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Stath Lets Flats - Channel 4 - starts Wed 27th June

Started by Shoulders?-Stomach!, June 21, 2018, 01:15:21 PM

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Shoulders?-Stomach!

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/Stath-lets-flats

Anything about this suggest it should have gone beyond a couple of nice enough sketches and into this full series?

Funcrusher

So this isn't a reality show where Jason Statham becomes a landlord.

iamcoop

Quote from: Shoulders?-Stomach! on June 21, 2018, 01:15:21 PM
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/Stath-lets-flats

Anything about this suggest it should have gone beyond a couple of nice enough sketches and into this full series?

Neil Gibbons who writes Partridge said on Twitter that the pilot was the funniest pilot he'd ever seen. I think Linehan said something similar as well. It looks like dross to me.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: iamcoop on June 21, 2018, 02:30:15 PM
Neil Gibbons who writes Partridge said on Twitter that the pilot was the funniest pilot he'd ever seen. I think Linehan said something similar as well. It looks like dross to me.

Where can you see this pilot?

iamcoop

I was wrong! Linehan tweeted

"Watched a sneaky sneak preview of the upcoming Stath series and the opening episode is one of the best pilots I've ever seen. Do NOT miss. Here's an earlier blap"

Which Gibbons retweeted and said

"Agree with every word of this. The ep I've seen is absolutely hilarious."

So there you go.

Malcy

Sketch on TV has been a bit scarce recently so I'm interested to see what this is like. Not going to be influenced by whatever that berk Linehan says though.

Utter Shit

Will give this a look as the say-so of Linehan and moreso one of the Gibbons brothers is praise from Caesar...the ad I saw for it looked crap though, and the main guy (something Demetriou - is he related to Natasia Demetriou?) stresses me out with his awkwardness in everything he's appeared in.

EDIT: Just checked and not only is Natasia his sister, she's also in this show.

Utter Shit

Quote from: Malcy on June 21, 2018, 04:31:11 PM
Sketch on TV has been a bit scarce recently so I'm interested to see what this is like. Not going to be influenced by whatever that berk Linehan says though.

That berk Linehan who, despite being a berk, has a track record of writing, and generally being involved with, some of the best and most successful comedy of the past twenty-five years or so?

iamcoop

Quote from: Utter Shit on June 21, 2018, 04:49:21 PM
Will give this a look as the say-so of Linehan and moreso one of the Gibbons brothers is praise from Caesar...the ad I saw for it looked crap though, and the main guy (something Demetriou - is he related to Natasia Demetriou?) stresses me out with his awkwardness in everything he's appeared in.

EDIT: Just checked and not only is Natasia his sister, she's also in this show.

It's got some people in it that regularly work with Liam Williams in stuff as well, like his Friends web series which was largely excellent so this at least has potential.

Malcy

Quote from: Utter Shit on June 21, 2018, 04:53:29 PM
That berk Linehan who, despite being a berk, has a track record of writing, and generally being involved with, some of the best and most successful comedy of the past twenty-five years or so?

Yep.

Malcy


j_u_d_a_s

Extremely thin stuff on the basis of that opening episode.

hedgehog90

Only saw part of it but it's much better than the ads made it appear.
Some of the subtler Stath moments got smiles and the 'early worm' line got a lol.

timebug

I lasted less  than ten minutes,and thought it was
utter crap. Channel hopping yesterday morning for
the news, I caught the tv review bloke on 'The Wright
Stuff' raving about it and bigging it up. Each to their
own ,one supposes!

Hecate

Quote from: hedgehog90 on June 30, 2018, 01:54:06 AM
Some of the subtler Stath moments

Didn't spot any of those, I have to say.
Man, that performance was BIG.

It seemed alright at first but quickly ran out of steam. Will give it another shot.

UltimoLJ

Most of the characters in this just far too broad. Just felt like an impression of a show instead of one with deep-lying thinking behind it.

