Armando Iannucci possesses a scorching, cynical wit and absolutely no mercy. His footprints are all over the recent eight-episode show, The Franchise, written substantively by Jon Brown. The franchise in this case is a massive, dumb superhero movie universe of films, in this case represented by a meaningless superhero Tecto in a ridiculous tale populated by ridiculous space creatures. The movie skewers every aspect of the on-set production, sparing no one from the main actors to the bit players and the workers on the set. Every episode is full of laugh-out-loud moments (as long as your sense of humor accepts savagery). The cast is wonderful: Billy Magnusson revels in being the super-silly, yearning lead actor; Richard E. Grant is hilarious as “number two star” with a profane tongue; ditto Daniel Brühl as the overweening writer/director and Lolly Adefope as the bantering intern; the brutish franchise manager is wonderfully accelerated by darren Goldstein. The actor who holds together the entire show is the wonderful Himesh Patel playing the assistant director who actually makes things happen and holds together the fractious, volatile crew. Patel is also the emotional core of the show, for savage satire is not enough to create a memorable experience; the AD actually loves the world of superhero movies. The script of The Franchise never misses a beat, the funniness never stops, and the sheer intelligence behind every scene is a joy to behold.
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