In The End, It’s 'Nolly's' Turn

The third episode of Nolly is the best episode of the series. It is the most open and reflective of the trio, focusing on themes like the significance of the stories we tell ourselves; the value of maintaining good friendships across time and space; the sadness of realizing that you may not know what you’ve got til it’s gone; and the pleasure of a comeback on your own terms. Nolly has survived the worst of her experience, having learned and performed Meg’s fate, and now that those particular agonies are over, she’s moved on.

Tony: “Go back to Leicester, do your job, and act!”

Having watched all three episodes twice, I’m glad I did because it rewards careful viewing. However, I’m even more disappointed in the first episode, because the second and third are so much better. I’m sympathetic — this series requires quite a bit of exposition, which can be a real bear, and risks tilting toward clunkiness at nearly every moment — but I’m also aware that Russell T. Davies is an exceptionally good storyteller. I’m disinclined to let him off the hook in this case and will issue the most encouraging criticism I can, imagining that I’m reviewing a draft of his script and jotting both NGEFY (Not Good Enough For You) and Make It Work at crucial points in the margins. (If you’ll indulge a brief bit of exposition of my own, NGEFY is borrowed from the legendary children’s book editor Ursula Nordstrom. Among many other contributions to the canon, she discovered Maurice Sendak and mentored Margaret Wise Brown, so you can imagine both the significance of the shoes I’m summoning all my chutzpah to slide a single toe into and the esteem in which I generally hold Mr. Davies. Not everyone’s work merits an NGEFY; sometimes they’re just NGE, full stop.)