Is anyone bothered about Upstart Crow?

[Mark Steels Stockbroker]

I'm not, but I just saw on Twitter that there was another series, so I dropped in here to find out what the CaB consensus is like and whether I should give it a go... and no one seems to care.

[paruses]

I thought it was alright as a solid traditional sitcom. From memory it doesn't get better as it goes on; if you like the first episode you'll like all of them.

Mark Heap is good once you realise he's not doing an impression of Stephen Fry as Lord Melchard. That's perhaps the only thing that grows on you and by the end is good although looking back he might just have fused his Spaced character (damn, is it Brian?) and Lord Melchard.

It's sort of good and naff at the same time but not bad. Caveat - it's been about 12 months since I watched it and may have had nothing better to do at the time; I will watch the new series.

[Shit Good Nose]

I gave the first series a go because I like both David Mitchell and Liza Tarbuck, and of course Harry Enfield, and I was intrigued about Ben Elton revisiting the sort-of historic age of Blackadder.  I gave up after the third episode, though, as I didn't do one LOL and only smirked once or twice.  It's objectively not terrible, I think it's just really not my cup of tea.

[BlodwynPig]

One of the best alternative comedies of the last 10 years. Ties in neatly with the ongoing nationwide celebrations of William Shakespeare's birth.

[garnish]

I preferred Ben Elton's health and safety sitcom.

[paruses]

It's sort of good and naff at the same time but not bad.

I have already revised my opinion - it's not good but naff it's just old fashioned. Like SGN I didn't LOL (laugh out loud) but I did smile a few times. It just seemed like all the jokes were 20 year old observations - about Shakespeare. It would have fit right in on R4 at 6:30 or 11:30 in the morning.

I was irritated by Harry Enfield's performance in it.

[rasta-spouse]

I don't mind it. The same way I didn't mind Stath Lets Flats. Pretty watchable, good to see that much of Mitchell's forehead and Enfield back on tv, and the period element adds pathos points same like Blk/++r. 

In the first series the Spencer Gervais impression was a fun element.

[olliebean]

It's good enough to fill time considering there's fuck-all else worth watching on at the moment apart from Better Call Saul.

[Rolf Lundgren]

It's alright. A lot of good performers in it and the hit rate for jokes is better than you'd expect. I've always enjoyed it when I've watched it but then never made the effort to watch it or catch-up on iplayer. Might be your thing though.

[St_Eddie]

Upstart Crow?  Upstart Cunt, more like.

10/10 - The best series ever made.

[yesitsme]

If it helps I saw a few #upstartcrow's on Twitter and it was almost 50/50 between 'What is this fucking shit?' and 'Looooollllloooool - this is brilliant!'

Paruses - I think SAFT (Smiled A Few Times) should be an internet ranking method now.  Slap bang in the middle of ROFL and WTF.

[St_Eddie]

Paruses - I think SAFT (Smiled A Few Times) should be an internet ranking method now.  Slap bang in the middle of ROFL and WTF.

GTFO.

[Neville Chamberlain]

It's naff and it knows it, but surprisingly enjoyable. I watched Series 1 in one sitting.

The gulf between it and Blackadder is immense, but that says more about the sheer genius of Blackadder than it does about the quality of Upstart Crow.

[CaledonianGonzo]

There are far, far too many characters in it.  Three main locations and each has its own full sitcom cast. They should have picked either the theatre or the family home as a second location and stuck with it.

[paruses]

GTFO.

This is happening. Deal with it.

Can someone help me do a Twitter please?

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

There are far, far too many characters in it.  Three main locations and each has its own full sitcom cast. They should have picked either the theatre or the family home as a second location and stuck with it.

This. It's as insanely overcrowded as the last couple of series of the yank versh of " The Office ". Paula Wilcox ( as Shakespeare's mum ) had about one and a half lines last night, while Harry Enfield ( as Shakespeare's dad ) didn't have to deliver many more lines than that, and then gurn a bit , in order to facilitate a hilarious comment by yer man Mitchell.Nigel Planer appeared for all of two minutes, too. Far too many quality comedic actors with a workload only marginally heavier than that of Frank Kelly in " Father Ted".
Having said that, put me in the  " mildly amused " camp for this.  Some hilarious wordplay on " Puck" and " Bottom" last night, and, Cor, I didn't half feel clever getting all them Shakespeare references !

[paruses]

The gulf between it and Blackadder is immense, but that says more about the sheer genius of Blackadder than it does about the quality of Upstart Crow.

If you listened to an episode do you think you would be able to guess who wrote it?

What does anyone think about David M's performance in it? I think he is a quite a good actor (must revive Peep Show Rewatch thread) but has settled into being "David Mitchell" in everything these days.

[Brundle-Fly]

If you listened to an episode do you think you would be able to guess who wrote it?

What does anyone think about David M's performance in it? I think he is a quite a good actor (must revive Peep Show Rewatch thread) but has settled into being "David Mitchell" in everything these days.

If Mitchell had made the acting choice of playing Shakespeare as an introverted, bookish man speaking in a west midlands accent, a flustered Ben Elton would have had a quiet word ten minutes into the table read. Apart from portraying a gauche northern Snooker commentator, performing a version of "David Mitchell" is what he does brilliantly. For international appeal, he needs to find his inner Mr Bean, methinks perhaps?

