Douglas is cancelled: Discussion Thread for those who've binged it SPOILERS!

[FailBetter]

As Alex Kingston would say in mode: SPOILERS!!!

So...that joke:

"How did you know Madeline was going to be a huge star?"
"When I saw her coming out of my boss's hotel room."

Oof.

It was an interesting premise but struggling with the idea that Madeline would have been successful and not insisted on a change of producer at some point.
Or that Douglas's wife/daughter wouldn't have heard the "punchline" before.
Or that he'd never mentioned the sleazy producer and what happened to Madeline at any point to her afterward, even if he was ashamed of his (lack of) response. Or that he'd have kept on the agent, even if /especially if the latter had used emotional blackmail.
But it was a decent enough drama with the switch from cancel culture to me too.
And from feeling some sympathy for Douglas to him being complicit, even if he might have thought she was okay with the casting couch.
Wasn't so keen on the portrayal of the daughter.

It was originally written as a play and I can see that. It would have worked very well on stage.

Nick Mohammed tried for the producer role but was knocked back gently for being too young for it. Ben Miles nailed that part as Pervy Wankstain material.

So I have been musing over why Madeline wanted to see Douglas cancelled. First, it is the betrayal - being let down by someone she regarded as a friend. Second, he doubted her integrity. Three, she could never be sure if he were in cahoots with the producer: it was an against all sexist men thing. Four, since the interview the producer had not bothered her and she had made the big time, but the 'joke' called into question her character after she had fought so hard to get where she was on merit. She had probably used the pictures she had and her story to threaten and blackmail him many times, but that is not the story. Five, it made her think that Douglas believed she was just another ambitious girl who prostituted herself to climb the ladder. When you saw them on telly together, you could see the rivalry - she definitely wanted to be top dog, and the joke was the straw that broke the camels back.

I’m late to this but one thing is nagging at me. If Madeline had no signal how could she send that tweet asking for evidence? Didn’t Douglas quote tweet her? Unless she had already sent it before coming into the studio?

She tricked Douglas into sending the tweet himself as he did have signal.

You’re right. At first glance I thought he was quote tweeting her tweet from the interview but I checked again and he’s actually including her earlier tweet from a day or two ago.

It really isn’t that hard, that’s playing into their hands. What would you do if this happened with your colleagues and you were Douglas? You’d ask the young woman to step outside for a minute. You’d ask the producer if he was insane, and if he’d thought about how it looked. And you’d insist, to protect “everyone” that the interview was concluded downstairs in a public place with a third participant.

I enjoyed the programme, and I thought “because you looked terrified” was devastating.

Yep - it's the difference between being a bystander and an upstander.