Anyone who knows this site well will be more than aware of the fact that we love Chris Morris’ work. From The Day Today, the Radio One shows, Brasseye, Blue Jam and Jam, he didn’t put a step wrong, and produced some of the funniest comedy ever. Full stop. Sod your Pythons, your Comic Strip Presents team, and any other innovative comedian you might like to name, for me Chris Morris is the funniest person ever to grace our tv screens.
Or should that be was? Because recently, like many others, I had begun to fear that he’d produced his best work, and now was on a downward spiral to mediocrity. It’s not just his slow work rate, or that My Wrongs was frustratingly patchy and not anything new from the great man, it being based on the Blue Jam Rothko sketch from the radio series. No, worst of all was the quite horrendously unfunny Bushwhacked website, launched post 9/11 and full of dodgy Onion style news satire, and an okay but uninspired cut up of various speeches made by President Bush.
But there was no need for such worries or concerns. Nathan Barley’s one of the finest comedy series of the last five years, it’s satire of media types is so sharp that anyone who’s ever met such people can’t but fail to laugh, and laugh a lot. Based around journalist Dan Ashcroft’s desperate attempts to cope with life when surrounded by media idiots, it’s a dark, edgy comedy, but a very funny one. Deviating from the original concept’s the masterstroke here, without a sympathetic character this might’ve been too painful to watch, but you can’t help but care for Ashcroft, despite his flaws.
Now it could be argued that if you haven’t had such contact with media whores, that if you have no point of reference to the show’s satirical attacks, then you might not enjoy it. But I’d disagree. For one thing who’s ever worked on a mining ship three million years in the future? And that never stopped Red Dwarf finding wide appeal. Also, anyone who’s ever worked in a job surrounded by people they don’t like can sympathise with Dan Ashcroft’s predicament, and surely that must apply to most. It’s not this alone though, Morris’ mastery of language is as brilliant as always, his endlessly inventive dialogue deserves so much acclaim, but there’s also a dark dramatic edge to the programme, the final pre-credit moments suggesting that this will centre around Ashcroft’s descent in to a very personal hell.
Like The Office it’s filmed in a semi-documentary style, and contains some truly painful moments, such as Ashcroft’s interview with The Weekend on Sunday, and his return after this to the offices of Sugar Ape, but unlike The Office, it’s not just about painful but humorous moments, it offers a far wider spread of comedy delights, from childish humour such as Barley’s game of Cock, Muff and Bumhole, to gags in the background like the poster for ‘Nazi Experiments In Colour’, and so much more than this.
Whilst many of the people Morris has worked with are making some of the worst comedy around (Steve Coogan’s Baby Cow production company being responsible for much of it, like I Am Not An Animal and Nighty Night) it’s such a relief to see Morris still producing quality material. Okay, it’s not as strong as Brasseye, or much of his previous work, but it’s still ridiculously superior to nearly every other comedy show around at the moment, and for that reason alone it should be applauded.
Alex Finch.
Do you like or dislike Nathan Barley? Then join in the discussion on this thread on our tv forum.
Related Links:
Classic Tv: Brasseye.
Brasseye DVD review.
Tv Comment Special: Brasseye Special.
My Wrongs review.
‘With my teeth locked down I can see the blood of a thousand men who have come and gone. Now we grieve cause now is gone, things were good when we were young’
Denis Leary had proved he could write a decent series in The Job. Here, he goes one better. Whilst the Job was funny in parts, with some truly memorable episodes, like Leary held hostage in the toilet, taking anger management classes, and having to close down a massage business, by the time of the second series, the jokes were more sporadic and running out of steam (save for one, which had a hilarious pay-off). Thankfully, I can honestly say Leary has toiled to get this excellent comedy-drama the success it deserves, around a subject matter close to his heart.
Rescue Me, deals with the aftermath of 9/11 for station house 62 of the New York Fire department. The pilot begins with experienced Fire-fighter Tommy Gavin
Meanwhile, Tommy Gavin is smack in the middle of a divorce, with his fellow fire-fighters opening up a betting pool to see how it turns out. Chief O’Reilly gambles on anything and flips-off seniority; Sean Garrity suffers from foot-in-mouth disease, when a fellow Fireman is waiting for test results from cancer scare, Garrity mentions his dad turned down the endoscope and died from prostate cancer, the Fireman in question responds, “It wasn’t the camera that bothered me. It was the Crew.” Franco, the Puerto-Rican stud of the group wants Gavin to elucidate on any affairs that occur now his marriage is down the toilet, ‘New’ Mike Silletti has to leave a stool and urine sample in his superior’s office as an initiation, as well as ordered by Gavin to taste some urine to confirm if it’s human, and Kenny ‘Lou’ is using poetry to get his feelings about 9/11 off his chest.
