So my question for Tyrant is, who is the titular ruler? It’s not Khaled, because he died in episode one. It’s not Barry, because he’s not President. Well, is it Jamal? I don’t know, it could be, but as is rightly pointed out tonight, all Jamal has done in his tenure is free political prisoners, agree to meet with opposition leaders, and tonight, change Abbudin’s constitution to allow open elections. Um, none of that is tyrannical.
My biggest problem with “What the World Needs Now,” other than that stupid fucking title, is that it bored me. (I spent most of the time texting with Margaux about Guardians of the Galaxy.) The direction, from Tucker Gates (Lost, Bates Motel), was serviceable, if unexciting, but pretty much the entirety of this overlong episode was hampered by a dull script that required people to say things like “Change is bad for the status quo.” I don’t even know where to begin making fun of that. Also, Jamal referred to the talks with Sheik Rashid as “bending over and trying not to think about what’s happening to us.” Jamal really shouldn’t talk about rape, because he’s, well, kind of a serial rapist and a sexual predator.
The Plaza Trilogy comes to a sputtering end tonight, with a talk between Jamal and Sheik Rashid that lasts all of five minutes. Jamal wants the Sheik’s people to clear the plaza. The Sheik wants free, open elections. They both tell the other that they’ll take it under advisement, then the Sheik leaves and Tyrant cuts to a commercial. I’m not making this up.
I think Tyrant wanted to get this plaza bullshit out of the way, because it knew it had painted itself into an uninteresting corner, and what it really wants to talk about are the elections. Puzzlingly, Jamal is trailing in the polls, because as everyone knows, campaigning starts on day one of democracy.
60 Minutes wants to do a piece on Jamal, which he sees as a sign that the world is beginning to love him, and the viewers see as a sign that Tyrant isn’t very current, because nobody turns to 60 Minutes for news. Jamal becomes enraged when he’s played a clip of the Sheik saying that Barry is really the brains of the operation. Which is, you know, completely true. Actually, it’s hard to tell if Jamal is mad or not – the script certainly has him saying things that an angry person would say, but Ashraf Barhom’s performance, once again, feels tired and rote, which really sticks out when Mohammed Bakri’s performance as Sheik Rashid is so gravelly and dignified.
“What the World Needs Now” doesn’t really pick up until the end, when Jamal and the Sheik happen to meet in the bathroom. The Sheik doubles over coughing, and Jamal leads him to a toilet stall, seemingly trying to help, but then he shoves the old man down and smashes his head against the toilet. The Sheik appears to be dead, which is a good and a bad thing. Good, because Tyrant has finally come up with a plot device that works – how is Jamal going to explain this, and how will this contrast with his desire to be loved? Granted, I can almost guarantee that nothing will come of this, and next week will probably see Jamal cancelling the elections. If the Sheik is truly dead, that’s a bad thing because now Tyrant has no Mohammed Bakri, who has given this show a serious shot in the arm.
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