Douglas Is Cancelled premieres Thursday, March 6 on BritBox.Making entertaining and illuminating television from spicy ingredients like cancel culture, the modern-day news media, and the court of public opinion requires a deft hand. Unfortunately, thats not a hand Douglas Is Cancelled possesses. The provocative comedy-drama from Sherlock creator and former Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat cant help but sink beneath the weight of its smugness and judgemental attitude. While there are certainly flashes of brilliance in its four episodes including captivating performances from Hugh Bonneville and Karen Gillan there are also too many eye-roll-inducing lines intended to push the audiences buttons. I found my buttons pushed, so, job well done, I guess.The setup is rife with possibility, though its particulars are recognizably commonplace. Moffat sets his media-world parable in the offices and studio of a popular current affairs show hosted by TV veteran Douglas (Bonneville) and rising star Madeline (Gillan). Its an onscreen combination that viewers on both sides of the pond should be accustomed to: The middle-aged guy and the conventionally attractive younger woman effortlessly bantering back and forth on a studio sofa. When we first meet him, all Douglas has to worry about is flubbing facts on-camera. That all changes when someone on Twitter (the show acknowledges that the social media site is now called X, but refers to its original name throughout) posts about overhearing Douglas making an extremely sexist joke at a wedding. The account only has 300 followers, so Douglas is confident it will blow over. Of course, the tweet goes viral, and everything snowballs from there.Part of the overall intrigue is that Douglas claims he cant remember the joke. Yet despite his lapse in memory, he repeatedly argues that the joke was sexist and not misogynistic; any amusement over the distinction quickly runs its course. The circular debate over Douglas supposed indiscretion may grow tired, but theres a farcical edge to the fact that only the tweeter knows what was said. (Or what was said to be said.)Even more interesting is that Douglas is married to the editor of a British tabloid newspaper: His wife Sheila (Alex Kingston) is an expert at spinning dirty laundry into front-page news. Now that its her husband holding the soiled linens, Sheila attempts to use her insider knowledge to protect her family. Shes also concerned with how much influence Madeline has over her husband, but the conflict between the two women never advances beyond overdone clich. Kingston does what she can with the material, but Sheilas interactions with anyone younger than her are perplexing. Her Gen-Z stereotype of an assistant, Helen (Stephanie Hyam), cant even look her in the eye. Douglas Is Cancelled GalleryWith her therapyspeak, coping mechanisms, and constant threats to contact human resources, Helen feels like the result of Moffat plotting out a too woke bingo card. The generational digs dont stop there: Douglas and Sheilas 19-year-old daughter, Claudia (Madeleine Power), is at constant odds with her mother over their differing worldviews though Claudia's is usually presented as the more inherently ludicrous one. It gets less cartoonish as the series progresses, but in the first episode, she borders on parody, and this punching down is unnecessary. She even uses the phrase Okay, boomer because, of course, she does. Claudia is at university, but initially reads much younger in her combative behavior, making this choice even more aggravating. (At least shes given a more layered relationship with Douglas.)Thankfully, Madeline isnt painted with such a broad brush; Douglas Is Cancelled would be exhausting if she were. Sure, there are some slight jabs at her millennial habits (including how much time she spends scrolling socials on her phone), but she gets off easy in comparison to Helen and Claudia. She has more dimensions than that; her motivations are purposefully masked early on, and Gillan rolls with every shift in demeanor and twist in her characters engrossing arc. One of several Doctor Who alumni reuniting with Moffat for Douglas Is Cancelled, shes excellent throughout, showcasing a range of emotions that help land the deeper points. There are moments in the third episode where I genuinely held my breath in reaction to Gillans fearless approach to tough scenes. Similarly, Bonneville enthralls with the different levels of Douglas frustration and his own inherent idiocy.There are flashes of brilliance in Douglas Is Cancelled including captivating performances from Hugh Bonneville and Karen Gillan.Outrage is exciting. Nuance is work. Douglas is canceled, says Sheila in the first episode, summarizing her audiences taste for scandal. In her expert assessment, everyone looks at headlines, but no one reads the articles below them. Lines like this feel like theyre talking directly to the audience, just one facet of how over-the-top and aggravating the premiere gets. Moffat is imploring us to see a nuance that is, ironically, glaringly obvious, and then asking us to wade through other unsubtle insights to get to the meaty material. It grows tedious; observations about the state of the media landscape and how easy it is to get canceled swing between insightful and frustrating.While Douglas Is Cancelled is more of a satire, it is hard for me not to draw comparisons to Apple TV+s slick The Morning Show, which used Steve Carells disgraced host as a stand-in for ousted Today anchor Matt Lauer, and was equally muddled in reflecting some of the thornier elements of that dismissal. Douglas Is Cancelled also contains traces of British TV personalities like Phillip Schofield and Huw Edwards, who lost their jobs after their conduct was called into question as a Brit, I couldnt help but see the similarities in Douglas situation. There are surprises that I shant spoil, and by the end, the series sheds some of its defensiveness and indignation. But Moffat cant save his cancel-culture sermon from its own moralizing.