It had to happen coming in December the first sitcom about the UN - are we ready for this???

Ahh over the years i am sure many of us have thought it would be fun to write a sitcom about what happens at the UN....I even started to draft a pitch once but then I wasn't sure it would be good for multilateralism to finish it.

Its clear we are in a difficult period and would laughing at some of the things that go on at the UN be a good idea? I have to say I pulled back.

Over the years there have been a few examples of good films where the UN has been central. There was a good TV series two episodes called Burn Up  (2008) with  Bradley Whitford (Josh from west wing)  as James 'Mack' Mackintosh with the Business coalition trying to suppress climate change data during a UN Conference on Climate Change. I thought it was a very good attempt at showing what happens...more serious and spy like. After all my car number plate is Felix007. If you haven't seen it well worth renting or buying. 

Then there are films like the Interpreter with Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn. here we see political intrigue and deception unfold inside the United Nations, where a U.S. Secret Service agent is assigned to investigate an interpreter who overhears an assassination plot. A great film!!

This brings me back to the Mission due out December 2018 from an interview with the creators in Bright Magazine:
"Marie-Marguerite Sabongui: We both worked in the United Nations world at the same time years ago. Ben was an aid worker, and then Al Jazeera English’s diplomatic producer at the United Nations. I was working as an adviser to small islands. We kept crossing in the halls saying, “This should be a show.”

Benedict Moran: We were in Rio together for a big U.N. climate conference, and over drinks one night with a diplomat friend, we decided to try and make the show happen!"

So its pitched at the VEEP audience  or if you are from the UK the 'Thick of It'. Both cringe worthy and funny in the Office humor type.

I can see Fox picking this up and running it on their news channel as truth --- see we told you the UN was like this. If you watch the trailer above I think we can recognize the characters...though i think its unfair on the Canadian Mission. Personally i think they should have gone for not a real country but it is first for Canadian TV so I guess that is why.

As both of the writers have been around the UN expect many of the stories we are all well aware of and cringe to find their way onto the series...in some way or another.

Will we watch it??? Damn right we will......

Comments

  1. Oh, no, that's not unfair! We Canadians can laugh at ourselves (we just don't like it when other people laugh at us ;-). And Colin Mochrie is a master at showing the goofy side of Canada. If the show

    If the show has some depth and isn't all fun and silliness (and if the characters don't talk too fast ... has anyone else noticed this? the older I get, the faster everyone else talks!), it's going to be worth watching.

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