Quote: manchester's trendy chorlton @ May 13 2008, 9:28 PM BSTClearly, there were nods towards Gareth Keenan, Dwight Shrute
If only. That's like saying Ann Widdicomb is a nod towards Eva Longoria!
A review i found (not good in case you cant be bothered to read it)
Grrrr. I hate the way people keep calling Tittybangbang 'Titty Titty Bang Bang'. >_<
Ouch! They didn't like it did they! It wasn't all that bad, not good mind, but not THAT bad. I think a good show could be made of it. Although I'm getting to the point where I hope the BBC actually stop trying to make comedy anymore, they really are crap at it. (Except for NGO, which I love.)
Overall I liked it, good but not great, but has the potential to be great IMO. I'd rather watch this than an episode of Two Pints. The relationship between Daryl and Mike was a highlight for me, also liked the joke about the guy lying about being able to play the sax to impress the girl. I did think some of the characters looked a bit young to begin with though but having worked in this type of environment I think the ages are about right and I think the writer made it clear that this wasn't his initial intention and has been tailored to suit the bbc3 audience which I suppose is fair enough. If I was presented with the choice of altering something slightly and getting it made or sticking to my guns and it being left on the shelf collecting dust, I'd make some changes as well.
I'd like to see it get a series as it seems to have promise to me and I think that sitcoms need to be given a chance to 'bed in' before they can get into their stride and become something really good. This doesn't mean they should get away with being shit, they should still be funny ofcourse, and I think this was. People and TV execs having short attention spans and little patience with things is something that I really despair of, I think people should give things a good crack of the whip before writing it off.
Low spots for me was the pregnancy story, don't remember anything funny hapening with this, although I liked the character of the pregnant girl. The guy who plays Daryl just looks funny to me and is played well, so this is a good bit of casting and the guy that plays Mike is always good so this is a good foundation. As has been mentioned, the musical interludes did not fit the show at all for me and if I was the writer I'd try and knock this on the head as soon as I could if it got to a series.
All in all, good effort and well done to the writer... think we can count on him reading this. As I writer I can understand and sympathise completely with the process of being criticised. I always think that the best criticism is put in a tactful and respectful way and also for it to be constructive. Being harshly criticised can sometimes make you want to hunt down the perpertrator like a dog and burn down his house, but this passes...eventually...and after a restaining order. What we all have to remember I think is that everybody is entitled to their opinion, and that it is just that, an opinion, it is up to you whether you listen to it and take heed, or ignore and tell them to go and f**k themselves.
Apologies for the long post...just some thoughts.
Quote: manchester's trendy chorlton @ May 13 2008, 9:28 PM BSTRe The Pilot:
for me, the tone was a little uneven. It was as if the writer was caught in two minds - whether to go for something pretty sophisticated, or something fairly broad. the show suffered as a result in my opinion. How much this might have had to do with interference from above, I don't know.
There were too many characters, and as a result I think the show struggled to get across exactly what it might have been aiming for. The character of Asif was funny, but I don't think that the pilot episode was the right time to give him a story to himself. Ditto the pregnancy plot.
On the positive side, I think the character of Darryl (the suck-up admin guy?) was very well realised. Clearly, there were nods towards Gareth Keenan, Dwight Shrute, Hank Kingsely - but I don't think it came across as being too derivative. The actor really owned it as well, fair play to him.
I found the almost non-stop upbeat bland-indie soundtrack to be an unwelcome addition. Seriously, the writer should have put his foot down over that - it had producer-note written all over it.
Basically, I think that this is never going to change the face of sitcom, but deserves a series to see where it can go.
Just to add, and again an issue with bbc3 producers, i think they were aiming to hit too many demographics with this. Let it be itself, and the appropriate people will watch it.
This is IMO is the most accurate and fairest review in this thread.
In a bout of laziness I echo and agree with it's contents entirely. Nuff said.
I think it suffered because it was a traditional studio based sitcom filmed single camera. And I don't think it had a high enough gag rate. The conceit of the Office allowed that - but this didn't have the same 'mockumentary' device. Both technical issues that someone somewhere should have known.
