Nathan Barley - Episode Four

[Dr David V]

Four episodes in...

I LAUGHED! OUT LOUD!

Albeit once. That bit with the scissors stuck in the cat's head.

But yes, The Brent Dance. Bollocks. Just like the other 23 minutes.

[DuncanC]

bumphuk is based on fcuk, right? I'm sure the name's been shown before but I didn't realise it was a shop.

The cat bit felt a bit inevitable. You can't have a character vomit self-pity like Kevin Eldon's without something horrible happening to them. I did like the fact that blood didn't spray everywhere or anything like that - Dan half-reaching for it then deciding not to got a bigger laugh from me than the impalement.

[no_offenc]

I've never heard Selfish Cunt, but it sounds like exactly the kind of shit I'd love to avoid.  So that's a good thing, it was a decent rip of that kind of shite like.

There were some bits I actually enjoyed, but also a lot that I didn't, so it was average and hopefully next week's will be watchable.

[InfiniteFury]

That was 'Breathe In The Air' by Pink Floyd wasn't it?

I've never heard it but I suspect it's from 'Dub Side of the Moon' which is a reggae/dub version of, well, you know.

[zinky ferbes]

best episode yet....i laughed loads of times.

[imitationleather]

Heh, if I had webspace I'd upload Britain is Shit so you could all compare.

Oh come on, it was only 99p!

[Anon]

Still not as good as it could have been, although some very funny bits - the cat scissor scene, the bank scene and Dan telling Nathan about what the geek pie was were all very funny.  And the Selfish Cunt parody was good.  The Brent dance did bring this episode down though - without that, it would have been the best of the lot so far.

[Mustow Green]

I found tonight's episode highly enjoyable and funny.
It seems to have calmed down, (there was no distracting crash zooms and nosie), and there were a load of funny jokes.

The whole cat sequence was nicely paced and the killing was out of the blue, I didn't notice until the 2nd, low angle shot.  Liked the name of the clothes store, Bumpuk and it was played subtly.  There was a hell of a lot of good stuff tonight.

I'm happy.

[rupert pupkin]

I thought that was pretty fucking hilarious actually - a pity it's taken me four weeks to enjoy an episode so much. Dan in the barbers with the cat, then crushed at the bank, Nathan interacting with Djave Bikinus, Terrorists Are Gay, the Dave Stewart parody bloke with his musical about different paper sizes and Nathan ultimately snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. Brilliant!

[Sexton Brackets Drugbust]

Bank scene script must've taken hours of deliberation...

[weekender]

The most enjoyable part of that episode was the cat.

Mind you, I like cats.

I'm not sure what to think, other than that if the main focus of my attention was a cat who appeared in the episode, then there can't have been much more substance to it.

Wheeee....comedy analysis.

Sorry.  Really.

Go on Joel, make a cat dance for me.  It is a Friday.

[Garfield And Friends]

Apart from Ep2, the series has (so far) sequentially improved.

[MrManson]

Is it Bumph Uk or Bum-fuck?

[Dr David V]

Actually, can someone post a screengrab of that shot of the scissors inside the cat? I'd love that on my desktop.

[alan strang]

Coupla things...

1) That last bit of satire wasn't just spood-fed, it was also mashed up with milk to remove any gravelly bits.

2) Nathan's 'shaming' over his hair - have Morris or Brooker been watching old Spike Milligan shows recently? The way he flounced out of the theatre with everyone laughing at him seemed like an exact shot by shot copy of an old sketch (either on on 'Q9' or 'There's A Lot Of It About') where Spike plays a man who's told by a doctor that he's wearing a toupee.

[Labian Quest]

That was the best one yet, the Geek Pie haircut was very funny, if slightly over-milked for laughs.

[darkglobe]

another fantastical episode.

the A4 musical, the cat, dan telling barley about the hair....
the japanese thing at the end.

excellent.

[Cragside]

quite a few LOL bits this time...no excuse for the Brent dance though.

also feel grudging respect for the character bouncing back at the end all phoenix-like.

imagine if that Japanese chap hadn't spotted him, he would've spent the rest of the series being all depressed and probably would've become Dan Ashcroft.

[Koosh Koosh!]

I agree with the general consensus here. That was much better. A bit Office-y, but I was too busy enjoying Nathan getting humiliated to care.

