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March 28, 2024, 08:26:40 PM

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Nathan Barley - Episode Two

Started by TJ, February 18, 2005, 03:51:16 PM

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Divnee Gan

it was more engaging than the first episode. probably 'cos it was more in yer face with the club scenes. I liked the crudeness of when NB mentioned a couple jumping out of the twin towers and fucking on the way down. I suspect that came from morris' brain.

Pinball

I like the music. Definitely better this week.

Pedantic techy aside: Did unplugging the net cable make sense, what with browser cookies 'n' that?

Mister Six

"If anyone needs me, I'll be up for four or five days." One good line in a half-hour show. Otherwise, it was the same as last week: unaffecting.

And would a plot be too much to ask of them? One episode of SPACED seems to contain five times more plot than two episodes of Nathan Barley.

Is "Dan stoops to the level of the idiots" going to happen every week?

InfiniteFury

It didn't make me laugh so I guess I'm still Nathan Barley.
Just to save anyone the bother like.

Darrell

So, they all think he's a preacherman but he's not? Well turgid.

DonkeyRhubarb

Quote from: "Bert Thung"Do you think the ratings will reach the under one milllion mark this week?

Arsed?

I thought it was great.

It's a bit esoteric, but I've been there.

I'll go into it more after I've had time to digest.

Robert Dyas

I thought it would improve, looks like its getting worse. I preferred last weeks episode. I thought the idea was that barley was an idiot, not a voice for morris.

Helvetica Scenario

It was decidedly mediocre last week, but... I quite enjoyed it tonight. There, I said it.

Still a fair few bits that were a tad embarrassing (mostly the office based scenes), but much more to like than before. I even quite enjoyed NB's DJ set (before the rapping), which I KNOW makes me an 'idiot' but ho-hum.

Obviously, it's never going to represent Morris' best work, but I'm definitely feeling more hopeful about the remainder of the series.

Bert Thung

I think this unbroadcast bit of "Heresy' on modern comedians about hits the mark, even if it is said by Vicky Coren:

"I think the problem is that they want to be cool - they go into comedy, they're 'comedians' and then they suddenly find it's a bit embarrassing to do comedy, it's a bit unsexy, a bit silly, and they want to be serious actors, I mean, really wonderful comics, whether it's Ricky Gervais or Steve Coogan or anybody else, and they're great comics, they could, they... they... start wanting to do serious plays and serious programmes and act in serious things and then you get a thing where comedy starts to bend over. A comedy show... people sort of want to make it look a bit like a drama, they think it's a bit naff to really admit that it's a comedy, so they say "well, we won't put the track on there, we'll choose a 'Drama style'..." and the individual performers feel a bit less like clowns at cocktail parties..."

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/sotcaa/sotcaa.html?/sotcaa/comment/heresy.html

ColinBradshaw

Didn't get any better this week.

A big preamble leading up to a scene in a club which provided about two laughs.

Anon

That was actually an improvement on last week....still not on a par with Brass Eye or Jam, but the direction was a lot less irritating, there were some good gags (if still too spaced out for my liking), and the story has actually got me really interested.  This sure won't go down as a masterpiece - but it's not the failiure some have made it out to be.

ok I've changed my mind from last week. It was rubbish.

Nothing was that funny. I desperately wanted to like this program, and I know I'm gonna watch every episode of it anyway, but bar the the rap at the end and couple of scattered chuckles, it just wasn't funny.

Bring back Spaced!

thatmuch

That was much better. A real assault on the nerves and ears from the start, much stranger and more realistic. Claire is irritatingly passive - I hope that changes.

j00t

Wow.  I think the nightmarish properties of episode one were magnified and there were far more belly laughs.  I liked it.  Too knackered to explain right now, but will do sometime tommorow.   It broadly follows what I previously said about episode one but the production felt much more coherent (the acting also).

Dr David V

Oh. Hm... I like it, but for the wrong reason. As a comedy, it's so far been absolutely pants. But as a drama (or a "satarical-drama", as I've heard someone call it), it's really not that bad. Better than Teachers by any stretch, which I guess would be a fair comparison with regards to the satirical-drama label. But it's still not funny. At all. The preacherman thing looked like it could have really gone somewhere, but it all ended on a rather limp freeze-frame and was just a complete anticlimax. Maybe it will pick it up next week, but given sitcom conventions I wouldn't bank on it.

Oh, and does the fact that I actually liked all the Barley music by John Whitehead make me a cunt? It sounded like a bastardised version of Aphex Twin, Squarepusher and V/Vm - three artists I particularly like.

PS. Was it just me or did I see Morris and Eldon in the tramp-racing bits? I thought I saw Patrick Marber too, but then I thought "nah".

DonkeyRhubarb

Quote from: "Mister Six"

And would a plot be too much to ask of them? One episode of SPACED seems to contain five times more plot than two episodes of Nathan Barley.