Hecate

Yeah, they could have done a lot with supernanny, and that thick woman was just thick and didn't really do or say anything funny.

metaltax

I struggle to see how Robert Popper could have written any of this without having a gun to his head and possibly his family held under threat of violence. There's not a stroke of subtlety to it. Stath is basically a child, reacting to every situation in the way that a (not particularly intelligent) child would. The irony of the guy from Siblings, who I'd previously hand the award for least-subtle-performance-as-a-petulant-manchild to, being in this. I'd get bored of it as a sketch. As a series it's completely unsustainable.

neveragain

I quite like the guy from Siblings. Thought he played his character well. This though... Pfft! (I haven't seen it)

alan nagsworth

I copped this chap opening for Harry Hill last year and thought as a 20 minute set, it was very funny. Still not watched this yet but naturally I'm skeptical that it could be stretched too thin as a television series.

Clownbaby

I thought this was a bit shite, I really don't enjoy irredeemably stupid farce characters

Utter Shit

Got round to watching it yesterday. What a strange show...lots of cliched rubbish, alongside an equal amount of inspired weirdness that I thought was great. Little lines like "you could run to the hospital, it should only take you 25 minutes or more" where those last two words add so much, and Stath's bizarre, angry reaction to hearing that one of the clients is separated from his wife...loved those bits. All the stuff with the pigeon was fantastic too, although the romantic sub-plot with the sister was crap.

EDIT: Also as mentioned above, that early worm line was so good.

j_u_d_a_s

Second episode watched and really not feeling this at all. Will admit my bias and say I've never really enjoyed Jamie Demetriou's act or roles he's played but this is still exceptionally weak. Stath isn't a character to hang a whole show on, at most he's the comedy idiot in a workplace ensemble. Both episodes so far have opened with the same routine about him being rubbish at his job without revealing anything about him other than he's incompetent. What are his goals or wants and needs? Does he even really want the top job at his dad's firm for anything other than status?

The odd quirky line aside it's really lazy with its jokes. Too much reliance on Demetriou's delivery and lolrandom phrasing. It's a bit confused whether or not it wants to be whimsical or mundane, like the Mighty Boosh remaking the office. The worst thing about this though is I don't know who it's for or if it even has anything to say. A show about letting in London during a housing crisis shouldn't feel so aimless. But then none of this seems rooted in any kind of observation or reality.

Alarm bells started ringing for me when I saw practically all of the UK comedy scene really bigging this up on twitter. Needless to say I'll be watching every episode to register my disgust.

Clownbaby

I really don't care about the character because he doesn't really seem to have a personality. We're just kind of expected to find him entertaining enough purely because he's an idiot. But most incompetent characters, like Alan Partridge for example, are fleshed out and have little details and a backstory, strange little subtle moments that build them up into a full person. I bet Stath just stays being a one dimensional knobhead who can't do his job well

Utter Shit

Quote from: j_u_d_a_s on July 06, 2018, 12:29:10 PM
Second episode watched and really not feeling this at all. Will admit my bias and say I've never really enjoyed Jamie Demetriou's act or roles he's played but this is still exceptionally weak. Stath isn't a character to hang a whole show on, at most he's the comedy idiot in a workplace ensemble. Both episodes so far have opened with the same routine about him being rubbish at his job without revealing anything about him other than he's incompetent. What are his goals or wants and needs? Does he even really want the top job at his dad's firm for anything other than status?

The odd quirky line aside it's really lazy with its jokes. Too much reliance on Demetriou's delivery and lolrandom phrasing. It's a bit confused whether or not it wants to be whimsical or mundane, like the Mighty Boosh remaking the office. The worst thing about this though is I don't know who it's for or if it even has anything to say. A show about letting in London during a housing crisis shouldn't feel so aimless. But then none of this seems rooted in any kind of observation or reality.

Alarm bells started ringing for me when I saw practically all of the UK comedy scene really bigging this up on twitter. Needless to say I'll be watching every episode to register my disgust.

