the upcoming Fauzi/Daliyah/Barry love triangle?!), but this episode promises a leaner version of Tyrant, which is probably a good thing.
Also, I can't believe I somehow worked a Homer quote into an episode review of Tyrant.
