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"Comedy Drama"

Started by Neil, September 19, 2011, 12:51:49 PM

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Absorb the anus burn

Might be a stretch for some, but the George Bullman trilogy (XYY Man / Strangers / Bullman) were incredibly funny. The scripts worked as crime dramas, but the stories always took turns towards the surreal & farcical.

Great supporting casts too, often getting to play comic monsters. Amanda Barrie is a revelation is a frumpy, joyless housewife who is briefly George's landlady. Freddy Jones is usually comic gold, but nothing quite tops his turn as the fruity head of MI6 ("the funny people") who worries that his cat's bum has been bugged by the Russians.

Absorb the anus burn

'Pulaski' just came to mind...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092431/

Bit of a flop if I remember, with critics and audiences, but it had some good running gags. Roy Clarke scripted, but his non 'Summer Wine' work is very watchable.  "Will Amelia Quint Continue Writing A Gnome Called Shorthouse?" is fucking hilarious, but that's single play territory - where the comedy drama mix is more palatable.

If single plays count, then, Jack Rosenthal, Alan Ayckbourn, Alan Bennett all manage the comedy / drama balance with aplomb.

Jack Shaftoe

Interesting that US series are very good at doing comedy episodes of generally straightish shows ('Supernatural' for example), or shows which are generally considered drama often have a strong comedy vein running through them - in some ways 'West Wing', for example, was as much a Thirties-style screwball office comedy as it was a gripping drama about the President.

I think the separation between comedy and drama departments in the BBC has caused a few problems with comedy/drama in the UK, to be honest. I'm really interested in that comedy/drama overlap, but it's very difficult to get scripts past that final hurdle with the Beeb specifically, as if it's too 'comedy-ish', commissioners start worrying it's all going to be a bit frivolous. Things aren't as bad as they were, probably helped by the success of stuff like 'Doctor Who' and 'Life On Mars' which blended comedy and drama very successfully, so it's easier to get those sort of scripts commissioned, but actually getting a series greenlit is arguable much harder that if you were doing a 'straight' drama.

Also, BBC drama people are obsessed with story, so they're constantly chucking out anything which doesn't keep the story moving at a rapid pace, or stopping to explain everything, which can kill comedic moments stone dead. I suspect it's a bit easier with ITV or C4, as they don't have the same public service remit. And ITV has a stronger tradition of comedy/drama - 'Coronation Street' seems to have a much stronger comedy element than 'Eastenders', for example. Although I haven't watched either for years, so correct me if I'm wrong.


Shoulders?-Stomach!

Eastenders has had a strong comic element to balance out, justify the inevitable bleakness and tragedy. Plus I think the writers have realised they can juxtapose the two for greater effect.

Corrie seems to get laughs from thicko northern stereotypes so the humour might be a bit different. Half the characters seem to have a 'thicko northerner REACTS' moment at some point in the show.

Tiny Poster

It's actually the opposite - Corrie's comic writing is often as strong as any classic sitcom, and is woven in and out of dramatic scenes fairly naturally. Whereas in EastEnders, it's always "Way-hey, here's the comic relief!!!!!"


Ash

Quote from: Mr_Simnock on September 19, 2011, 01:09:53 PM
I don't mind comedy drama's. My favorite is Desperate Housewives, I always get at least two really big laughs an episode from that. Any other fans of that show or am I on my own?
I've always liked it, although it hasn't ever amounted to the brilliance of its first series. Weirdly, I think in its earliest series it started out as a drama-comedy (mostly drama with some dark humour and satire), but as it went on it became more sitcom'ish in its comic style, and it's now more a comedy-drama, with the emphasis on wacky comedy rather than drama.
Quote from: Shoulders?-Stomach! on September 20, 2011, 04:05:36 PMCorrie seems to get laughs from thicko northern stereotypes so the humour might be a bit different. Half the characters seem to have a 'thicko northerner REACTS' moment at some point in the show.
Yes! I know Corrie's known as "the funny soap" in comparison to bleak Eastenders but I think that view is out of date, I really don't see how EE is any bleaker these days, and I find its attempts at comedy at least slightly less cringe worthy than, as you say, Corrie's comedy Northerners saying stupid/whimsical things and reacting to each other. It tries too hard.

I never think soaps get it right, though, because they're really dramas and so any token comic relief characters they have (and they all have a good few) jarringly seem like they operate in a different dimension from whatever angst is happening next door. Like, in Corrie, how can Mary and Kirk, two 'comic relief characters' be living in the same world as characters like Carla and Becky. At least with ones like Steve or Roy there's an attempt to balance the comic quirks with an actual human personality, but the purely comedy characters all need to just go.

I suppose, as far as I can think of examples, I think it's the drama comedies (mostly dramas but with some comic moments and perhaps more eccentric characters than a usual straight drama) that are more successful than comedy dramas (mostly comedies that try and shove in a dramatic backbone. I think Sirens was the last I tried to watch), but then I'm not sure there's much that separates a drama comedy from just... a drama. Six Feet Under had darkly comic moments and more eccentricities than your average straight drama, but enough for it to be half classed as a a comedy? But then I guess if I compare it to Mad Men, which is definitely just a drama...

Misfits is a better example, that's definitely a drama-comedy and for the most part I think it strikes the balance perfectly, in that you know what's to be taken seriously and what isn't. It feels like the world has been imagined and the rules of reality have been properly thought out. Where-as in other drama comedies, you often have the comedy undermining the drama because it breaks from the reality or doesn't seem to follow the same rules as the dramatic bits.

There are plenty of comedy series that I think manage to attain pathos and depth without actually being dramas as well. Peep Show's managed it on occasion, and The Thick Of It is wonderful at it, but I don't think I'd call either of them part dramas, despite both having dramatic moments.