By: Brandon Wolfe
“Gaslight” is perhaps the best episode of ‘Tyrant’ aired thus far. In its first season’s final stretch, Bassam’s secret coup against Jamal has finally given the series something to sink its teeth into. Which isn’t to give the impression that ‘Tyrant’ has become a terrific series; it most certainly has not. It’s still plagued by the same set of problems and deficiencies that have governed the series from the outset. But this coup has at least afforded ‘Tyrant’ some much-needed dramatic momentum to shake off some of the doldrums of the season’s earlier installments.
Bassam and his coup-enabling consortium have identified Tariq as the primary obstacle in overthrowing Jamal. They decide the best way to get Tariq out of the picture is to have Jamal do the deed himself, using lies wrapped in truth to foster distrust in the general’s loyalty. Because Tariq was wiretapping Jamal’s exploits with Katrina, the paramour to whom Jamal confessed his insecurities about being president before smothering her with a pillow, Bassam puts the bug in Jamal’s ear that Tariq and his men have cited the recording as a vote of no confidence in Jamal’s leadership abilities. With John Tucker dropping in to help sell the story, Jamal becomes paranoid and furious, immediately developing clandestine plans of his own to remove Tariq from power before he can undermine Jamal any further.
But while it looks for a time as though everything is coming up Bassam, Jamal’s methods of disabling Tariq and his forces entail detonating an airplane filled with all of Tariq’s men before taking his uncle into captivity. While Bassam has no qualms about Tariq’s imprisonment and mistreatment, the cold-blooded murder of dozens of soldiers wasn’t something he expected, having naively convinced himself that his machinations would result in no bloodshed. Further complicating matters is that Molly is rapidly falling apart due to Bassam’s scheme, worrying for her family’s safety, especially after being told that they will need to be relocated to a safe house even upon returning to the United States, regardless of whether or not Bassam’s plans succeed or fail. She implores her husband to abandon this power-grab while it’s still possible to abort the mission, but her pleas fall on deaf ears.
While all this intrigue does goose ‘Tyrant’ into something a bit more compelling than we’ve grown accustomed to, Bassam still registers as the central flaw in the series’ designs. I’m entering broken-record territory here, but we are still not getting any life out of this character, in performance or in writing. Bassam is now regularly told by other characters how crafty and devious he’s become, but none of that underlying insidiousness comes across onscreen. We don’t feel his lust for power nor his sordid underbelly one bit. It’s not even been accurately conveyed through his words or actions why he suddenly wants this so bad. The character is the mover and shaker making everything happen right now, but none of the supposed darkness or opportunistic drive fueling him is evident. He’s the same bland drip he’s always been. Even when silently denying his loving wife’s desperate pleas to put a stop to the dangerous game he’s playing, the moment doesn’t carry the impactful chill it should. It mostly just plays like awkward indifference on his part. Things that Bryan Cranston could convey with a simple look or vocal inflection, Adam Rayner can’t pull off with an entire performance.
My record remains broken with Jamal as well. Ashraf Barhom is still the only actor on this show with any fire behind his eyes. The dialogue put into Jamal’s mouth is still hopelessly clunky and artificial, but Barhom plays through it and manages to imbue the character with palpably authentic emotions. His pain, his fear, his anger, all of it is rich and real in a way that the cardboard standees he’s acting against couldn’t begin to summon. Even when ‘Tyrant’ goes for dramatic irony at its most insipidly blatant, as it does with the roughly 600 instances in “Gaslight” where Jamal says how much he loves and trusts Bassam, Barhom makes you feel for the guy all the same. Once this series is put out of its misery, I hope Barhom finds his way onto a project that is actually worth his considerable talents.
The power play comes to a head next week with the season (and, God willing, series) finale, where we will find out if Bassam’s scheme will be successful and what Jamal will do when he learns his brother isn’t looking out for him after all. I will admit to some interest in seeing how this matter plays itself out, but I can’t imagine what ‘Tyrant’ could possibly do to get me to stick around beyond that. I am very eager to be ousted from my reign of watching this show.
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