melannen: Commander Valentine of Alpha Squad Seven, a red-haired female Nick Fury in space, smoking contemplatively (Default)
melannen ([personal profile] melannen) wrote2021-08-02 11:39 pm

100 days of enemy recs: 8. The Thick of It

For some of the fandoms on my list I put a pairing. For some of them I just put a character. For this fandom I just put Malcolm Tucker. Malcolm Tucker had the well-honed ability to turn anybody he met into a mortal enemy in about ten seconds flat. It's amazing to watch. And he had strung-tight bastard sexual chemistry with all of them.

The Thick of It was a satire/drama show about British politics in the late 90s/aughts. It was really good but has become to depressing for me to rewatch as politics in RL has slowly circled the drain since then. But Malcom Tucker is still compelling. He is the party's PR wizard, and every possible HR violation in one expletive-wrapped package. He has zero ethics but a giant heart, which he takes out and stomps on occasionally to keep it in line. The enemy vibe here is that he hates everybody and respects nobody, except the people he kind of secretly doesn't despite trying his best, and everybody hates and fears him, except the people who don't quite manage it despite trying their best, and everybody is theoretically working toward the same goals but they've all massively betrayed each other at least twice.

Coming up with recs here was surprisingly hard because when I go to the tToI tag I just kind of descend into a fugue state of obscene Scotsmen and don't remember anything after I emerge, but here are three that stuck with me enough to track them down again. These are all Nicola/Malcolm; I had some Malcolm/Jamie and Julius too but more of this fandom than I realized is archive-locked and/or share-button-disabled, and I try not to rec archive-locked stuff if I notice? But those ships are good to. (Nicola/Malcolm is particularly good though because it's always sweetened by knowing she's the only one who managed to fight him all the way to mutual destruction in the end.) (These three all coincidentally involve Nicola cheating on her husband but he's a scumbag so we don't care.)

  • The Nobel Prize of Bad Decisions (5057 words) by Monksandbones
    Fandom: The Thick of It (TV)
    Rating: Explicit
    Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
    Relationships: Nicola Murray/Malcolm Tucker
    Additional Tags: Mildly Dubious Consent, Remix, POV Female Character, Office Sex, Infidelity, Complicated Relationships, Not Quite Hatesex, Talking About It Almost Like Grownups, Season/Series 03

    Nicola and Malcolm snap and fuck in his office in the middle of a fight, and the worst part is that it's good.


  • Unsteady Ground (10108 words) by mardia
    Fandom: The Thick of It (TV)
    Rating: Mature
    Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
    Relationships: Nicola Murray/Malcolm Tucker
    Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Season/Series 03, Infidelity
    Nicola finally files for divorce. It's not because of what happened with Malcolm, but it's not not about that, either.

  • (I Move A Little Bit Closer) For Reasons Unknown (7688 words) by Tricki
    Fandom: The Thick of It (TV)
    Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
    Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
    Relationships: Nicola Murray/Malcolm Tucker, James Murray/Nicola Murray
    Additional Tags: Dresses, Political Parties, Black Tie, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Unresolved Emotional Tension, Protectiveness, Between season 3/4, Newspapers

    They dance.
petra: The words "YES and HO!" in cheery font on a bright pink background (The Thick of It - Yes and Ho!)

[personal profile] petra 2021-08-03 02:40 pm (UTC)(link)
There is a deep truth to the assertion that Malcolm + Anyone = enemy sex. Possibly even himself, on occasion.

I look forward to the sweariest Scotsman stories so much. Thanks for the recs!
petra: Barbara Gordon smiling knowingly (Default)

[personal profile] petra 2021-08-03 06:56 pm (UTC)(link)
But --

Okay! Everyone kinks in their own way. It makes sense that someone would look at Malcolm's antagonistic relationship with everything in the universe and wonder, "But what about the person he gets on with?"

It's just not the fun bit.
petra: Barbara Gordon smiling knowingly (Default)

[personal profile] petra 2021-08-03 07:24 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, that story premise sounds Just Not My Cup Of Tea. Platonic domming, sure, but not sexual.