Photo: Colin Hutton/HBO
God, three episodes into The Franchise and it’s about as subtle as a “stick of maximum potency,” isn’t it? There are some funny moments in “Scene 54: The Lilac Ghost,” with much of the comedic burden being shouldered by Daniel Brühl, who boasts my personal best laugh-per-line ratio so far. But, in this episode, concerning the desire of Maximum Studios’ higher ups to smuggle some lazy faux-feminism into Tecto following backlash against the cancellation of The Sisters Squad, the satire feels especially heavy-handed — like it’s being bashed into us by a fellow with superpowered earthquake gloves.
I think the episode simultaneously tries to send up the stereotypical sexism of a certain breed of basement-lurking comic book fan, and identity politics, and how superhero movie studios have historically been accused of bowing to pressure from both sides — but we know all of this, don’t we? It happened with movies like Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman, and The Marvels, and has been going on for a long time. The problem is that the show isn’t really bringing much to the table; its attempt at satire insofar as the feminism angle goes, resultantly, feels dated and stale.
This isn’t to say that the episode is entirely without its merits. As a sort-of Brie Larson (the most famous target of some online Marvel fans’ misogynistic ire) surrogate, Katherine Waterston’s Quinn Walker, an Oscars-anointed actor debased by her part as “The Lilac Ghost” on Tecto, is quietly tragicomic; I mean, damn, the episode ends with her car being checked for explosives by bomb dogs after an on-set photo leaks on Reddit. (“Quinn, do not check your mentions,” her publicist cautions over the phone.) I also felt it was the strongest episode so far for Billy Magnussen’s performance as Adam, who is locked into a permanent emasculation complex; perhaps it’s just the growth hormones he has been taking, but he really struggles with anything remotely phallic.
Which brings us to the aforementioned “stick of maximum potency,” the satirical weapon with which this episode repeatedly bonks us over the head. After The Sisters Squad is canned, Anita is instructed by Pat to girl-power-up Tecto, a directive that eventually makes its way to Eric. How will they do that? By giving The Lilac Ghost, who is initially set to appear in Tecto for a few fleeting scenes — as, well, the ghost of a dead woman — a superpower (or yes, super stick) on par with the powers of the titular lead. It’s another pointer that leads Eric to question his own gender-based artistic failings: “I may have done a sexism once, in a beer commercial, but I’ve always wanted to make a feminism,” he says.
Discussions before the next day’s shoot prompt Dag to suggest the stick, which immediately goes down well with the assembled production team — aside from Daniel, the only one on the crew who gives a shit about fidelity to the original comic books. (The joke here, of course, is that they are empowering a woman by having her wield a big, thinly-veiled stand-in for an erect cock. Hence, “potency,” if you didn’t already get it from the stick. Blunt trauma satire indeed.) Not that it really matters: the exercise is to tick a box, and they don’t especially care how said box is ticked because it’s all about being perceived to uphold the interests of women — and female characters — on screen.
Besides this, Anita definitely doesn’t care because she’s using Tecto as a springboard to produce artsy movies under her own boutique production label, as she discloses to Daniel after he speaks up. Not that we should be surprised — Anita doesn’t exactly scream comic book aficionado. This results in Quinn, who thought she was finally free of her personal hell known as the Tecto set, being recalled to shoot an additional scene the next day, an obligation to which her contract shackles her. An en vogue feminist theatre writer is helicoptered in for the rewrites prior to shooting, and there you have it: they have made a feminism! Only Adam is so emasculated by the stick, and Peter unwilling to do anything on the day’s shoot other than nod — as previously agreed — that the scene goes unshot.
Which seems to be the structural pattern in the show so far. A scene proves difficult to shoot because of executive meddling and/or actorly egotism and/or Eric’s neuroses and/or [insert stereotypical film set conflict here], and it falls to one of the plucky, undersung below-the-line heroes to fix it. Usually Daniel, as our lead, whose at-the-death intervention in this episode once again saves the day, as he gives Anita the “cheat codes” for dealing with the three main actors. Which ends with Anita finally giving Daniel his deserved props, and extending an olive branch: from now on, they’ll team up to get Tecto over the line. It’s an interesting dynamic made complicated by the episode’s reveal that not only were they once in a relationship, but Anita’s inadvertent humiliation of Daniel on another set in their early careers saw her become endeared to a powerful producer, eventually leading to her present place at the top of a franchise tentpole. Daniel, alas, was left to languish in the coal pits.
Reading this back, I’m conscious that it may feel harsher than a three-starrer. The thing is, I haven’t found The Franchise to be an unentertaining waste of time. It has a great cast who do a lot with the material they’re given, and while the overarching satire of Marvel et al. has been pretty on the nose and dated — epitomized by this episode, the weakest of the three satirically — there remain funny moments and line-reads. Which is, funnily enough, broadly how I often feel about superhero movies: the actors frequently give it their all, and I should imagine the workers behind the scenes do too, getting it over the line in spite of clichéd material. I’ve enjoyed The Franchise enough; I’ve had a few laughs — just fewer than I ordinarily would with an Iannucci-infused satire.
Post-Credits Scenes
• I feel like there’ll be at least one of these dedicated to Daniel Brühl’s performance for every episode, but for my money, he’s by far the MVP of the series. His squirming anxiety over his apparent “women problem” in this episode? Gold, all of it. (Especially when he has to pick one of five female extras to model for an image on a tombstone: “Look at you all, standing there in your power. But don’t look for too long. It might be a little bit weird. I choose them all! Congratulations, you’re all dead.”)
• Okay, fine, the rewritten dialogue for the stick scene is pretty funny: “A woman of maximum potency, with my stick so very, very potent…” / “And yet, no more powerful than my earthquake glove!”
