Yes, yes, yes! The interview scene was SO uncomfortable, I loved it. In the US we aren't as balls-out with our "embarrassment humor" -- I don't think I've ever squirmed so much in my seat in my life.
Speaking to an earlier post: I liked that, from this very first episode, we see what's likable about Dan (he isn't an idiot), but also what's wrong with Dan. He won't give anybody credit for having good intentions, for being a good person. From the get-go, he's quick to snarl at his coworkers on his way out the door to his ill-fated interview, and the moment is saddening because his idiotic, naive, well-meaning coworkers are visibly startled and hurt. They welcome him back, cautiously: they are stupid, but they are the people on his side. The interview scene underscores the difference between people who are sincere and clueless and people who are corporately smarmy. But Dan's is the kind of self-righteousness that won't acknowledge the humanity and goodness and potential in other people, and I do think we're supposed to see how sad that it is. We're supposed to relate to Dan, certainly; we ourselves are being accosted.
I think we're meant to immediately prefer the Ashcrofts to Nathan Barley, who is very much a hipster 'tool.' (Does 'tool' exist in UK vernacular? Connotatively I mean someone obnoxious, unlikable, and even short-sighted, without his intending any malice or cruelty. I think our usage of 'douche' implies more malice, though, so given Barley's treatment of his tech coworker, maybe he is a bit of a douche.) As the series goes on I think Barley grows in human-ness. He's too clueless and guileless -- he is, in his stupidity, a kind of faultless martyr, a divine idiot -- to really be hated. The show lampoons youth culture, absolutely, but Dan's is the real cautionary tale. The curmudgeon thing is cute, for a time, and a lack of patience for fools is charming and relatable, doubtlessly. But self-righteousness is usually malicious.
I will say that I think Dan has an 'other' in the series, someone who he is most like, and most in danger of becoming. And that's actually the insufferable Jonatton Yeah?, who is modeled after people like Vice Magazine founder Gavin McInnes. Jonatton matches Dan in terms of smarts, in terms of self-righteousness. He's smart and hateful. He's also smarmy, and disingenuous and calculating, and he's figured out how to market a cult of ego. Cruel is cool.
In the end, Barley and the Ashcrofts all underscore that there are different types of ego, and consequently, there are as many different types of superficiality.
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