[paruses]

If Mitchell had made the acting choice of playing Shakespeare as an introverted, bookish man speaking in a west midlands accent, a flustered Ben Elton would have had a quiet word ten minutes into the table read. Apart from portraying a gauche northern Snooker commentator, performing a version of "David Mitchell" is what he does brilliantly. For international appeal, he needs to find his inner Mr Bean, methinks perhaps?

He does "David Mitchell" very well indeed but in the early Peep Show eps the Mark he plays there is quite different with neuroses and self-doubt rather than just being the opinionated toned down "David Mitchell" he becomes in later shows; and early Peep Show is all the better for it, I think. Just like Michael Crawford can't do the Frank Spencer voice anymore I am sad that David Mitchell probably can't not be "David Mitchell".

You're probably right about the table read going the lines of "we love what you're doing. That's great. Love it. But what Ben wants is more.....you know how you are on Would I Lie to You?...Maybe bring in a bit of that exasperation and opinion, yea?" followed two reads later by "JUST DO THE THING WHERE YOU ARE ANNOYED BY EVERYTHING".

[Brundle-Fly]

He does "David Mitchell" very well indeed but in the early Peep Show eps the Mark he plays there is quite different with neuroses and self-doubt rather than just being the opinionated toned down "David Mitchell" he becomes in later shows; and early Peep Show is all the better for it, I think. Just like Michael Crawford can't do the Frank Spencer voice anymore I am sad that David Mitchell probably can't not be "David Mitchell".

You're probably right about the table read going the lines of "we love what you're doing. That's great. Love it. But what Ben wants is more.....you know how you are on Would I Lie to You?...Maybe bring in a bit of that exasperation and opinion, yea?" followed two reads later by "JUST DO THE THING WHERE YOU ARE ANNOYED BY EVERYTHING".

I think what happened after Bruiser, TM&WL where he got to play different characters, he increasingly appeared more and more on telly as a heightened version of "David Mitchell" that maybe he has painted himself into a corner? 

I remember Stephen Fry going on some chat show about twenty years ago and announcing he was withdrawing from the chat show/panel game circuit because he considered himself 'an actor' now. He suggested the audience will not believe
in him 'being a character' because of all the baggage of 'being a TV personailty'.  That didn't last long, eh?  And this was before he has his Twitter account and own Stephen Fry app.

[Alberon]

I watched about three quarters of an episode back in the first series and then wandered away bored. No clip I've seen since has encouraged me to give it another go.

My 81 year old mum likes it though, so maybe it's just something that is not for us.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Too much of the humour is reliant on cod Elizabethan-isms. 

"My booblingtons didst most mightily a-quiver whenst I espied the bulgelings of his codpieceries"

Mark Heap is great in it though.

[Neville Chamberlain]

My 81 year old mum likes it though, so maybe it's just something that is not for us.

And my 5-year-old son loves it, too!

Agree about Mark Heap, too, but then he's always brilliant whatever he's in.

[Brundle-Fly]

"codpieceries"

Who later became...

[Virgo76]

It's fine.

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

Upstart Crow?  Upstart Cunt, more like.

10/10 - The best series ever made.

The hilarious, definitely original joke I thought up "More like Upstart Crap" had me laughing to myself for a good five minutes after making it through one and a half episodes, that's how bored I was. I didn't even say it out loud.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Too much of the humour is reliant on cod Elizabethan-isms. 

"My booblingtons didst most mightily a-quiver whenst I espied the bulgelings of his codpieceries"

Sounds a bit Blackadderesque in that regard (I've not actually seen US).

[Andy147]

There's also an annoying tendency to have things happening that have some link with modern events: e.g. the description of the recent episode starts "London is full of anti-immigrant rioting. Will (David Mitchell) looks forward to an age when such sentiments are long-gone", and a once-an-episode bit with Will complaining about the transport from London to Stratford.

I'm half expecting "There is war in Europe, and Will wonders if the countries will ever form a Union, and how if they did no country would ever want to leave such a Union", or "Bottom says that he wishes he could become a woman, and Kate says that even if he did, he wouldn't truly know what it was like to be a woman. Ben Wil decides this is all too complex for him and goes back to writing his play in which a male actor, playing a woman, is disguised as a man."

[Captain Z]

There's also an annoying tendency to have things happening that have some link with modern events: e.g. the description of the recent episode starts "London is full of anti-immigrant rioting. Will (David Mitchell) looks forward to an age when such sentiments are long-gone", and a once-an-episode bit with Will complaining about the transport from London to Stratford.

I'm half expecting "There is war in Europe, and Will wonders if the countries will ever form a Union, and how if they did no country would ever want to leave such a Union", or "Bottom says that he wishes he could become a woman, and Kate says that even if he did, he wouldn't truly know what it was like to be a woman. Ben Wil decides this is all too complex for him and goes back to writing his play in which a male actor, playing a woman, is disguised as a man."

Exactly this. It has that heavily-signposted 'you couldn't make it up' tone that plagues much of Elton's work.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Too much of the humour is reliant on cod Elizabethan-isms. 

"My booblingtons didst most mightily a-quiver whenst I espied the bulgelings of his codpieceries"

Spot on. I wasn't aware there had been a second series, let alone that it was halfway through the third, so I watched a few episodes in a row the other day and, while it's amiable enough, it doesn't half get repetitive.