Hi Everyone,
I am back again with a further post about a TV programme I watched over the holidays and really enjoyed. It was a three part series on ITV called 'Sticks and Stones' and for me it was a real psychological twister which really got into our heads not alone the lead character, Thomas.
The TV drama was centred around a man called Thomas Benson who works in an office. He went through an extremely traumatic personal attack of bullying by his fellow colleagues. However, it was thought for a period of time that it could possibly have just been in his head and perhaps he wasn't being bullied at all. This idea was put into our heads by his wife who noticed how his mental health was suffering and said that he should make an appointment with the doctor while his boss was saying that he could do with some time off work. Although, his wife just thought that he was over tired, over worked and as a result was becoming depressed and paranoid.
We followed Thomas see the doctor and try to take some time off work before one of the people he worked with, Isobel, said that he should not be defeated and should come back to work. We thought by this that Isobel was a kind individual, looking out for him as a friend but during a climactic ending it became apparent that she was the most vicious of them all. She was psychologically abusing Thomas along with the others in a plea to get him to react to ensure that he was thrown out of the business. Redundancy was a huge struggle and in order to selfishly keep their jobs they wanted him out and there was no better way to do it than to ruin him and make him look like he was angry, dangerous and somebody that should not be involved with a big company.
In a quite upsetting scene two of his colleagues kept daring him to do things like put his hand on the mans naked chest and then his head. He went straight to his boss to try and explain what has been going on with everything else on top but of course, it seemed like an unlikely event to have occurred in a professional workplace. The boss got in all members of staff who all said bad things about Thomas, making him look like he was well and truly in the wrong. shockingly, Isobel also contributed to this. Thomas got very upset and punched a ship ornament and then fell on it with the boss very angry as it was something his children had made for him. None of this went in Thomas' favour and he was continuing to fall into this hateful trap.
Towards the end of the final episode, Isobel and Thomas were alone in a room together where she nastily admitted everything she had done in order to get him out the business and she continued to hold all the power, taunting and throwing a racial slur at him. I for one was very shocked and upset about this watching Thomas come to the realisation that everything he had thought was true, he had never been paranoid. However, Thomas had recorded it all on his phone and played the evidence to his wife who was very upset and apologetic that she had not believed what he had been telling her. They shared an embrace and it looked like things were moving up for Thomas which they certainly were.
The evidence was sent to his boss but to the police also. We saw Isobel get arrested for her racist remark and we saw the boss offer Thomas a substantial amount of money to not say anything which could hinder the business. His wife told him to take it rather than suing the company. She wanted him to be able to move on with his life. However, as it ended there was a final camera shot of a book called 'how to be a millionaire at 30' which is how old Thomas was.
We ended on a cliff-hanger not knowing which route he had decided to take.
I for one loved the programme as I feel like it really brought to everybody's attention what it can be like in the workplace and hopefully change can be made.
Thank you for reading everybody,
have a lovely day,
Niamh x
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