The Trip

[slackster]

The Trip

I'm liking it less with each episode. Found the first one novel and funny, but it just seems very repetitive now, and rather self-indulgent. Might have been better as a one-off.

[Ray de Galles]

The Trip

I may be getting far too meta about it but I loved the fact that this week's had Coogan's complaints to Brydon echoing all the criticisms that might be levelled at the show ( about him flying off in to impressions at the merest excuse and having the same conversation over every meal).

It might not quite have matched the second episode but was an absolute delight and I wanted to watch it straight through again right after it finished (this after rewinding many bits as I watched, particulairly Brydon's generic South Walian riff).

It's bookended my TV higlights of the year with 'Glee' (and the new Who as a midpoint treat) and the DVD release on the 13th December is very tempting.

[ian.64]

The Trip

I'm enjoying this the more it progresses and it's intriguing to note how much more rancorous and bitter the undertone of their relationship is as things move on. There are those accusations that it's a filmed jolly and it's self-indulgent - well, it is and Michael Winterbottom virtually admitted as much in an Empire magazine piece, but were the hosts of such a journey not as talented and watchable as those featured, I'd have switched off ten minutes in and not given a toss either way.

There's something in it that works in a low-key way that treads a fine line between pulling in the viewer and making them think 'whatever'. I also had a thought in the back of my mind that it would equally have some value if Coogan and Brydon just threw off the gentle constraints of a dramatised relationship and just improvised comedy shtick as themselves, which might possibly have worked just as well. A dramatised jolly or a genuine one, as long as you got the laughs, who cares?

Also, in some irrational way, there's that echo in it that came from those voices who worked long ago in the BBC comedy department who looked with affection at the corporation's willingness to just hand performers and writers a series and say 'run with it'. 'Can we make a comedy series about two blokes going up and down the country doing impressions while visiting posh eateries?', 'You start next week.'

I bet the DVD will have a reel of outtakes lasting longer than the series.

[meregreen]

The Trip

I didn't want to watch this as I assumed it would be deeply irritating and self-indulgent. However, I caught a glimpse of it and carried on watching and really enjoyed it. That you can't tell whether they're acting or improvising is key. Had it been over-scripted or totally improvised I don't think it would have worked as well.

I presume the inspiration for the 'blokes on the verge of a mid-life crisis heading out on a fine wining/dining trip' came from the film Sideways.

[Ray de Galles]

The Trip

I wondered how the introduction of significant female characters would affect last night's show and it made the meal scenes less enjoyable than the previous episodes'.

I enjoyed the increased tension between Coogan and Brydon over lunch but it was less fun watching them try to impress the women than each other. I think they must have deliberately put the fantastic early scene in the car in to compensate.

Brydon's closing scene with Coogan's assistant was (obviously deliberately) excrutiating and a real "Oh no, don't!" moment.

I can see why they altered the structure of last night's to contrast with the opening half of the series but I hope the final two are back to more like the established format.

[RobW]

The Trip

Yeah, I don't think Brydon trying it on with one of the women really worked. They're playing exaggerated versions of themselves, with Coogan always shagging round whilst Brydon is 'solid as a rock' to coin a Partridge phrase. Certainly less enjoyable than episode 3, although the scene in the car and the opening joke with the newspaper were brilliant.

[epping2ongar]

The Trip

I thought the cocaine scene was quite well done...

[Ray de Galles]

The Trip

I hadn't realised (or forgot) this but someone just told me that the series was also cut as a film which would explain the desire for some kind of variation in the middle of it for "the arc".

[ian.64]

The Trip

I'd go along with the above, although the dinner scenes with the female characters were fine and introduced a potential for social embarrassment that comedy actors like Coogan can revel in. I found the Brydon flirting scenes a little uneasy, though, the transformation from affably spiky dinner companion to slightly (and clumsily) over-enthusiastic lothario being a little jarring.

That said, up to scratch, with scenes of sensual torture via beautifully-cooked food to make the viewer go 'Bastards! I want some of that!' as standard.

[Spearmint Rhino]

The Trip

What's the type of choral singing they're mimicking on this clip (blatantly the best bit of the series, by the way)? I think it's Songs Of Praise/similar BBC religious content from the 70s/80s, but it might be something else.

[Ray de Galles]

The Trip

If it's the end of the 'Gentlemen, to bed!' scene then, as I have said elsewhere, it reminded me of part of the soundtrack to 'Butch and Sundance' but I think it's just meant to be the generic easy listening background music of the time that is an example of.

[Alderman Barnes]

The Trip

I'm pretty sure it was the King's Singers.

[Alderman Barnes]

The Trip

Who (continuing our previous theme of members of Darts who you used to get confused with other people) had a lead singer who I assumed had become Minister of Sport in the government of Mrs. Thatcher.

[Ray de Galles]

The Trip

Alderman's right actually , I think.

[ian.64]

The Trip

Yep, I think he's right, too. The King's Singers were popular around the 70's and turned up, for example, as the backing music to ads like Du Kuypers sherry and popping up on stuff like Pebble Mill At One. Very much 'way back then'.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Trip

Spearmint Rhino wrote:

What's the type of choral singing they're mimicking on this clip (blatantly the best bit of the series, by the way)? I think it's Songs Of Praise/similar BBC religious content from the 70s/80s, but it might be something else.

Looks like this, whatever the fuck this is

[Ray de Galles]

The Trip

Still getting to grips with last night's, it needs another watch if only because my wife's discomfort at Brydon speaking with his mouth full was so manifest it started to spoil it for me.

[diggedy derek]

The Trip

I've been loving this, but can hardly remember anything from last night, except for the excellent scene with that guy on that ridge.

