Thursday, July 25, 2024

COBRA: Rebellion, on PBS

TV Prime Minister Robert Sutherland outlasted Boris Johnson Liz Truss, and Rishi Sunak. He might be the most reassuring PM since Jim Hacker on Yes, Prime Minister. However, Sutherland could use a Sir Humphrey, because many of his cabinet members follow their own agendas, often against the interests of his administration. It gets so bad, his flamboyantly arrogant Conservative Party rival Archie Glover-Morgan is more friend than foe this time around—or at least it’s a close call. That will be a problem when the next crisis strikes in the 6-part COBRA: Rebellion (a.k.a. season three), which premieres tonight on PBS.

To embarrass her father, Sutherland’s daughter Ellie joined an extremist environmental group occupying tunnels under a contested construction site. However, she needs daddy to save her when a freak sink-hole collapse traps her underground. The disaster site turns into a crime scene when remnants of an explosive device are discovered. Awkwardly, the activist trapped with her knows an awful lot about it. Logically, suspicion also falls on Ellie, requiring her father to maintain impartial treatment towards her.

That does not sit so well with his wife Rachel, with whom his marriage was already strained. Fortunately, he can finally count on the wise counsel of his chief of staff, Anna Marshall. Like Lloyd Bridges in
Airplane!, she picked the wrong day to return from sick leave, after waking from her second season coma. Indeed, she wants to be in the cabinet briefings (the so-called COBRAs) to support Sutherland—and anywhere else he might need her . . . support.

Somehow, a fictional Middle East kingdom that is absolutely not supposed to represent Saudi Arabia is also mixed up in the expanding crisis. Apparently, they kidnapped the dissident Princess Yadira, who was a women’s rights activist back home and a legal resident of the United Kingdom. Sutherland is quite put out that they would conduct such an operation on British soil, but the ruthlessly ambitious Defense Minister, Victoria Dalton is determined to preserve British defense contractors’ lucrative deals with the oil-rich kingdom.

Uncharacteristically, Glover-Morgan, who ascended to the deputy PM position in season two, advises caution to both. While he wants to preserve the defense contracts, he also wants no part of the regime’s reported human rights abuses. In fact, the subtle evolution of Glover-Morgan, from jerky to rather waggish, is one of the best developments in
Rebellion.

David Haig practically chortles with delight firing off zingers and scheming behind-the-scenes. He is like Frank Underwood or Francis Urquhart in either version of
House of Cards, except Glover-Morgan is more human, more principled, and arguably a true patriot, despite his devious, roguishness. Honestly, if he were the lead of the next season, it would be jolly good fun.

In comparison, Robert Carlyle is still a bit bland as Sutherland, but he projects a sense of sound judgement and temperament that frankly a lot of Americans are currently yearning for. Lisa Palfrey is still appropriately shifty and morally ambiguous as Intelligence Chair Eleanor James. Edward Bennett is also entertainingly snide and pompous as Glover-Morgan’s former ally, press secretary Peter Mott, who has turned against the Deputy PM. However, Marsha Thomason is dull as dish water playing former Sutherland advisor and current Labour shadow minister, Francine Bridge, whose duties apparently solely consist of walking about looking heroically concerned. Similarly, a lot of viewers would prefer to leave Holly Cattle’s character, nauseatingly petulant Ellie Sutherland buried in the collapsed tunnel.

Indeed, the most annoying and predictable turn in
Rebellion is the exoneration of the environmental extremists. It is only a matter of time before these lunatics defacing timeless art and paralyzing cities graduation to something truly horrific. However, series writers Toby Finlay, James Wood, and Rachel Anthony do not have the guts to go there.

They still show a little sympathy for a conservate PM, as was true for season one, which is something these days. The execution is also quite grabby, with Charles Sturridge (who directed the classic
A Handful of Dust) helming the first two episodes. Recommended for the political gamesmanship rather than the political ideology, Cobra: Rebellion starts airing tonight (7/25) on PBS stations nationwide.