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Nathan Barley - Episode One

Started by Neil, February 11, 2005, 02:33:07 PM

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What did you think of the first episode?

Shit
53 (19.3%)
Average
163 (59.3%)
Brilliant
59 (21.5%)
BIG BOUNCING BUTTOCKS!!!
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 275

Voting closed: February 12, 2005, 01:34:42 PM

Ambient Sheep

As has been said, not brilliant, but not awful either.  I'll certainly keep watching, and I think I could say that even if I didn't know it was a CM/CB project.

I too liked the TCP joke.  The interview scene had me cringing with embarrassment, but that was because I was supposed to, i.e. at Dan's predicament, not the programme itself.

It's interesting that Nathan is quite a different character to the one that TVGH's "Cunt" column invoked in my head.  I always saw him as more yuppified than that.

I think we can safely say that CM/CB don't think much of b3ta, do they?  Quite a few attacks on it in there near the beginning, e.g. the parody of the singing kittens stuff.

I wonder if the various targets of their satire will realise it's aimed at them?

Anyone going to do a screencap of Ashcroft's article?  Most of it looked readable on screen, but I doubt that it will once I transfer it off the Murdoch+ box onto VHS.  I could transcribe it on pen and paper, but hopefully someone here with the right equipment can grab a still or two.  (And *just* a still or two, please.)

Squidy


Dark Sky

Mmmm...didn't laugh at anything, but didn't think that any gags "fell flat" or anything...

Warmed up a lot towards the end and then...ended.

First episodes are always a bit dodgy.  It left me wanting to see more, though.

FanOfKylie

Nathan Barley in TV GoHome had some funny bits in it but it could never be made into a half an hour show as that load of rubbish just showed.
Watch The Day Today on DVD and remember the once great man like that rather than this .

Hemorrhoid Shark

Well, that was disappointing. I was really hoping it would be great. I even thought people might be being too harsh on here, but it was pants.

I only laughed once in the entire programme, and that was at the guy with the miniscule hat , which I found oddly amusing. The problem was that it was so slow. I don't know if I'd even call it a sitcom, it felt more like a soap opera with the occasional lame gag chucked in (no, I wasn't a big fan of The Office).  Also, is it just me, or was the lighting a lot darker in the show than in the trailers?

I'm still hoping episode 2 will be an improvement, but that really was crap. RIP Chris Morris, you will be sorely missed...

Quote from: "kakamuffin"Very, very funny.  nothing else to be said.

This is exactly the reaction Morris probably expected to get from the pompous internet crowd.

How anyone can be this critical of a brand new series after only one episode and in some cases, the first 10 minutes, is beyond me.

Fucksake, what the hell is the point of watching something, or even doing, reading whatever-ing something if you don't challenge it or think about it?  Vaccous little tit, go off and come back with more, "OOH!  You played RIGHT into the genius Morris' trap!"

First 10 minutes indeed, but hey, people here have been fans of Morris for the last 10 years, and this is just another blink in time and the first 10 minutes matters as much as the next 140.

I just didn't find it funny nor any of the characters believable.  I can believe in the situations but not the characters.  I've met cunts like that so I do raise a wry smile, but nothing more.  I hope it develops, and I will still be watching next week.

Key

I loved the different ways of expressing how cool something is (well Jackson etc) reminded me of how funny Morris can be with language.  In fact I was laughing for most of the episode apart from a couple of flat scenes.

Great performances by most of the cast, especially Barrat and Burns who pulled off Nathan Barley excellently, a bit different to the TVGoHome character but really funny nonetheless. Keelan and Wishaw put in good performances and you got a real feel for their characters despite the fact they only had a few lines to work with. Aoyade was hit and miss but made me laugh a few times.

Overall, not as bad as I was expecting judging from the reviews, but there were elements that werent as good as they could have been.

TJ

Quote from: "alan strang"Class. Sheer Class.

Where were the scouts?

jambo

Quote from: "Purple Tentacle"That fucking interview... NOBODY would go for a job interview without thinking of the questions that would be asked...

"What ideas for articles do you have"... gee, would they ask that do you think?

Career journalists are a lot more chummy chummy and cut-throat, at the same time. Ashcroft didn't think it was so much of an interview - he is clearly depressed and is dragged down by the idiot Sugar Ape world view. However, the more professional editor at Weekend on Sunday is the "Man" and wanted copy, pure and simple.

Ashcroft is awkwardly in between.