Yay! The new stock criticism. 'One episode of Rod Hulls Pink Windmill has 10 times more plot than 5 episodes of Nathan Barley!'.

Rexel Matador

Ok, maybe i'm being an idiot, But is there any chance that the Dan Ashcroft character is based on the way Morris (and perhaps to a lesser extent Brooker) feel about people like us who have these expectations of them and hang on their every word.  It does seem to be centred around dan after all.  Obviously I don't mean any offence by this, I just wanna see what people think.

clarkycat

it's gone weird.

Didn't really laugh an awful lot in this episode..

..have to say, also, Noel Fielding really is completely one dimentional isn't he? What a totally pointless character he was in this episode. He just appears, seemingly out of no-where and does his typical unfunny routine.

Barratt was good though; Just hope this is actually going somewhere....

Beagle 2

That was total shit, as if that little tap would kill a man like Den Watts!

Oh right... Well the first half was complete and utter annoying laugh free shite. Then I thought it  perked up from the irritating DJ bit until the scene when he was trying to get thrown out of the club which actually made me giggle. From then on it was laugh free embarrassing shite.

Pepotamo1985

I liked tonight's episode even more than the first. Great acting, and more hilarity.

Eight Taiwanese Teenagers

Well there weren't many funny bits and some of it was really odd... possibly in a crap way, maybe they are leading to something, maybe not.

I did enjoy it, (I really liked the music - even the stuff that was meant to be crap was good in its own way!), but there really isn't any drive to it - we can't tell what's going to happen next, but that's probably because nothing is going to happen next.

I noticed the lighting and composition (in a good way) several tims too.
I am enjoying it, and I'd video it if I was going out on a friday. I wouldn't video it if I was watching it though - like you would with The Day Today and countless other comedy shows.

Anon

Quote from: "Dr David V"
PS. Was it just me or did I see Morris and Eldon in the tramp-racing bits? I thought I saw Patrick Marber too, but then I thought "nah".

Not sure about Eldon, but I'm convinced Morris was at the bottom - right of the first screen when Dan starts playing.......

9

I really enjoyed it again for some reason.

No plot and no jokes, but I had a big grin on my face the whole way through.

The production and direction were even better than last week.

That half hour seemed to fly by!

I thought the music was ace too.

alan strang

Jonatton Yeah? was doing the David Brent act this week then.

Completely unrealistic of course - who the hell in their right mind would collect together a load of pissed tramps and use them for the purposes of entertainme... oh.

I actually thought there'd be some surprises this week since there haven't been any spoilers or over-detailed press releases. But the entire plot pretty much featured in the trailer. The rest was just filler detail with no payoff.

Quote from: "Rexel Matador"Ok, maybe i'm being an idiot, But is there any chance that the Dan Ashcroft character is based on the way Morris (and perhaps to a lesser extent Brooker) feel about people like us who have these expectations of them and hang on their every word. It does seem to be centred around dan after all. Obviously I don't mean any offence by this, I just wanna see what people think.

Read the other Nathan Barley threads. It's all been covered a hundred times.

Sexton Brackets Drugbust

Was there actually a story or a payoff?

"I'm not the preacher man!"
"Yes you are!"
"Oh very well then... no, actually... oh bugger"

There's the entire episode in a nutshell.

massive_bereavement

"A 9/11 of the mind" - best line so far. Claire Keelan bores me more and more.

Brainwrong

Best thing I thought was the sound(noise)track, wonder how much of this Morris is responsible for and how much is by his 'warp' buddies. Although, that drill and bass shit is sounding a bit tired.
Not as many laughs for me this time round - more bemused than amused. Still, was entertained for half an hour - but wheres the plot? Why did Claire(is it?) just leave those headphones on when she wasn't enjoyong the mad music? Why did Dan need to stay at the party? Was he paid?  Why so many references to Bill Hicks? Do we care?

Great scene on the door of the venue though.

Bert Thung

Quote from: "DonkeyRhubarb"
Quote from: "Mister Six"

And would a plot be too much to ask of them? One episode of SPACED seems to contain five times more plot than two episodes of Nathan Barley.

Yay! The new stock criticism. 'One episode of Rod Hulls Pink Windmill has 10 times more plot than 5 episodes of Nathan Barley!'.

I've no problem with cliches that are true.

j00t

Quote from: "Rexel Matador"Ok, maybe i'm being an idiot, But is there any chance that the Dan Ashcroft character is based on the way Morris (and perhaps to a lesser extent Brooker) feel about people like us who have these expectations of them and hang on their every word.  It does seem to be centred around dan after all.  Obviously I don't mean any offence by this, I just wanna see what people think.

It's quite worth reading the thread about episode one and the trailers, there's a lot of heated discussion about this and it would be a shame to redo over old threads.