But well done on David getting it made - and I might be wrong but I do feel there were probably too many chiefs on the show which diluted his comic vision of what it should be.
Quote: Sofa_Matt @ May 14 2008, 9:03 AM BSTThis is IMO is the most accurate and fairest review in this thread.
In a bout of laziness I echo and agree with it's contents entirely. Nuff said.
I'm even lazier and will agree with you 100 per cent.
Quote: manchester's trendy chorlton @ May 13 2008, 9:28 PM BSTRe The Pilot:
for me, the tone was a little uneven. It was as if the writer was caught in two minds - whether to go for something pretty sophisticated, or something fairly broad. the show suffered as a result in my opinion. How much this might have had to do with interference from above, I don't know.
There were too many characters, and as a result I think the show struggled to get across exactly what it might have been aiming for. The character of Asif was funny, but I don't think that the pilot episode was the right time to give him a story to himself. Ditto the pregnancy plot.
On the positive side, I think the character of Darryl (the suck-up admin guy?) was very well realised. Clearly, there were nods towards Gareth Keenan, Dwight Shrute, Hank Kingsely - but I don't think it came across as being too derivative. The actor really owned it as well, fair play to him.
I found the almost non-stop upbeat bland-indie soundtrack to be an unwelcome addition. Seriously, the writer should have put his foot down over that - it had producer-note written all over it.
Basically, I think that this is never going to change the face of sitcom, but deserves a series to see where it can go.
Just to add, and again an issue with bbc3 producers, i think they were aiming to hit too many demographics with this. Let it be itself, and the appropriate people will watch it.
Although I usually hate to agree with MTC because it feeds his monstrous ego, this is a fair summation of the show.
Generally, I think the criticism has been pretty fair and not nearly as vitriolic as it could have been. And to be honest, to succeed as a writer you need thick skin otherwise you're in the wrong profession.
I agree with Nigel and SofaMatt.
I managed to catch it on BBC i player this morning. Whilst I would agree with some of the comments on this thread, particularily regarding the age of some of the cast, which I think only applied to Kenny, who seemed way too young to be getting interest from the admin woman and to believe that a solicitor would be interested in him, even if she ultimately wasn't, I actually enjoyed it. Apologies for the length of that sentence.
I would judge it against the same criteria as I would any comedy, ie did it make me laugh, yes.
Not brilliant but not at all bad, I'd rather watch more of Admin than After You're Gone or whatever that poorly concieved show is called. I can't believe that a painter and decorator can ever have afforded to buy that enormous house and then not have to sell it when he got divorced. Nor that he wouldn't have redecorated it in his time there.
I hope we get to see more of it.
I liked it.
I can't believe the amount of jealousy which seems to inform a lot of the comments on this thread.
Some of you should be ashamed of yourselves.
I don't think jealousy is the reason for the criticisms.
Quote: jdubya @ May 14 2008, 1:25 PM BSTI liked it.
I can't believe the amount of jealousy which seems to inform a lot of the comments on this thread.
Some of you should be ashamed of yourselves.
Having watched it I think a lot of the comments were fair. It was ok, with some promise, but it wasnt anything amazing. Theres room for improvement if it goes to a series, so good luck to the writer and I hope he gets that call! Where is the jealosy? That some people didnt like it?? I think most of the reviews have been quite level headed and fair.
I don't have a problem with things being criticised at all. I was just surprised at how downright nasty a lot of them came across as.
that's all.
Quote: jdubya @ May 14 2008, 2:03 PM BSTI was just surprised at how downright nasty a lot of them came across as.
No one is being deliberately nasty but 99.9% of people on here dont know the writer from Adam and have no idea how much of the finished piece is even down to him...so there's no reason to pansy around the bush with comments....if it sucked it sucked. This is the Internet, not a village church tea tasting.
As has been said already...no one holds back on 2 pints and placebo and similar crap, why is this any different?
And as for jealousy...jealous of what? I'd be surprised if anyone here watched the show and read the reviews and now feels jealous....personally i find it encouraging that stuff a long way south of decent gets on TV because it means its only a matter of time for me 