[Purple Tentacle]

Here's my very very original opinion...

The bit with the cat was good. The bit where Ashcrfoft gives Eldon extra money and says "...later.....sorry"

The rest of it was first year predictable farce shit.


I would have liked it a lot more if they'd put an audience in going "aaaaaah" in the theatre bit.

It's still toss isn't it?


It doesn't help that I actually quite liked Barley's paint-cut.

[23 Daves]

Yep, having been out of the country for so long this is the first one I've managed to catch, and I have to say I wasn't overly impressed but it's still one of the best things I've caught on television this week (faint praise in the current climate, I know).

The cat scene, if slowed down and shot at various funny angles, could easily have been taken straight from 'jam', and the parody of the Japanese fashion show at the end had me laughing very hard indeed.  

On this evidence, it's not the fumbling mess I'd been lead to believe, and in fact I'd say I probably prefer it to 'jam'.  

A number of my friends in the 'meedja' actually wrote e-mails to me warning that "it might remind you frighteningly of people you know, and it's a bit savage".  Sure enough, Nathan Barley himself does remind me uncannily of someone I know, except unlike Nathan he's not particulary selfish or savage, just a clueless gimp.  He's an avid watcher of the programme as well, so I don't think he's latched on to the similarities yet.  Other than that, I wasn't exactly quaking with fear, though.  It's true to say there's not much of an 'edge' to the programme, and that's probably the one over-riding problem I have with it - there's so much more they could have done with the idea that they seem to have steered clear from.

Top Selfish Cunt parody, too.  They have to be the ultimate Nathan Barley band.

[Huzzie]

http://www.nme.com/features/106777.htm

Listen to Britain Is Shit by The Selfish Cunts here.

Sounds like a bedroom guy with his drum-machine trying to cover a Afll song.


Shit!

[Dusty Gozongas]

Argh, the continuity errors! If there's more than one camera pointing at a person and it cuts between them they're always standing in completely different positions, sometimes even mid-sentence..

On a scale of 1-DailyMail, how annoying would describe it as is?

[Dusty Gozongas]

Four episodes in...

I LAUGHED! OUT LOUD!

And breathe...

[Dusty Gozongas]

No!

My ears are bleeding.  Be nice.

[chand]

http://www.nme.com/features/106777.htm

Listen to Britain Is Shit by The Selfish Cunts here.

Sounds like a bedroom guy with his drum-machine trying to cover a Afll song.


Shit!

Fucking hell, that's bad. One of those bands who think they're cleverer than they are.

I quite enjoyed tonight's, only half-watched it but I did really like the scene where Dan explains what the haircut was about. 'I've got some clippers...'

[Morrisfan82]

I just lost my fucking post. Bastard.

Four episodes in...

I LAUGHED! OUT LOUD!

Albeit once. That bit with the scissors stuck in the cat's head.

Same here. NB is currently rocketing along at one-laugh-per-month over here.

Though I suppose now I'm gonna spoil it by saying that it was basically the Stanley knife bit from Forklift Driver Klaus...

The bank scene should've just been Dan saying "£20,000?", a reverse-shot of the woman looking doubtful, and the an external shot of Dan leaving looking dejected. That's all it needed, the rest was fluff.

The 'Barley's exile' bit, the fact that hair derision was unanimous throughout (it didn't look that bad, just matted & dyed - in real life it's likely many of those people would think it was 'quite cool actually') & the Tokyo TV bits were all basically in Bizarro World. Totally contrived.

That said, it was the best so far. Unfortunately it's still poor as fuck.

[Dusty Gozongas]

Coupla things....

Personally I'd've been more worried about who chose the Floyd track.  Maybe that worked for you?

Don't quote me though.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

The cat/scissors joke - heh, I was certainly 'gaggling' at that. It's an Animal House for the noughties!

Seriolusly, that bit and the 'Nathan hiding his head in a handbag' stuff - it does strike me as a very, very slow farce. But one where you can see the outcome ambling towards you waving a flag which says 'Hi, I'm the outcome'.

[no_offenc]

Coupla things....

Personally I'd've been more worried about who chose the Floyd track.  Maybe that worked for you?

Don't quote me though.

I dunno, I quite liked that.....


:)