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Morning Has Broken - new Julia Davis series

Started by garbed_attic, September 05, 2016, 09:37:05 PM

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garbed_attic

I watched the pilot for this the other night and, if I am honest, I thought it was a bit iffy.

It's about a narcissistic and self-serving daytime television presenter played by Davis who, it seems, is in danger of loosing her job since her best friend/ producer has died and been replaced with a new producer who sees the presenter's none-too-hidden toxicity.

Generally speaking, I really love Davis' stuff. Human Remains is quite probably my most watched television comedy series of all time and even the commentaries are a delight. HR remains so brilliant because it was perfectly balanced. Brydon seemed to ground Davis' tendency towards scatty scatology in the mundanities of everyday life, while I suspect Davis stopped Brydon from getting lazy/ complacent by keeping him on his toes and not allowing him to get too self-congratulatory. I think the fact that the show came out of improvisations really shows, since it feels much more organic than anyone Davis has done since.

This wasn't a problem in Hunderby, because it's very premise ensured that it was highly mannered/ affected from the start. Even though the characters is Hunderby are League of Gentlemen style grotesques and not always fully fledged, as with Arrested Development the actors approach the material with so much joy and conviction and demented relish that it becomes totally convincing.

The problem I found with the Morning Has Broken pilot was that it felt like the jokes came first and the characters and plot had to work around them. Also, in the past there's generally been a kind of neurotic energy to how Davis approaches taboo subjects as a writer - like they're being purged and stripped of their power. But here the taboo subjects felt a bit phoned-in to me... not necessarily offensive for the sake of being offensive, but mined as perennial obsessions, but in a haphazard, slightly tossed-off kind of a way.

It definitely made me laugh in parts and I think that there is a lot of fun to be had with the parodies of morning television, but it didn't feel riveting or foully intoxicating as Davis' best work. It didn't feel quite as **wrong** as series 2 Nighty Night, but it also wasn't as interesting or immediately enjoyable as Camping.

But! It was just the pilot and I will certainly be watching the series when it comes out presumably within a few weeks.

Avril Lavigne

Quote from: gout_pony on September 05, 2016, 09:37:05 PM
narcissistic and self-serving...played by Davis...

She's working out of her comfort zone then :D

amnesiac

Sorry where did you see this?! haven't heard a thing about it and absolutely love Davis, Camping was just the zenith of Sky One last year.

garbed_attic

Vimeo, I think. If you search for it on Twitter it'll come up! ^^

olliebean

Quote from: gout_pony on September 06, 2016, 10:55:52 AM
Vimeo, I think. If you search for it on Twitter it'll come up! ^^

Yes, but it's a private video. Maybe they initially forgot to make it private, and you got in before they realised.

garbed_attic

Quote from: olliebean on September 06, 2016, 11:19:12 AM
Yes, but it's a private video. Maybe they initially forgot to make it private, and you got in before they realised.

I think they did, though someone posted the password in replies. It might be worth waiting for the series itself though as I'm hoping it just uses the best bits from the pilot!

olliebean

This appeared briefly on Vimeo yesterday, it's gone now due to a copyright claim from Channel 4 but it's possible someone from hereabouts might have managed to grab a copy. Far be it from me to suggest that such a person might be amenable to sharing if PM'd; I'm sure that said hypothetical person is a fine upstanding member of CaB society who would never dream of doing such a thing.

metaltax

It's about 5 years old I think. No series came out of it as far as I can remember.

olliebean

No, still worth a watch though if you didn't manage to see it before.

zomgmouse

Quote from: olliebean on December 11, 2018, 11:32:50 PM
No, still worth a watch though if you didn't manage to see it before.

I would also very much enjoy a watch of this if it happened to turn up.

Mobius



SteK

Did anyone check out Sally4ever?

I thought it was awful and good at the same time, cringe-comedy with some disgusting and frankly disturbing scenes. I'm referring to the being shat on scene mainly, probably Nutella really.

bobloblaw

yes. fucking joyless. can't see the good really.

and that scene was already signposted by verbal references prior to entering the caravan and - like the scissoring in the earlier episode - punchline was 'they were so shameless that someone saw it who shouldn't have'.

wooders1978

Quote from: SteK on October 15, 2019, 12:36:17 PM
Did anyone check out Sally4ever?

I thought it was awful and good at the same time, cringe-comedy with some disgusting and frankly disturbing scenes. I'm referring to the being shat on scene mainly, probably Nutella really.

I liked it mostly - it was a bit too gross out humour now and then but overall I found it pretty funny

Lots of people I like in it which might make me biased