Out of hours, Gavin tries to get information on his estranged wife’s new boyfriend by bribing his kids in a little ‘game’. The juxtaposition of gallows humour and emotional sentimentality works well; one minute you’re creasing yourself laughing, later you’ll be welling up from the strong message highlighted by all those lost souls haunting Gavin’s mind.
It has been described as the testosterone answer to “Sex and the City”; poster-boy Firemen exuding bravado; out to score off the job and brag about their conquests, when they’re not fighting fires. The difference here is sex is not the be all and end all. Upcoming episodes deal with homosexuality/homophobia, paternity, and rebellion. There’s much more weight here than there ever was with Sarah Jessica Parker and her chums.
Rescue Me was the sleeper hit of the summer in the US, and positioned as the precursor to 24, Sky one have shown they have faith in the show to do well. They’re smart. Rescue Me should set the ratings ablaze.
Craig Aston.
Hollyoaks (6.30pm, Weeknights, C4)
Yeah, yeah, I know what you’re thinking – that we hate soaps here at Garbled, so here comes another predictably negative review of one, full of complaints about wooden acting and idiotic plotting.
Normally you’d be damn right too, but Hollyoaks actually manages to be fairly entertaining from time to time, and deals with social issues in a careful way, instead of being heavy handed and painfully patronising. Recently we’ve seen a girl come to terms with being hideously scarred; a teenager sent to a borstal style camp to learn how his actions affect others; a marriage end in tears; a young girl consider having breast enlargement surgery; and a young boy come to terms with the fact that his mother has died, and that he has a quite severe mental illness. All of which were dealt with sensitively, and in a non-exploitative way.
And that’s just a few of the many plotlines that run concurrently. Sure, sometimes the show gets it wrong – Tony Hutchinson’s transformation from a Scrooge like figure in to a Christmas loving idiot was stretched out for far too long, and ended with a damp squib ultimately, and sometimes the dialogue and plotting issn’t up to scratch. But most of the time Hollyoaks is by far the most watchable of soaps. It sticks to doing what it does best – showing teens and early twentysomethings in believable and realistic situations. There’s no gangster plotlines here, no dirty old men sleeping with teenagers, no old people moaning about nonsense, and very very few characters who will make you want to destroy your tv set too.
Of course we’ve our reputation to think of here. So I have to point out that it is of course throwaway fluff most of the time. But it’s damn enjoyable at the same time, and how often can you say that about a tv show?
Alex Finch.
Currently the number one show in the States, Desperate Housewives arrived on these shores with little fanfare. Okay, so Channel Four gave it a prime time slot instead of hiding it away in the early hours like they do with too much US product, but bar a subdued advertising campaign, it's hardly been shoved in our faces.
Which is a good thing too, as on the strength of this pilot, it doesn't really deserve to be. This is "Sex In The Suburbs" with a murder plot thrown in for free, and so far we've been presented with charicatures rather than characters. Thus we've a sympathetic singleton, a plastic repressed wife, a frustrated and resentful wife, a single slut, a married slut, and the honest, reliable plumber, the only male character who isn't strictly one dimensional - though he only just about manages
The narration's the only vaguely original device on display here - it's from the housewife who shoots herself dead in the opening minutes - but it's sub-Sex and the City material, with lines like "Susan had met the enemy, and she was a slut" not exactly making for insightful dialogue. Most of it will make you groan, and wish that it was absent from proceedings. The actings straight out of soap school, with Teri Hatcher's Susan, surprisingly, the only character who feels in any way real, and the rest just look pretty and trot out their lines when needed too. These characters are living fake lives, but fake acting only makes them uninteresting and largely unbelievable. It's a show which cries out for HBO style pathos and intelligence, and believably strong dialogue, but all of that is missing here.
It may well be the number one US show right now, but then Everybody Loves Raymond is currently the yanks' favourite comedy, so ratings, as always, are no guarantee of a great tv show. I am loathe to judge it on the strength of its pilot alone, many a series has really developed over the years, Six Feet Under and Buffy especially, and it does show some vague promise, but going by this opening installment I'd be astounded if Desperate Wives ever turns out to be must see tv.
Alex Finch.
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