"Ambassadors" seemed to pass the Bechdel test. What's the catch?

[Lexilicious]

Watched first episode of David Mitchell and Robert Webb's new thing last night on iplayer. It has lots of female characters doing real jobs in the
Embassy, the Ambassador's wife has a real job and he looks to her as an equal when he is stuck, and (spoiler) one man calls out misogynistic behaviour in another loud and clear.

Is there a catch somewhere? Or has comedy and drama writing suddenly grown up? Basically, I liked it, it matched my knowledge of real life (have worked with lots of FCO/overseas civil servants) and then afterwards I realised things such as the above examples.

I was struck by that thought when I watched it too!

Assuming Mitchell and Webb had a hand in the writing, I think they do lean towards enlightened anyway -

Just watched the first episode and it only passed once, when the ambassador's wife and the maid were discussing cooking Eccles cakes briefly. Whilst there are women doing jobs, they are all assisting the men rather than being unlinked to male activity. Better than some stuff, but we've got a pretty low bar.

His wife is a Dr though, she is applying for a high level (can't remember the exact position) cardiology job in the second episode. I really like ambassadors, hadn't noticed about the female roles but you are right OP.

How funny, I did consider the Bechdel test when I watched this. Great show.

Yep she's a dr. In the first episode we don't see her actually working as a dr. The only time her dr skills are used is when she gives free labour to the important guy at dinner by diagnosing his son. She then manages to negotiate with important guy, but rather than being able to use that negotiation for her dr related priority of medicines, she hands it over to her husband's priorities.

If she is a dr with an equally respected career to her husband, why do we see her organising the catering for the dinner, organising communication with their daughter, and then being the one to book the flight tickets. What family related labour does her husband carry out?

If she is an equally important dr, why did she move to Turkmenistan (is that the right country?)? Why would that further her career?

Re the dealing with sexual harassment, I saw two incidences. In one, the assistant who was working with the actor raised her concerns more than once. Other characters warned her about his behaviour. Yet he wasn't dealt with until after the important event. The ambassador only tackled it when there was no risk of damage to him by the actor pulling out, leaving the female member of staff in known harms way until he had got what he want.

The second instance of sexual harassment involved him asking his wife to once again have contact with the man who assaulted her last time, in order to help with his priorities. So again putting her in harms way as long as he achieves his priorities rather than tackling the man's behaviour.

As I said before, better than other stuff, but a really low bar.

Agree with 'better than other stuff but a low bar'!

Mitchell and Webb are responsible for the fabulous 'Women, sort yourselves out!' sketch about the different way advertisers market to women and men, so not too surprised at them doing this fairly well.

We see her carrying out the role of Ambassadress because that is what she is this stage.

She is however being headhunter to be deputy head of the cardiac unit in a main London teaching hospital and her DH is supporting this. Even though work opportunities for a trailing spouse can be seriously narrow, she has found a role in which she can use medical skills. It's not been shown on screen so far, but has been mentioned several times.

"Or has comedy and drama writing suddenly grown up"

No. Mitchell and Webb have been grown up for quite a while, though. Maybe why they don't get prime time work?

I thought it was pretty good - main thing is it looks like the majority of what look likely to be the recurring roles were given to women, when it could easily have been a big boys club. Would be nice if some of them also had some funny lines though - that's the problem with making them all more competent than the men... And maybe also the difference between comedy that is feminist by virtue of being made by women, and comedy by men who are feminists.

I thought it was rather good too, though yes the women are shown as adjuncts to the two main characters, they are not belittled and clearly exist in their own right beyond just their relationship to the men. So, by no means perfect, but good.