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After a protracted period of gestation, Nathan Barley eventually made it onto Channel 4 in 2005. Unfortunately, the show lacked much of the subtlety and intelligence that Morris was well known for, choosing instead to work with big, broad, dumb characters that left nothing to the imagination of the viewer. When the pilot surfaced on the eventual DVD release, it turned out to be a very different beast - it was structurally more interesting, and the characters were more nuanced and naturalistic, rather than the unamusing, 2-D cartoons that littered the main series.
Nathan Barley does seem to have some interesting intentions, though. For instance, it seems to be an attempt at creating a genuinely subversive and satirical sitcom. Right from the original TVGoHome strip onwards, anyone who disliked Nathan Barley was immediately accused of being Nathan Barley. Get past that cliche and hunt for the truth, and you'll find that the show does seem to be partly aimed at baiting a certain type of fan. While catchphrases can be cited as a celebration of material, Nathan Barley would seem to attack the sort of irritating, trend-following, unthinking sods who mindlessly reel off catchphrases in lieu of coming up with anything original. Many of the Nathan Barley catchphrases were subsquently adopted by certain parts of the fanbase, despite them being uttered by 'The Idiots' in Barley.
Another example of this kind of dynamic would be the mobile phone ring-tones. Again, the joke here is clearly that the ringtones in Nathan Barley are as humourless as they are irritating, and yet they were immediately ripped, circulated and loaded onto the mobile phones of some portions of the Chris Morris fanbase.
Promotional Bumph
Series 1
Series 2
Wikipedia entry
IMDB entry
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