(Author’s Note: sorry this didn’t go up yesterday, but I was in court all day over a damn fix-it ticket and really didn’t feel like sitting through Tyrant when I got home.)
How this show is sitting at an 8.4 on IMDb is anyone’s guess. For my money, the best part of “My Brother’s Keeper” was the trailer they showed for The Strain. Tyrant continues to be predictable, borderline racist, and completely bereft of any likable characters. The show’s saving grace, time and again, are the performances, which as a rule aren’t stellar – but sometimes a genuinely good scene creeps into the mix.
Case in point: I’m on record saying that Ashraf Barhom’s Jamal is the best, most energetic part of Tyrant. So what was up with him in “My Brother’s Keeper”? He sounded sarcastic the entire time. “What an amazing morning” seemed like it should have been “What an amaaazing mooorning,” follwed by a jerking off motion. Barhom seemed tired and disinterested for the episode’s entire length.
He’s still more interesting than the women on the show, though! Leila (Jamal’s wife) transparently tries to manipulate him, resulting in his above-noted reaction, so I can’t even fucking tell if it worked or not because of Barhom’s delivery. Molly puts the bitchlights up and down Barry’s back for wanting her and the kids to return to California; she has a medical practice, sure, but she can’t handle three whole weeks away from her husband. Who would chop down trees and kill dinner while she’s at groceries?
The government of Abbudin is predictably corrupt. When Barry speaks out against the hanging of rebel leader Ihab Rashid, he’s told by his uncle, General Tariq, that hanging works to inspire fear. Uh, if hanging worked so well, you’d never have rebels, General DUMBASS.
The women on this show are shrews, and the men are casual sadists (except for Barry, who is boring, and Fauzi, who is a dick who raised an asshole daughter). See? There’s no likable characters. Even Barry’s son Sam fell prey to the well-worn trope of a gay man in a new location, and immediately finding the first available man to start a relationship with. Because, as we know, every gay man is attracted to every male he sees. This same shit happened on Halt and Catch Fire (although it was done much better) and The Walking Dead (but I’m pretty sure both those girls ended up dead anyway).
As you can see, I am pissed at this episode, especially because I watched it after The Bridge‘s pretty good season premiere. The one bright spot of “My Brother’s Keeper” was when Barry spoke to an imprisoned Hamid Mafouz, the husband of the woman with whom Jamal was having an affair. Tears in his eyes, Mafouz tells Barry that Jamal is the devil, that he and his wife resolved to kill him together. It’s an unexpectedly powerful moment, and the only time this episode picked up. I’m giving Tyrant one, maybe two more episodes to get out of this nosedive.
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