Quote: gappy @ 17th October 2017, 3:20 PMI've quite enjoyed this show, in an unchallenging, cosy way. The jokes are decent, if repetitive, most of the performances are good, and I quite enjoy a lot of the Shakespeare references. However, I really don't think it should have gone to a third series, I feel as though the seam has been mined.
I think it finished on a high, so have mixed feelings about a third series. I suppose Billy wrote enough for Ben to take the piss out of?
I really enjoyed Series 2. Full of lovely jokes and comments on the modern world. Most importantly, it's funny.
Christmas special was okay, as good as most eps in series 2 but not notably better. I expected better for a Christmas special tbh. That should be your shining star episode and it wasn't. The stand out episode of the sitcom is still the Macbeth one in series 1. That should be your Christmas Day special, hold it back for the prime slot, not put out a samey one. It wasn't even chronologically correct as it wasn't performed until at least 1600 seven years after Marlowe's death, Twelfth Night about the same time I think.
It's a good sitcom but it suffered too many Eltonisms last night. It doesn't bode that well for series 3 because it's clearly getting a bit repetitive. Elton's tied to his formula as always and it starts to grate after a while. He needs to forget the middling comedies and go for the remaining big hitters now, Hamlet, King Lear, Julius Caesar, Richard III.
Something in Elton's plotting has to give, if he keeps Marlowe and Greene in then he's going against history. I'm also surprised Kyd and Jonson haven't had roles when the history books say they knew and collaborated with WS. There is no evidence at all that Marlowe or Green even met Shakespeare. The whole 'Upstart crow beautified with our feathers' remark was written by Greene to warn Marlowe of a new rival about to steal his crown.
Pretty much as I expected. Not a riotous gag a minute, just gentle humour with Mark Heap making it all worth while.
Series three is far too "right on" imo.
Ep 3 was the first one of this series I'd seen. It seemed to spring up with no notice. I thought it was maybe the cleverest one I've yet watched but somehow irritating as well especially as he'd already done a Merchant of Venice based ep. It's getting hard not to view Elton himself as the hateful ultra successful Jew of lore.
Series 3, Episode 3, (Merchant of Venice) was as good an episode of this excellent sitcom as I've seen. It did, however, come off the rails right at the end.
After satirising Comic Relief's policy of intermixing sidesplitting comedy with heartbreaking tragedy, Ben Elton gives us an entirely unnecessary scene in which a young boy with Down's Syndrome recites Shylock's "Do we not bleed?" speech to his classmates.
Yes, Ben. We get the message. We really really do. The snag is that anybody who didn't get the message the first time (decades ago, in most cases) they heard Shylock deliver that speech is highly unlikely to get the message (decades later, in most cases) when they hear a member of any other oppressed minority deliver it.
For me this series is the best yet. I agree with Rood Eye (as usual) about the boy with Down's Syndrome reciting Shylock's speech, which in retrospect seems over the top, but at the time I found it moving, and all the more surprising for being in a comedy. Ben Elton's regained his sitcom laurels. Love the titles animations, too!
It puzzled me why he was being used as the differences between Down's syndrome and Judaism are quite vast and the similarities not obvious. Elton is bold in his writing so fair play if there's a point to be made even if it passed me by. But the fact he is so on top of everything and never misses a chance to make a point irritates me more and more. Less is more, Ben. It would make your sitcoms a little less constructed and more natural looking imo. I thought the actor bit was by far the best and helped the narrative flow until it was all held up by the point making.
Last night's ep was one of the best yet, not as good as S1's MacBuff ep for story but stuffed with verbal wit and cleverness. I thought it was a step up from last week's even which was excellent. This one barely moved from one room, had all the cast except Greene in and the verbal sparring was relentless. Probably the best scripted yet though I've yet to see eps 1&2 of this series.
Those not watching because of the subject are missing a treat. Though I suspect Elton's heavy debunking might upset many Shakespeare authorship purists who ARE watching because of the subject. It's great stuff, it suits Elton to a tee but I wish he'd get to the big hitter tragedies and not be so stuck on the comedies as he has been.
Chronologically he's sort of attempted to get things in their right order except he's blaringly way past the writing of Richard III without mentioning it. There's enough villainy, action, plotting and famous lines in that one for its own series never mind a single ep. Maybe it shows Elton up as not a true fan of the bard but an opportunist who knew some of the O level standards but never really revelled in his works on stage or screen. I'd suggest he watch The Theatre of Blood movie to see a piece portrayed by artists who revelled in his masterpiece tragedies.
Elton's back on top form. yesterday's episode brilliant, stuffed full of jokes and clever references. It's rare that I watch a sitcom and actually laugh out loud.
In the history of British sitcom, the least-funny thing ever broadcast is undoubtedly "Big Top" (2009) and the second-least-funny is probably Ben Elton's "The Wright Way" (2013).
It's almost incomprehensible that someone who wrote "Blackadder" and "The Young Ones" could turn out something so utterly dire as "The Wright Way" and so it must be considered equally incomprehensible that someone who wrote "The Wright Way" could later write something as funny and as intelligent and as generally enjoyable as "Upstart Crow".
As comebacks go, I'd say Ben was a serious competitor for Lazarus in the "most astonishing ever" category.
This comedy roast of Shakespeare and his works is absolutely brilliant and I'm sure it gives almost as much pleasure to people who know next to nothing about Shakespeare as it does to those who know almost everything there is to know about the bard and the plays what he wrote.
Keep it up, Ben!
This is just such a smart arse show that I can't laugh. I find it all cringeworthy embarrassing.
That's because you didn't go to school, naughty. But what do you expect? Shakespeare meets Elton = smart arse smuggery by the barrel load.
Quote: Rood Eye @ 21st September 2018, 4:56 PMIt's almost incomprehensible that someone who wrote "Blackadder" and "The Young Ones" could turn out something so utterly dire as "The Wright Way" and so it must be considered equally incomprehensible that someone who wrote "The Wright Way" could later write something as funny and as intelligent and as generally enjoyable as "Upstart Crow".
As comebacks go, I'd say Ben was a serious competitor for Lazarus in the "most astonishing ever" category.
I'm not as astonished because to be fair he was gifted a golden goose that most writers would bite your arm off for. All scribblers know it's far easier to work off an already famous piece than create a memorable one from nothing. Most of the work was done for him, all he had to do was use the vast array of gems already penned and the historical events and characters and recycle them into a contemporary comedy. He's done it well yes, but so could hundreds of decent comedy writers have. He was the lucky one, no doubt helped by the success of Blackadder, a similarly easy to exploit comedy subject.
Just watched the latest episode and am astonished by Elton's skill and audacity, taking us from comedy to tragedy in one fell swoop (to quote Shakespeare!) A tour de force.
