Quote: Griff @ February 3 2011, 9:44 PM GMTJust caught up with eps 3 and 4. I don't understand all the hate for this.
I think it is the premise. If you are going to make a show about how production companies dilute the writers' vision to produce poor television, it does rather put the onus on you to demonstrate that when your vision is undiluted that you are able to produce something special. Watchable doesn't cut it in these circumstances.
Quote: Griff @ February 3 2011, 10:08 PM GMTIt does suffer from the "TV about TV" thing in that the scenes from the show-within-a-show always look terrible, same as they do on 30 Rock (which is probably the best show set in TV-land ever). Although I would have paid good money to see a full episode of "When The Whistle Blows" from Extras.
The Larry Sanders chatshow looked genuinely funny.
Well, agree with Don re: ep 4. A lot less funny than the previous two episodes, though probably not quite as bad as episode 1. I still laughed, just a bit disappointed after a couple of (dare I say) good episodes.
Dan
Unusually for me, I literally cannot watch this programme to completion. I've found myself switching off in disgust about ten minutes into each of the last three episodes. It's just so painfully dull and derivative.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zdifiN8ngA
Follow this link. Interestingly in this version (which has more laughs in 2 mins than the whole season of Episodes so far) Matt le Blanc is the punchline. The joke. The victim.
Instead of the one-note characters we've seen so far (damagingly so, in Beverly's case) how about this? After the failure of Joey, Matt le Blanc is desperate to do anything and grabs at the chance to appear in the remake of a hit British sitcom. The network wants him to play a loser version of himself, but he wants to do something with class and fights all the crass changes. Beverley (who at first didn't want to come to LA) respects his stand, falls in love with him and has a really hot affair leaving cocky Sean (played by Rowan Atkinson) to rail against the universe-amusingly.
Other changes? Because this is a contemporary sitcom and not Gammer Gurton's needle, Beverly has actually heard of coffee, and even has some in the house. The Gatekeeper gets something else to say besides 'no', and the Americans who have produced some of the most interesting and exciting comedy of the past few years aren't shown as complete idiots.
Now each character has a journey, and we ditch the tedious and outdated nonsense about Brits being pompous and American networks being crass.
Now that, I'd watch.
No Manganator?
His rhythm is wrong. He's too slow. He's at least half the reason the scenes between Sean and Beverly seem so ponderous.
They worked perfectly well together in Green Wing.
Quote: Matthew Stott @ February 4 2011, 1:38 PM GMTThey worked perfectly well together in Green Wing.
Where she had more to do than whinge. I'm talking about the laugh free 30 mins that is Episodes.