Lumiere

Oh yes, and Julian Barratt is quite brill.

peet

I think it has promise. There were a few dull 'what the fuck?' moments, but quite a lot of subtle touches that I warmed to, and some good... eye-acting (dunno what else to call it). I thought the Pingu will eventually end up with Claire subtext was a bit obvious, and Barley going "my nigga" seemed a bit crowbarred in as "here's the bit that Mail readers will take offence to because they don't understand, the fools'.

Dr David V

Quote from: "Robot Devil"Reminded me more of a plot driven, drama-y show with a few funny bits, and I think it was very successful as that
Ah, well from that viewpoint, I did enjoy it. It was good piece of story-telling, but as far as a comedy show I felt it didn't work that well. Of course, I hate to look at sitcoms as dramas, because ultimately the point of a sitcom is to make you laugh. No-one can deny that.

GuiltyLionel

i found it 'awkward', thats my best word for it. i think its primarily to do with the months of buildup to this very half hour. quite disapointed at the first episode, hopefully it'll pick up. Don't like the Nathan actor, like someone said far to unbelievable. The Dan scenes had a nicer quality to them.

Lewis

Very disapointing, made me smile in a few places, I liked the interview scene and the bit in the newsagents along with a few other bits but I honestly didn't laugh out loud once. Perhaps my own fault for getting excited about it earlier. I did like the closing credits though and not just for the fact that it was ending. Overall I liked the production and thought it was edited well. Just not funny though.

"The idiots" weren't convincing at all, just seemed like they were over acting to me. At least I now understand the abuse thats often directed at Ayoade.

Geej

That was so dissapointing.  At least the writing cannot be blamed entirely on Chris Morris.

The end sequence of Dan Ashcroft 'falling back into idiot mode' was quite well done, but the whole thing was just plain dreary.  

The focus clearly is not on Nathan Barley as he is just aboput a 1-D character, but is likely to be centred on Dan Ashcroft and a spiralling dive into despair over his options and choices in the media world.

Of course I didn't like it - we knew most of us wouldn't.
This is where I would normally write "But...." but I can't.  It was mindless rubbish.

Labian Quest

I only laughed a couple of times ('Thinking is rubbish') but I liked it, especially the way he'd painted himself into a corner, and the way the other people in the office knew what had happened at the interview but didn't let on. It's quite true to life; people are never as stupid as you think. Interesting undercurrents.

On the basis of that episode you wonder why they didn't call it 'Dan Ashcoft'

The Mumbler

I went for a walk round the common instead.  Probably better for my long-term health.

Hoogstraten'sSmilingUlcer

Didn't laugh out loud, not once, but smiled a few times. Though it wasn't very funny, it was enjoyable to watch, if nothing else. Barrett's very good as Ashcroft actually, and Burns makes Barley suitably loathsome. However I couldn't give a toss about Barley; Ashcroft is a much better character, and we should stick with him, with as little Barley as possible. The website stuff is hideously unfunny, but there were a few moments of amusement - 'When Surgeons Crack Up' and the x-ray; and I enjoyed Ashcroft's loathing of the Sugar Ape staff, with worked quite well. I quite like the little relationship between Ashcroft and the receptionist. My big problem with the staff was that the guy with the white glasses ('That was the best thing I ever read...' etc) was more annoying-annoying than funny-annoying, and I was kind of put off by the fact Jonathan Yeah? looks remarkably like Will Self.

My other big problem was how much like David Brent Barley is. Not just a bit like him, but actually a quite good parody of him, right down to the gestures, tone, and crappy, jokey words. That destroyed the entire character, and made him more pantomimic than someone we can believe in (and at the same, detest).

As I say, I found it entertaining but not funny, and there was a distinct ambiguity whether Morris and Brooker are actually taking the piss out of these people, or secretly wish to be like them. And yes, 'cock, muff, bumhole' is a ghastly idea and I hope that's the last we see of it.

Hypnotoad.

Quote from: "FanOfKylie"Watch The Day Today on DVD and remember the once great man like that rather than this .

What the man said

Divnee Gan

'twas shit. Me and me flatmate watched the first ten minutes of it and it sucked.  Turned over to keith barret instead. Which wasn't much better but less depressing for myself.

Key

Quote from: "Banana Woofwoof"
I just didn't find any of the characters believable.  I can believe in the situations but not the characters.  I've met cunts like that so I do raise a wry smile, but nothing more.

Yeah thats what bugged me about the Sugar Ape staff, I'm not really one to be picky when it comes to logic, but surely a magazine could not be run by a bunch of utter imbeciles who had never read a book, quite a funny concept when written down, but it didn't really work on film.

jutl

Quote from: "kakamuffin"Very, very funny.  nothing else to be said.

and yet...

Quote from: "kakamuffin"
This is exactly the reaction Morris probably expected to get from the pompous internet crowd.

