Lab Rats Page 7

Never thought it was for me, being aimed at an I.T Crowd type audience, and it wasn't.

I thought the performances were good, although wasn't sure about the younger guy with the beard. He's a writer anyway, isn't he? The material didn't make me laugh, though I did smile at the Curtis Stigers/Billy Rae Cyrus thing.

The thing is with this kind of comedy is that everything is on the surface. You get the surface, all these jokes, and that's it. There's nothing beneath the characters. I'd rather see a character and know more about him/her than a load of jokes they come out with. What makes them tick?

Let's face it, it was grisly beyond compare.
It was a cut and paste of several shows with characters straight from "So you want to write a Sitcom?" Vol.III.
The 'mad' boss, the ditzy girl,the under-dog side-kick,the Angus Deaton-esque wry voice of reason.
Not one of which had a single endearing quality.
[Name me a succesful comedy without a single empathetic/sympathetic character]
Usually comedy is a matter of taste.
Not this time.
If you thought this was funny, you must seek medical attention at once.
And for God's sake, don't write anything like this.
Seriously, though, we have to do better.
And I do mean 'we'.
Because the only upside to this sort of shite is that all over the country lap-tops are being fired up and the words "We open on..." are being typed.

"We open on..."

What... Weekends???????

Think they should have cleaned this up a bit and put it out at half-five on a Sunday afternoon. Turn it into a very silly, family oriented sitcom, kids would love it. Transmitting it at 9.30 is a huge mistake.

Sorry, MarcP, it's a throw-back to a former life in adland.
"We open on a tropical beach.." being the preferred opening for a TV commercial. Later to be revised to " We open on a rain-soaked back-lot at Shepperton"

Quote: Lazzard @ July 11 2008, 9:54 AM BST

Name me a succesful comedy without a single empathetic/sympathetic character

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That's what I thought strange...all the comedy I like either has characters you can empathise with or charterers that are just likable/you would like to meet.

Unless you're an ugly retarded scientist....what's the appeal?

I'm surprised they didn't make the short girl a pretty blonde...at least it would have had some degree of appealing feature to it! (adding gags would have been better though!)

If she'd been pretty and blonde then she would have been a TOTAL rip-off of 'Bubbles' from Ab-Fab, rather than the mere partial rip-off she is now.

Quote: Lazzard @ July 11 2008, 10:23 AM BST

If she'd been pretty and blonde then she would have been a TOTAL rip-off of 'Bubbles' from Ab-Fab.

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We have very differing ideas of pretty!

Quote: Pete @ July 11 2008, 10:19 AM BST

That's what i thought strange...all the comedy i like either has characters you can empathize with or charterers that are just likable/you would like to meet.

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I am not sure this is true. Most of the great sitcom characters have been distinctly unendearing, when you empathise with them it is more case of recognising your own failings and cringing.

In any case you have only just met these characters, we have not had a chance to get to know them and get under the skin. (In itself a problem with the first episode, which deliberately set up a frantic pace.)

As for not identifying with lab technicians, why less so than priests, or IT nerds, or second hand booksellers?

I don't think Lab Rats is good, far from it. But I think rather than dismissing it, it is more interesting to work out why people thought it would be good and then work out what went wrong.

I really enjoyed it.

Quote: Timbo @ July 11 2008, 10:30 AM BST

I am not sure this is true.

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All the shows i like either have likeable/want to be like characters (most of the American stuff goes this route...Friends is prob the most obvious example of putting 6 attractive people in the best city in the world - what's not to like!) or has characters i can empathise with or with the general situation (The office took that to extremes but the idea was clear)

Even something like Fawlty Towers had the maid as some sanity amidst the mayhem (and was attractive - by 70's standards - to boot)

For me, if you don't empathize or like the characters how can you ever go deeper? The writers have shoehorned themselves into the shallows. Only Fools had its funerals, Friends had its weddings/break ups, etc - how can you ever tap into these elements of drama if no one gives a shit about your characters.

Gavin and Stacey has been very clever in this respect - by making most of the chacters likeable they have "won the nations heart"....and has been massively over rated, about which i doubt they care as they're too busy flooging it to the Yanks and collect the DVD revenues.

A difference of opinion then, as much as I enjoy Friends, I find it impossible to care about the characters, the whole show is much too knowing for that, and the attractiveness of the cast is actually a barrier. And I know I cared even less about them after the first episode.

I do not think the characters in Lab Rats are inherently less appealing or less original than in other sitcoms. Or that the script was lacking in humour.

For me the issues are around pacing and performance, which I suspect are as a result of coming to grips with the studio format. I thought Selina Cadell, as the most experienced member of the cast, nailed her lines much better than anyone else.

I love Dan Tetsell, but was disappointed with him in this.

Addison is splendid in The Thick Of It, but seemed unable to pitch his performance correctly. It was the same for Lee Mack in the first series of Not Going Out. He'd improved massively by the second series, but there wouldn't have been a second series if the laugh ratio of the scripts had not been so high.

By halfway through Lab Rats, I started to wonder if it was some sort of meta-sitcom, like Echo Beach or When The Whistle Blows.

I can't imagine this would have been made if, to pick a name out of the air, davidmoreton's name had been attached to it, instead of Addison's.

Pleasing that most of the reviews today range between shit and (at best) struggled and where joe blogs gets to leave feedback it seems pretty much hated....so, a) be interesting to see how it developes and b) glad to see we arent alone in disliking it simply because it gets made and ours dont!