For those who like their comedy politically tinged, but also appreciate a healthy sprinkle of the silly and surreal, then political comedy web series, Cap South, should tick all your boxes in the opinion polls.

I previously wrote a first look piece on Cap South when it first launched in July. I was immediately drawn to the mixture of clever, sparky dialogue, tongue in cheek satire, and off the wall strangeness. Now that the series has finished its run (an event I also covered here), it is my distinct pleasure to turn my typing fingers to the series as a glorious whole.

The set up is that fictional Congresswoman, Gracie Todd Englewright, has reluctantly taken over her recently deceased husband’s seat in Congress and is trying hard to pass the legislative motion that meant so much to him, the Energy Independence Act. Her chief of staff is Elliott Clarice (played by Andrew Heaton, an ex-political staffer turned comedian who co-writes the series along with Raffety and Satya Thallam – the latter also having a minor part in the show). Elliott is a classic in-over-his-head character and very much inclined to say the wrong thing at the worst time. Gunning for his role is the ambitious Ally O’Gallagher-Connelly. She may be devious and cutting, but she also has a peculiar penchant for breaking the fourth wall, much to the confusion of those around her.

Cranking up the intensity is the enigmatic Bushwick. All hair and all rage, he is enlisted to give Congresswoman Englewright’s campaign some fire and brimstone passion. Lastly, there is the (occasionally willing) object of Elliott’s bumbling affections, Nicole Foster. She’s Australian, rather naive, and says she spends a lot of her time at the Chinese Intelligence Agency….

Cap South mostly follows Elliott as he struggles to secure his future, using a combination of cloak & dagger nefariousness and sycophantic toadyism, plus a heavy dose of ineptitude, of course. Heaton plays his character with aplomb. His inability to stop talking himself into trouble is expertly performed and Heaton imbues him with the qualities of a powerless pawn, bemused and bobbing along in the currents of democracy, unsure of what he wants or how to go about getting it. His main problem is that the Congresswoman is not going to run for a second term, and he is desperate to ensure he will have employment come the end of her office.

In practical terms, this premise means that Cap South can expertly use the simple backdrop of a Congresswoman’s campaign as a springboard towards a variety of comedy styles. At first we witness Elliott struggling with various power coups and it appears like the show will be a clever battle of wits between its characters. Lobbyists and wannabe politicians come knocking and the dialogue comes thick and fast. There is a snappy intensity to the jokes that makes it a pleasure to listen to every word of the tight, witty script.

However, things quickly move to the point where Elliott is attempting, ham-fistedly, to woo the pretty and perhaps too keen newbie, Nicole. The tone cuts to a classic ‘digging oneself into a hole’ level of embarrassment. “Who’d have thought the Australians even HAVE opera?” Elliott says to the Australian born Nicole whilst trying to back pedal from accidentally insulting her tastes moments earlier. There is even one episode dedicated entirely to Elliott’s commute, featuring the juxtaposition between a touching rendition of La Bohème intercut with Elliott’s surreptitious scrounging for discarded food and newspapers along his route.

And then, just when you think Cap South is going to become a wince-athon, the formula switches up again to increase the surreal moments, such as characters being able to apparently travel the length of the USA in mere seconds, Bushwick’s dialogue being almost all in non-sequiturs, and a very dodgy lobbyist trying to tempt Elliott into a life of blood diamonds and gun-running whilst they both ride on a carousel, for no adequately explained reason. It’s these odd touches that help create a fantastic in-universe style for Cap South; part political comedy, part daft silliness. “Mongooses eat small children,” hisses Ally to Nicole (as they converse whilst permanently back to back for another one of their secret meetings), “they scramble TV signals and make you miss your credit card payments.”

Directed by series creator, Rob Raffety, Cap South presents an excellent dose of realism to its settings whilst never feeling like a cheap exercise in set saving. Using a mixture of office environments and prominent landmarks from the Capitol Hill area (the workplace of the American political machine) we are treated to the twin delights of accurate, gorgeous architecture and a real sense of a bustling environment. This helps make Cap South feel like it isn’t a few actors in a set but is actually taking place within the belly of the beast itself.

Raffety has worked hard to include the local community in his creation and such efforts are there on-screen to enjoy, be it filming the finale in a popular bar for Hill staffers or securing sponsorships from local businesses (in an effort to prove that having a prominent web series can only be a good thing for business). Cap South looks and feels like a labour of love.

If I were to level any kind of criticism at Cap South it would purely be that I wanted more. The character of Bushwick was full-on and lively but sadly he appears only a handful of times. The irate and grammatically correct arguments between Ally and Nicole were a joy to watch, and greedily I wanted them to feature more prominently throughout. Also, for a plot that supposedly hinged on the no-nonsense talking Congresswoman Englewright, the lady herself was mostly absent from proceedings, when her presence would have been a great kicker to jump start any character into action.

However, these are mere nitpicks on a series that entertained me hugely. Cap South doesn’t have pizzazz or viewer grabbing wow-factor and as such is currently flying under the radar a bit, something which should immediately be addressed. With hints of a potential series 2 (said hints dropped by a direct to camera piece by Ally in the series finale) I am keeping my fingers crossed that the show will return bigger, weirder, and more politically tangled than conjoined helixes fighting over a spring.