The Wrong Door Page 6

Quote: David Bussell @ September 2 2008, 4:33 PM BST

I disagree. I'm talking about a show as a whole. Does it suddenly go from being shite to great if the last half has a good bit in it?

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Not necessarily. But if you turn off after 10 minutes, then you're unlikely to tune in for even one minute of the rest of the series. And that may have been the only bad 10 minutes in the whole 3 hours. Which means you may very well have missed an excellent programme due to your stubborn refusal to watch something if you don't like it.

Quote: chipolata @ September 2 2008, 4:58 PM BST

As for Aaron's contention that you can't really pass judgement on something until you've watched the whole series - nonsense. Life's too short to waste watching entire series of substandard shows.

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I said a FULL and FAIR judgement, IIRC. Not no judgement at all.

Quote: Aaron @ September 2 2008, 5:07 PM BST

Not necessarily. But if you turn off after 10 minutes, then you're unlikely to tune in for even one minute of the rest of the series. And that may have been the only bad 10 minutes in the whole 3 hours. Which means you may very well have missed an excellent programme due to your stubborn refusal to watch something if you don't like it.

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In that instance, and I can only think of it happening once (the first episode of Curb that I to this day don't like), the subsequent good reviews as the show progresses will lead me back in the right direction.

It's a much better tactic than watching a whole series and not enjoying it just for the sake of being able to say, "It was rubbish, and I know what I'm talking about because I watched it to the bitter end."

There have been plenty of shows I did not get the first time I saw them, so I am not passing judgement.

But based on what I saw I would need a lot of persuading to watch this again. In this instance there just did not seem a lot to get.

Fair enough David. I suppose I'm guilty of it myself. I found the entire presentation and most humour of The Office unbearable, and so have only seen part of a couple of episodes.

I know what you mean, Aaron. On the basis of the first episode of the US office I would have done the same, but dear God am I glad I came back.

Strangely, I found the US version more palatable (although I still couldn't wait for each episode to be over for most of the time). Only watched the first 4 or 5 of season 1 though.

(I didn't stop because I hated it. I stopped because it wsan't on here yet at that point, and I didn't want to spend bandwidth downloading.)

Very weakly written. Too many actors and too much attention paid to the CGI stuff. It just isn't funny. I wanted to turn off. The jokes were hackneyed and predictable. The overtly "wacky" situations only undermined any elements of humour that may have been lurking there. Wow, they even used fart gags. The superhero tryouts was a direct theft from the movie with Ben Stiller. Why copy? One character gets run over by a car... There is no humour in this... it was lazily written and showed no imagination. Very poor rating from this comedy fan.

I just watched episode one this afternoon and really wasn't particularly impressed. As ever, I'll stick with it out of interest, but it didn't seem to have any merits.

That's pretty much all I have to say about it.

Just watched eps 1 & 2 on Sky +. It's okay - very inventive and a few laughs - although I do suspect the very fact that the writer's brief probably said "write your wildest dreams" perhaps ultimately detracted from the funniness.

Basically I think when the special effects are bigger than the joke, you have a problem. Having said that I did enjoy it - there's nowt else like it on telly at the moment and for that reason I'll keep watching. Personally I'd like to see more 'scaled-down' CGI, rather than 200 foot robots stomping around.

Having a CGI-based comedy is a brilliant idea but sometimes less is more.

Yes but that flies in the face of what producers have told me when I sent in my script: "It will be too expensive to produce. Try to keep outside locations studio based in order to keep the production costs down."

Humph!

But that's because you're an unknown proposing an unknown show. The Wrong Door is a concept show, probably coming from the channel's comedy commissioner or someone. A pet project, if you will.

I think it was the producer's idea, Jack Cheshire - who wasn't when it was commissioned, but is now head of the New Comedy Unit.

I've always thought there was a hyphen missing from that: New-Comedy Unit or New Comedy-Unit?

Quote: Phill @ September 9 2008, 12:35 PM BST

I think it was the producer's idea, Jack Cheshire - who wasn't when it was commissioned, but is now head of the New Comedy Unit.

I've always thought there was a hyphen missing from that: New-Comedy Unit or New Comedy-Unit?

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Ooo I've just checked out your profile and I see you contributed to this 'ere sketch show. Congratulations and well done to you. I mean it, well done.

*Remembers her damning critique of last night*

Ok ok it wasn't *that* bad but, and I'm sure you are a good sketch writer and all... I mean you know, er you wouldn't have got to where you are by not being good and all but is it possible that you had no creative control over um...

*Scurries off before digging myself even deeper*

See ya!

Don't worry about it, slag it off all you want. At least you're doing it here in a forum designed specifically for the purpose and not hunting me down on my blog to call me names or sending me hate e-mail like some of the whackjobs on the net.

And you're right, I have no creative control over anything that went on. I wrote sketches to order which were then re-written by anyone who happened to be passing by and then the actors improvised all over them. I like the show, as it happens, but I understand why people don't. I don't quite get why people don't just turn it off if they don't like it but ... there you go.

How many comedy units are there at the BBC? I know Iannuchi's got his own one.