Current Watching

[Ray de Galles]

Last night I made my biennial attempt at watching the US version of The Office and yet again was rewarded with a completely laughter-free half hour.

I genuinely think it may have the worst hit rate of any US sitcom I've ever seen, certainly for one that's been so lauded. Even ultimately mainstream bland-fests like 'Big Bang Theory' and 'How I Met Your Mother' had some good gags in early seasons as I recall.

It's not that it trades in the 'comedy of discomfort' that the original UK show does either (which even then provoked genuine laughs), it seems to be going for trad sitcom gags but just falls flat.

I realise this isn't the most topical issue but is there anyone that really likes it?

[ad hoc]

I like it. Early seasons anyway with Steve Carell. Less so once it was James Spader

(and overall I think it's funnier than the Uk one)

[Hot Pepsi]

I thought Dracula kind of fell apart in episode 3. It went from silly to dumb and the characters stopped being believable or interesting.

I gave up in EP 2. I just didn’t care about any of it.

[Ray de Galles]

I saw the first episode of 'Ladhood' tonight which is a lot better than it's terrible name implies.

It's adapted from a R4 series and was on BBC3/iPlayer a few months ago but I knew nothing of it and was grabbed by the opening scene while vaguely recalling having
liked star/writer Liam Williams (not that one) in something else* so stuck with it. I enjoyed it and am going to give the rest of the series a go.

* Daisy Haggard's 'Back to Life' it turns out

[hobbes]

Just binged "Daybreak" on Netflix. Thoroughly enjoyable and silly post apocalyptic Ferris Bueller homage, cleverly staring Ferris himself, Matt Broderick.
Enough twists to keep you going, pathos, bathos and some measure of wit.
Set up nicely for season 2 which sadly, isn't coming as despite a 70% on Rotten Toms, netflix have binned it.
Worth a watch though.

[Nocturnal Submission]

I'm watching Britain's Greatest Comedian on Gold at the moment. Some extraordinary choices IMHO but the group making the choices are arguing very persuasively. Ronnie Barker, Tommy Cooper and John Cleese haven't even made the Top 10.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Bloody hell!

3. Billy Connolly
2. Victoria Wood
1. Stan Laurel

[Amor de Cosmos]

Where was Chaplin?

[Nocturnal Submission]

Not even in the Top 30, which also failed to include Peter Cook, Michael Palin or Leonard Rossiter!

[Nocturnal Submission]

The other constituents of the Top 10 were:

4. Peter Sellers
5. Eric Morecombe
6. Steve Coogan & Ricky Gervais
8. Spike Milligan
9. Peter Kay
10. Ken Dodd

[Amor de Cosmos]

This type of show/poll is always like that. Almost nothing prior to the lifetimes of whoever's doing the judging is relevant.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Well, the fact that almost everyone amongst the judges voted for Laurel as No. 1 was a huge surprise to me.

[Sits]

I’m no expert, but the only ones who could make me laugh by doing almost nothing were Peter Cook, Eric Morecambe and Tommy Cooper.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Well, the fact that almost everyone amongst the judges voted for Laurel as No. 1 was a huge surprise to me.

Might have had something to do with recent movie.

[tracteurgarcon]

I think that poll predated the Stan and Ollie film.

I always find it odd who gets categorised as a “comedian”, do they mean stand up, comedy actor or just someone who’s funny?

[tracteurgarcon]

Sorry just looked it up and this poll was conducted in January last year.

I'm pretty sure they did a similar one a while back and Stan Laurel was top of that one too.

[Amor de Cosmos]

I always find it odd who gets categorised as a “comedian”, do they mean stand up, comedy actor or just someone who’s funny?

Yeah. The whole thing's just silly. It doesn't take into account the period nor the medium people worked in. For example Chaplin and Laurel were on the same boat to the US. But Chaplin, who made his career in silents, doesn't get a mention while Laurel, who is better known for talkies does. And what about Bob Hope? Massive from the thirties through to the sixties but essentially a vaudevillian, which is now a dead form. But so what? The guy's timing and delivery were second to none (even if he was a grade one asshole.)

[Tony C]

Watched the first two episodes of 'Messiah' earlier. Will probably keep with it.

[San Bernardhinault]

Watched a film called Hit & Run last night. Lightweight but entertaining: basically a good B-Movie - definitely better than the bad reviews suggested, with a very good cast. Also watched the second half of Us. It did not get any better and won't be on any of my best-of lists.

[Amor de Cosmos]

The Bonfire of Destiny (Netflix continues to come up with some godawful titles) is a French series directed at a predominately female audience. In 1897 a exhibition hall in Paris burned to the ground in less than an hour. It happened during a charity fundraising market packed with people, mainly wealthy women from the city's bourgeois elite. Almost 200 people died. The first episode is riveting viewing. It's the most terrifying rendering of being trapped in a burning building I've experienced. The following episodes don't — indeed couldn't — match it but the first will stay with me forever.

[ursus arctos]

The French title is Le Bazar de la Charité, which is what the annual event was called.

It as TF1's big event for this fall, and garnered excellent ratings.

The story is rather fictionalised, and if anything, the real facts may be worse.

[Hot Pepsi]

I don’t think I’d want to see something that awful.

[Amor de Cosmos]

The French title is Le Bazar de la Charité, which is what the annual event was called.

It as TF1's big event for this fall, and garnered excellent ratings.

The story is rather fictionalised, and if anything, the real facts may be worse.

Much of that is in the series, especially men beating women out of the way with their canes to escape. In fact that constitutes one the series's main plot threads. We've watched three episodes so far and, though watchable, two and three are more conventional and less interesting than e1.

[Patrick Thistle]

The Good Place is back from its mid season hiatus. This is the last season. It shows.

[San Bernardhinault]

Marriage Story last night. I was predisposed to disliking it and it did nothing to prevent that. Why oh why, etc, can screenwriters so rarely imagine characters who aren't some form of luvvie? The story could have been written with almost any job, but no, it has to be washed in thespy bollocks. Not that there was much of a story except the trite and oft-rehashed observation that lawyers fuck people up. It was boring and rubbish. I've not disliked an Oscar-contender so much since Boyhood.