Quote: Jinky @ July 12 2010, 4:22 PM BSTYes. Although I did post earlier that he doesn't even like people saying "I love all your stuff except one episode"!
Well, that's still strangers putting down something he worked on, so it's the same thing. Personally, unless I knew him, I wouldn't think to write him or any other writer a message telling him which bits of his writing I thought were crap!
Quote: Matthew Stott @ July 12 2010, 4:28 PM BSTWell, that's still strangers putting down something he worked on, so it's the same thing. Personally, unless I knew him, I wouldn't think to write him or any other writer a message telling him which bits of his writing I thought were crap!
Pussy.
Quote: chipolata @ July 12 2010, 4:58 PM BSTPussy.
Yes, you are.
Checkmate, I think you'll find.
Epilogue:
I've read elsewhere that Linehan came out and spoke to the audience after the recording of episode three. He didn't apologise (!) but he thanked them for putting up with a rather fraught recording, saying that the script was still being re-vamped on the day of the recording and the cast where learning their lines minutes before going on.
Sounds a bit chaotic, but at least it's an explanation for the rather patchy feel to the episode.
Interesting; definitely the best yet.
Linehan has been involved in some of the best comedies ever made in my opinion. This series of The IT Crowd seems to have lost its way though. Don't get me wrong, there are still moments of genius but I dunno - some parts are feeling really weird to me, like Douglas's robotic hand for instance. That can't happen in the real world. Even in The IT Crowd heightened comedy universe it felt weird. And is it just me or are the plots a bit unsubstantial? For instance the Jen / ugly keyboard player thing. Nothing really happened did it? She fell for an ugly keyboard player then didn't like him anymore when he was no longer in a band.
I don't like criticising Linehan's stuff because as I say, he's created some of my favourite comedy moments ever. It may just be that The IT Crowd is coming to the end of its shelf-life like all comedies eventually do.
Maybe because of his past record we're expecting too much. It's still better than most of the other crap around.
I re-watched "The Red Door" episode yesterday, as they are re-showing that series.
Thats the one where Jen discovers Richmond behind the red door and Roy get trapped under the office-girls' desks.
It was just soooooooo much better than the current series and it actually had some real IT moments too. I've done so much scrabbling around under desks like Roy, that it could so easily have happened to me. 
and I loved the birds nest in the CD drive too.
The current series has completely lost focus, in my opinion.
Quote: billwill @ July 14 2010, 2:55 PM BSTThe current series has completely lost focus, in my opinion.
Hi Bill, have you tried turning it off and then back on again!
Del 
Quote: Delboy @ July 14 2010, 4:14 PM BSTHi Bill, have you tried turning it off and then back on again!
Del
Quote: billwill @ June 26 2010, 12:42 PM BSTI don't think a computer nerd like Moss would use a REAL 20 sided dice for D&D anymore, he would have programmed a 20-side random dice program, so it's a missed opportinity for some funny stuff there.
Jesus, Bill.
Just on the subject of writers' "hissy fits" when being told about their perceived failings. (WARNING, TENUOUS ANALOGY ALERT!)
Earlier today I watched a council worker put up a fence near my parents' home. (Exciting, I know.)
Anyway it was a bit of a shoddy job to be honest and I'm sure he could've done better, but imagine if I'd gone up to him as a complete stranger, tapped him on the shoulder and said "Hi. I really liked that last slat you nailed in, in fact it's one of my favourites. But the next one you did left me cold." He'd be offended and would probably (and rightly) tell me to f**k right off. So what's the difference?
Confession: A few years ago I posted on Linehan's "Why That's Delightful" site what I imagined at the time to be a helpful critique of a certain Black Books episode. What a c**t I feel now. I swear to God, if I could buy a DeLorean that could travel backwards in time, I'd be speeding at 88 mph towards that day right now to stop myself typing those words. After all, I'd never in a billion, trillion years tap that council worker on the shoulder and attack his workmanship, so what the Hell I was thinking when I offered my shitty misguided advice to one of the country's most celebrated, talented comedy writers I will never know. It still makes my toes curl now.
Comedy forums like these are different though. They're a place for fans and writers alike to vent their spleens about shows they love and hate, and thus anything goes I think. That's why if I ever had a sitcom broadcast (hah) I'd avoid these pages like the plague. We all know how much criticism of our work hurts, but to have that on a global audience scale - well it doesn't surprise me when writers tell me they don't read the reviews.
S'pose all I'm saying is there's a big difference between airing your views on a site like this, and using the internet to personally "help" an artist. It's a simple matter of manners. Isn't it? 
Quote: Lee Henman @ July 15 2010, 2:32 AM BSTJust on the subject of writers' "hissy fits" when being told about their perceived failings. (WARNING, TENUOUS ANALOGY ALERT!)
Earlier today I watched a council worker put up a fence near my parents' home.
Analogies are like fig leaves.
They can obscure some important bits.
We need to take into account Linehan's Twitter feed. An analogy for that might be a truck driver with a "how is my driving?" sticker on the back. But that's not a fair analogy either.
The big difference is that the driver and the council workers aren't artists. A good artist needs to have the option of pushing the boundaries, and doing stuff that the public might not initially understand. To that end, insensitive criticism can easily harm the creative process, whereas you could tell that guy his fence was crap without risking his ability to build more fences.
Quote: Lee Henman @ July 15 2010, 2:32 AM BSTJust on the subject of writers' "hissy fits" when being told about their perceived failings. (WARNING, TENUOUS ANALOGY ALERT!)
Earlier today I watched a council worker put up a fence near my parents' home. (Exciting, I know.)Anyway it was a bit of a shoddy job to be honest and I'm sure he could've done better, but imagine if I'd gone up to him as a complete stranger, tapped him on the shoulder and said "Hi. I really liked that last slat you nailed in, in fact it's one of my favourites. But the next one you did left me cold." He'd be offended and would probably (and rightly) tell me to f**k right off. So what's the difference?
Confession: A few years ago I posted on Linehan's "Why That's Delightful" site what I imagined at the time to be a helpful critique of a certain Black Books episode. What a c**t I feel now. I swear to God, if I could buy a DeLorean that could travel backwards in time, I'd be speeding at 88 mph towards that day right now to stop myself typing those words. After all, I'd never in a billion, trillion years tap that council worker on the shoulder and attack his workmanship, so what the Hell I was thinking when I offered my shitty misguided advice to one of the country's most celebrated, talented comedy writers I will never know. It still makes my toes curl now.
Comedy forums like these are different though. They're a place for fans and writers alike to vent their spleens about shows they love and hate, and thus anything goes I think. That's why if I ever had a sitcom broadcast (hah) I'd avoid these pages like the plague. We all know how much criticism of our work hurts, but to have that on a global audience scale - well it doesn't surprise me when writers tell me they don't read the reviews.
S'pose all I'm saying is there's a big difference between airing your views on a site like this, and using the internet to personally "help" an artist. It's a simple matter of manners. Isn't it?
Exactly.
Quote: Nogget @ July 15 2010, 6:56 AM BSTAn analogy for that might be a truck driver with a "how is my driving?" sticker on the back.
Who, if you say that you love his driving, will let you sit in the cab and have a go on the horn.
Or ram you off the road like in the movie 'Duel' if you don't!
As we appear to be living in a period of radical political change, you wouldn't think it would be too much to pass a law requiring Linehan and Mathews to work together again....
