We’ve seen a lot of bottoms in our time – most of them in this episode. Here’s our Rivals episode 6 review.
It was at the moment in episode six when Rupert described himself as a member of the “Cli-Tory party” when I began to suspect Rivals might not be taking itself entirely seriously.
This might just be the show at its silliest yet. With Cameron arriving in Málaga (more Spanish-looking than it’s been in decades) for a big TV awards do, she’s surprised to find a certain former Olympian loitering on a hotel balcony. Presumably someone will eventually ask Her Majesty’s Minister for Sport to attend a cabinet meeting of some sort – but not today. Today, he’s “hard as the rock of Gibraltar” (because he’s in Spain, naturally).
Meanwhile, back in Rutshire, Freddie and Declan have been schmoozing their way through Southern England’s investing classes to support their new TV venture, Venture(er). It’s not all business, though: there’s a man having a roly-poly induced orgasm, a seduction set to Spanish matador music, and a montage of people having sex outdoors. It’s a miracle anyone has the energy to run a media empire.
Speaking of companies, it’s Tony’s turn to deliver some handy exposition for anyone not up on their 80s history, with some slightly on-the-nose references to Princess Diana and the AIDs crisis. It’s a shame, because the last two episodes have seen the ruthless businessman transform from an entertaining political animal to a more cut-and-dry bastard – and not even the fun kind. It’ll be disappointing if he turns out to be little more than a mundanely detestable antagonist by the end of the series – it’s slightly ruining the whole equal rivalry premise at the moment.
It might be something to do with the cavalcade of how’s-your-father, but it does feel like the show is losing some of its wit as the series goes on. Maybe my natural prudishness is coming through, but this episode in particular feels like a particularly blunt instrument in a show already packed with blunt instruments (behave). It’s hard to fault a show like this for doing away with some of the more character-driven stuff of episodes three and four – but wall-to-wall bonking is so much more interesting to watch if there are some stakes behind it. You can quote me on that, if you like.
All episodes of Rivals are streaming on Disney+ now.