Blenkinsop
Thursday 13th January 2011 9:57am [Edited]
2,014 posts
I've watched all three episodes so far, even going to the length of tracking the 2nd down on iPlayer (God help me) in the interests of giving this a fair crack. I'll probably stick it out with the remaining three also, although I'm not entirely sure why. Perhaps I'm a glutton for punishment.
In my opinion this show is weak and is pretty much a straight follow on to L B. The sketches and characters would sit quite comfortably as inserts into any episode of latter day L B.
As others on here and in the press have commented, the spoof airport documentary as the show's vehicle seems oddly out of date too, and some of the characters, in particular the xenophobic Immigration Officer, are laughable but for the wrong reasons. The moustache gag was Cringe City Arizona as was the previous 'gag' in an earlier episode where the passport photo differed from the real life image of the suspect, in stupid details like for example the photo was in monochrome. It could be argued that these are whimsical and silly jokes but to my mind they are just infantile and I wouldn't feel happy about having let them into a final edit of the show.
There is certainly mileage in highlighting the xenophobia that undoubtedly exists in Britain, but I for one would like to see it done with a bit more imagination and clever scripting.
I always like Lucas & Walliams when they appear on other shows out of character, and I loved L B on radio and the 1st TV series, but now I feel they need a different shop window to sell their comedy wares. Maybe a decent sitcom?
But hey, what the hell would I know? I'm just a paying punter.