Yes, we are pompous, and yes, clearly we're on the internet. You liked it though.

Quote from: "kakamuffin"
How anyone can be this critical of a brand new series after only one episode and in some cases, the first 10 minutes, is beyond me.

When expectations are justifiably high and those first ten minutes are awkward and unfunny, it's not to difficult to understand, surely?

Suttonpubcrawl

I didn't really laugh at that at all, beyond a couple of times when I went "ha". "The idiots" are just too annoying, it gets to the point where you want to turn it off just to get away with them. They're also far too extreme to be believable, real people just aren't that stupid. I can see that they're based on a real type of person but they've been exaggerated to the extent that they're now so distant from the people they're based on that you almost can't see the connection. You have Dan Ashcroft spending the entire time looking depressed and annoyed, and yet no one notices this.

Another problem is that it didn't seem to go anywhere. It was just events happening without much reason or sense of overall meaning. To be fair, this is an opening episode so to an extent that's to be expected because they're setting the scene but still, it just felt as though nothing of much interest happened.

I really didn't like the cruelty to the Barley assistant whose name I've forgotten. It's just unpleasant, not funny. What's the point? Is it just to make Barley even more of an annoying cunt than he already is?

alan strang

Quote from: "kakamuffin"How anyone can be this critical of a brand new series after only one episode and in some cases, the first 10 minutes, is beyond me.

It's quite a good trick if you can manage it.

Quote from: "bent halo"BES on 45. I even tried calling alan strang during the ad break to proclaim how bad it was, but he was engaged on this occasion.

Aah, sorry about that. My phoneline was engaged in the act of downloading the Y Kant Tori Read LP.

Still, it wouldn't have been the same - we didn't end the evening at the chipshop really looking forward to it did we?

I wonder if Paul Kelly from Dumfries has started his own thread yet...

InfiniteFury

The one part of the script that really jarred with me is when Barley says to Pingu "You're going to get me back so much for this one day aren't you"
Pingu's line might as well have been:

Pingu (in a menacing voice cackling to himself): Yes......Episode 6, 8th scene at 15 minutes 10. Through a series of mishaps I end up pulling a prank on Barley that ends up being circulated on the internet. Barley ends up as a figure of mockery across Hoxton.

Or something to that effect - know what I mean? It was just laid on with a trowel.

alan strang

Quote from: "InfiniteFury"Or something to that effect - know what I mean? It was just laid on with a trowel.

Yup...

Daaaaaaan

I have unbelievably mixed feelings about it. One part of me wants to love it, another part of me is so disappointed, I want to hate it.

First thing, Julian Barett was incredible, well done, sir.

I think it will be good as a series, maybe not a classic, almost certainly won't be Morris's best work BUT it's better than My Family or All About Bex or whatever complete fetted durge is thrown at us. We should be pleased that alternative comedy has made it mainstream over the past year and a bit. I'm not saying it hasn't before, just it seems like it's broken through more this time around. For that I'm pleased.

Hemorrhoid Shark

Quote from: "Lumiere"I really liked it.  I think it's a nice change for Morris. Not trying to be a trolling-non conformist cunt, I just honestly liked it. A few lines/moments that were a tad cringeworthy, but no more than any other comedy sitcom. I think that, if Morris or Brooker had nothing to do with this project, people would probably be praising it.

QuoteI'm sure many of you wouldn't be this negative about it if it hadn't been for Morris' input on it .

Isn't that the point, though? We know Morris can do far better than this. It's like seeing Stephen Hawking coming out with a new theory of the universe written in l33t speak, based on nothing more than a few old episodes of Star Trek. The talent is there, but it's being wasted. If this were written by any old twat, it would be passable, but we know that the person behind it is capable of so much more.

Like a comedy lab you'd think nearly worked and wouldn't mind seeing more of, just to find out.  I'd thought previously that the wankerish subjects and characters would probably have been fairly universal but I suspect they're probably not and are Media-centric.  Recognised various 'types' from horrific TV etc offices.  Claire Ashcroft didn't really work, I thought.

Quote from: "InfiniteFury"The one part of the script that really jarred with me is when Barley says to Pingu "You're going to get me back so much for this one day aren't you"
Pingu's line might as well have been:

Pingu (in a menacing voice cackling to himself): Yes......Episode 6, 8th scene at 15 minutes 10. Through a series of mishaps I end up pulling a prank on Barley that ends up being circulated on the internet. Barley ends up as a figure of mockery across Hoxton.

Or something to that effect - know what I mean? It was just laid on with a trowel.

Yes, exactly!  Subtle as a brick in the face, really.