“To BED!“ That's what I say to my other half at 11:30pm now.

[Moonlight Shadow]

The Trip

Well, I like Coogan and Brydon, I like posh food and I like hiking so this ticks most of my boxes really...

Coogan was pretty lucky with the water levels when he scrambled up Goredale Scar, you normally get pretty wet doing it...

[evilC]

The Trip

Okay... just caught up on all this. Five episodes in two days.

MASSIVE SPOILERS ABOUND!!!

It *is* very good and very funny too, I feel. That one (two?) simple positive outweighs any of the small negatives that I can mention.

The main one is that it's a 'showcase', essentially - a showcase for the restaurants, yes, but moreover a showcase for their acting talents, I think. (If there is a grain of truth in Coogan's phone calls with his American agent, then maybe that is another raison d'etre for the show.) That makes me feel sometimes as if it is a 'vanity project'. Certainly, Coogan's own (pretend?) vanity is a recurring theme.

Slightly lesser gripes include the maudlin fucking piano music at the end of nearly every episode! Perhaps the underlying message of the show is that these are two basically really quite unpleasant characters, for different reasons, and that piano music is meant to make us suddenly sympathise with them. ...Well, Coogan at least. Don't get me wrong - I like a bit of maudlin piano music - but that usage of it winds me right up.

And, going back to the charisma (or lack thereof) of the characters, this seems to be one of those 'this is what real celebs do' kinds of show, in the vain of 'Curb Your Enthusiasm', exposing the frailties and vanities of these people. However, more than that - and this is something I like immensely, although it is a bit more subtle - this isn't just about celebrities or food: it's about men. Both of them come across - whether immediately or slowly - as deeply unlikeable people. Coogan immediately shallow, needy, attention-seeking, insecure and over-sexed; Brydon reliant on 'party tricks' for attention, also overly preoccupied with sex and, though faithful on the surface, we eventually learn that he isn't at all. These are perhaps comments on the general behaviour and attitudes of men in our society, I feel.

Perhaps it's also therefore a subtle comment on a society preoccupied with consumption, both conspicuously materially and - less conspicuously - in terms of relationships with people, with the food as a metaphor for both the decadence and transience thereof? They're supposed to be relating the quality of the food they've partaken of to 'their public', but will they ever disclose the relationships they've indulged in along he way?

Oh, and as a smaller, parting point, I feel compelled to mention that John Shuttleworth made a similar, though much more modest, series that was likewise almost 'a postcard from Northern England', in the form of '500 Bus Stops'. That might have had more obvious, farcical humour and the mode of transport might have been simple buses, but the scenery was no less breathtaking and, similarly, you could feel that it was being done with a real affection for some of the stunning landscapes of our country.

[evilC]

The Trip

Oh... and did anyone else think that if they didn't actually hate each other before the series was filmed, then perhaps they might afterwards?

[wingco]

The Trip

500 Bus Stops was lovely. Different kettle of fish from this, mind.

I've enjoyed The Trip. The wistful tinkle of piano at beginning at end I've barely noticed. Coogan both self-deprecatingly (and I suspect to a degree accurately) does a very good "Steve Coogan", ditto Rob Brydon, for many of the reasons you've outlined, evilC. It's at once entertaining for the viewer that most of their conversation consists of impressions but this is also telling. It shows their competitiveness, their bloke-ish inability to engage in direct, sincere conversation and also shows how reluctantly bound they are, as virtually the only two people on the planet who can converse/compete on this level, in this manner.

Just now and again you see Coogan really overstep the mark with his rudeness to Brydon and Brydon give him a stare, but then the game resumes. I suspect this isn't building to any great boiling point - there isn't going to be some giant scene in which they have it out. I think they'll depart on pretty much the terms that they joined up, no hugging, no learning, their characters revealed but nothing resolved.

[evilC]

The Trip

wingco wrote:

Coogan ...does a very good "Steve Coogan", ditto Rob Brydon...

Bugger!

All that waffling I did and I forgot to mention possibly the most important point: I don't think they are really (very) like this in real life. They are very subtle caricatures of themselves or perhaps how they think the public must consider them to be.

On the other hand, I can imagine Brydon skim-reading the script and saying to Coogan "My God! This makes it look like I do nothing but indulge in impersonations all the time! I don't, though, do I?", to which Coogan would merely answer "Ummmmm............ ..........no?"

[Gerontophile]

The Trip

Unfunny. Mainly because I dont like either person, and went into it with prejudice. I suspect it might be a 'grower', and I will give it another try, someday.

And the reason Rob Brydon thinks he is only good at impersonations, is because, he is basically, a jumped-up voiceover artist. Although, he STILL cant do 'Billy Connolly'. (Not sure anyone actually can)

But, I also suspect, that neither is keen on the semi-symbiotic relationship they have... and this really doesnt help to dispel (that).

Although if you like uncomfortable comedy (Fawlty towers, et al), I can understand why you might like this.

[Ray de Galles]

The Trip

wingco wrote:

I suspect this isn't building to any great boiling point - there isn't going to be some giant scene in which they have it out. I think they'll depart on pretty much the terms that they joined up, no hugging, no learning, their characters revealed but nothing resolved.

I tend to agree and hope you're right but have a slight worry that this week's penultimate show smacked a bit of setting up a "finale" of some kind.

The amping up of the nastiness between the two more than before and then Coogan's slightly wistful discussion with his son about how long he and Brydon had been friends.

I think they are too knowing and clever with the show to actually deliver any hugging or learning though (or if one of them tries it the other will skewer it) and hope we'll just get one final lunch with them going at each other again.