The thing with this criticism is that the second bit is only relevant if you agree with the first. I find it really funny (the second episode more than the first), and as long as it's funny it isn't absolutely necessary for it to be about anything in particular or have a set aim. It doesn't have to be saying anything about the housing crisis, an estate agents can just be a setting. It all hinges on whether or not you find it funny.

It isn't perfect - pretty much everyone other than the main character is underwritten, uninteresting and there only to service whatever Stath is doing - but I find him so enjoyably weird, and some of the lines really inspired.

Icehaven

I've seen at least two different trailers for this and feel like I've probably seen the whole show, however that's very reductive so I might give it a go just to prove myself right/wrong.

j_u_d_a_s

Quote from: Utter Shit on July 06, 2018, 12:40:03 PM
The thing with this criticism is that the second bit is only relevant if you agree with the first. I find it really funny (the second episode more than the first), and as long as it's funny it isn't absolutely necessary for it to be about anything in particular or have a set aim. It doesn't have to be saying anything about the housing crisis, an estate agents can just be a setting. It all hinges on whether or not you find it funny.

It isn't perfect - pretty much everyone other than the main character is underwritten, uninteresting and there only to service whatever Stath is doing - but I find him so enjoyably weird, and some of the lines really inspired.

Ah well, horses for courses and all that. Just my favourite shows usually have a core theme to hold it all together and I can't see one here. Personally I think everything is underwritten, my main problem with Jamie Demetriou and a lot of the current alternative comedy scene is that their material is never really based on observation or grounded in any kind of recognisable truth. Just quirky lines. And yeah maybe that's my hang up because it obviously strikes a chord for some people. But for me, it's not enough.

Utter Shit

Oh yeah I'm definitely not saying it's not a valid criticism - if something is unfunny or doesn't have enough jokes, then it having a message or having something beyond the jokes can redeem it...just saying that that isn't essential to good comedy. For example I don't think anyone could really argue that Black Books was saying something about bookshops or the book industry (I guess the Goliath episode was a dig at chain stores, but the rest wasn't)...but it works because that location is just a setting for the jokes. I personally think there's enough in this show to make the setting worthwhile regardless of any overarching point, but I definitely agree that if you aren't finding it funny there's little else to keep you watching. Particularly if you don't enjoy the main character, as everything else is crap.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Quote from: icehaven on July 06, 2018, 12:41:14 PM
I've seen at least two different trailers for this and feel like I've probably seen the whole show, however that's very reductive so I might give it a go just to prove myself right/wrong.

Due to watch later tonight but yes, the marketing has made this look like a few sketches someone has tried to span a whole series with.

j_u_d_a_s

Quote from: Utter Shit on July 06, 2018, 01:34:52 PM
Oh yeah I'm definitely not saying it's not a valid criticism - if something is unfunny or doesn't have enough jokes, then it having a message or having something beyond the jokes can redeem it...just saying that that isn't essential to good comedy. For example I don't think anyone could really argue that Black Books was saying something about bookshops or the book industry (I guess the Goliath episode was a dig at chain stores, but the rest wasn't)...but it works because that location is just a setting for the jokes. I personally think there's enough in this show to make the setting worthwhile regardless of any overarching point, but I definitely agree that if you aren't finding it funny there's little else to keep you watching. Particularly if you don't enjoy the main character, as everything else is crap.

Even in Black Books (and a lot of Linehan's work) there's a real family-like connection between the characters and Bernard was a misanthrope forced into daily social contact, so if there is a theme then it's probably unlikely friendships. Ironically there's no connection between any of Stath Lets Flats characters even when 3 of them are in the same family.

Sitcoms aren't just an endless stream of gags, there's always some form of emotional investment in the characters and stakes. Think of all the recent US shows that get talked about on here and in the wider world, all of them have a point of view and something to say. Even something as seemingly inconsequential as Broad City is a show that's meant to reflect contemporary female friendship. The pigeon scene from the first ep of SLF (Stath Lets Flats) in isolation is a funny 2-3 minute sketch but it's meant to be the finale of a 23 minute episode and really just feels like padding for time (not to mention it's just a slight reworking of the end of the Blaps pilot).