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March 28, 2024, 10:02:46 PM

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Nathan Barley - Episode Five

Started by TJ, March 11, 2005, 08:47:06 AM

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What Do You Think Of Episode Five Then?

Great
32 (19.8%)
Good
39 (24.1%)
OK
39 (24.1%)
Poor
19 (11.7%)
"Belouis" "Some"
4 (2.5%)
Terrible
24 (14.8%)
LOL NO satires taht had 2 be made!!111
1 (0.6%)
Where were the scouts?
4 (2.5%)

Total Members Voted: 162

Voting closed: March 11, 2005, 08:47:06 AM

Jon_Norton

Quote from: "Slackboy"Does anyone else think that the laugh count is more dense on the odd-numbered episodes? Maybe the writers are alternating as the main script-writers, and only one of them is still funny? I reckon the last won't follow the 'pattern' though.

No, I think the laugh count was more dense on the "5"-numbered episodes, since that was the only one to have any laughs to count. I feel the same about this as I do the final episode of "Look Around You" (which I hated for most of its run): it seems as if the whole thing has existed for the sake of this one moment of genuine inspiration, and everything else was assembled retrospectively (and carelessly) in order to build up to it.

Seriously, I wonder if they did this episode first, with the Nasty Nathan fully developed, and then allowed the portrayal to decline and broaden and become a mere sitcom oaf as the other ones were put together later. That work-experience person who was quoted said that "improvisation" was used in elaborating some scenes. The trouble with that is that a director/writer needs to keep a firm grip on what characters are getting devised in that process, and then make sure they are consistent, or develop coherently, through the final product. That's how the actual greats of improvised writing, like Mike Leigh, get to the finishing line. I think here the Nathan actor (I can't remember his name) has been allowed to slip and slide a hell of a lot in his characterisation, and the blame for that has to go to the director.

I don't agree with the "Brent" comparisons made by some forumgoers - it just never struck me - but I do think he was playing too much the amiable fool, and that defeats the point of Nathan Barley. You may as well play Macbeth as a practical joker.

neveragain

It's a silly question I know but the only thing that I enjoy about this programme is the silly writing credit at the end ('Words etc', etc) and I missed this one so can anyone enlighten me as to what it was on this occassion? Ta.

j00t

Good but left a bad taste in my mouth if you'll pardon the expression.  Not sure what motivates Brooker and Morris.  I can only think they're sittting up all night writing complaints letters using nom de plumes.  Subtle as a bollock dyed pink.

Slackboy

Quote from: "Neil"
<speechless>

This made me laugh more than NB ever did. Thanks Neil. :-)

23 Daves

Really good stuff, I thought.  Again.  The Nathan Barley in this episode is also completely recognisable as the "Cunt" in TV Go Home, and for me that gave it a much needed edge.  It was delightful stuff in places, and actually (once again, I repeat) far better than "Jam".

I do find that I'm just not seeing the vast majority of problems certain regulars on here are, though, with regards to script inconsistencies and continuity errors.  I acknowledge that the latter probably are there and it's just my lack of attention and knowledge (or probably that the camera work jerks around too fast for me to notice at times) but some of the arguments for the former are getting ridiculous.  Dan Ashcroft is clearly losing the plot, is clearly on a very low ebb, and therefore trying to argue about what would or wouldn't be the 'rational' thing for him to do is neither here nor there.  He appears to be doing a variety of things in a completely disjointed, removed way, which can be how people with depression behave.  I don't find myself questioning his behaviour at all.  

However, I say all this as a fan rather than a 'comedy expert', so I don't doubt someone will come along and slam their wisdom down my lugholes in a minute.

Sexton Brackets Drugbust

I keep thinking.

Why is Dan still at the magazine?  He's not done anything since the first episode.

Why is Dan idolized at all?  He's clearly not done anything good since before this show...

Oh...

chand

Quote from: "Slackboy"
Quote from: "Neil"
<speechless>

This made me laugh more than NB ever did. Thanks Neil. :-)

NEIL REACTS

kates bush

Quote from: "Neil"
Quote from: "kates bush"first of all, maybe dan didn't make such an issue with the toilet scene because he's gay?

Then he presumably wouldn't have been wearing two gloves!

-you've got a point there actually. lol.

Hoogstraten'sSmilingUlcer

Didn't make sense why Nathan was so worried about getting a blowjob from a 13 year old. Someone like him would glorify that from the start, as he does in the end. It didn't go anywhere, anyway. It would be nice for once if Morris & Brooker could get the Ashcroft plot and Barley plot to converge at some point, instead of just being a disjointed mess, none of it funny. It's certainly one of the laziest episodes, though not as sloppy (no pun intended) as Ep. 2 or as ghastly and meaningless as Ep. 4 (or which ever one had 15Peter20). Another victim of the smug slopbucket that is Morris & Brooker's ill-advised collaboration.

Quote from: "neveragain"It's a silly question I know but the only thing that I enjoy about this programme is the silly writing credit at the end ('Words etc', etc) and I missed this one so can anyone enlighten me as to what it was on this occassion? Ta.

honkchisel

MonkeyDrummer

i never post in here, so i expect to be crucified here. Now i've been watching all the Nathan Barley's and my reaction has been luke warm to say the least. To be honest, if it hadn't been Morris I'd have stopped watching. A few chuckles here and there, but all in all pretty painful to watch. Last weeks was particluarly boring i thought.

But I laughed my tits off at tonights episode. Maybe the beer & silly cigs helped, but when he found out she was 13 as she sucked him off, and then came, I pissed myself. I laughed like fuck at the scene where Dan was "straying" too, I see what your saying Neil about continuity but at the time I'd just assumed it was a not too subtle indication of his descent.

I laughed quite a bit through this episode, and wish i could quote more but i never remember any funny bits. I did enjoy tonights episode, I just wish they'd all been like this one.

It is pretty sad to see such a legend come up with what generally has been dissapointing. Tonights was the best for me, but still isn't anywhere near Morris's own standards. But he isn't the first to fall from grace. How many other of your idols just don't cut it any more. Or, get it right all of the time.

alan strang

Dan inadvertantly giving his name to the bloke in the lav - a "Don't tell him Pike" for the 90s...

Hi everyone - Alan Strang and ELW10 here, posting together from the same PC for the first time (and all for Comic Relief).

"Lalla - have you got anything to say to them Verbwhores?"

"No."

(He's a bit too engossed in the 'Ab Fab' (Absolutely Fabulous) section of Comic relief at the moment.)

Dusty Gozongas

Another beauty tonight :-)

Why?  It still works.  I'm a lover of stuff that jars in some way and NB certainly has it.  Even basic things like alleged lack of character development and continuity errors so oft quoted in these threads are, for me, a huge part of it's appeal.  Sometimes you can read too much into accidents that may be intentional.  Wood/Trees &etc.

I dunno... maybe I like watching stuff I know is going to wind people up?  That said though, NB is more than that for me. It's light relief with a dirty edge to it, tried in a way I'm not sure I've seen tried before.

Gloat away if it falls flat on it's arse.  It's in my Gold Collection so far.  A second series would be nice so I can imagine the veins of others throbbing on temples at the very thought ;o)

j00t

Quote from: "Neil"Then he presumably wouldn't have been wearing two gloves! ...
Maybe that his how Morris and Brooker started the collaboration.

markpaterson

This is how I predict it will end....

Dan Ashcroft jumps off a cliff, and then Nathan also jumps, because he is following what Dan does. Then there will be no second series. But I hope there is coz i like it. so there.


23 Daves

Quote from: "arqarqa"Gloat away if it falls flat on it's arse.  It's in my Gold Collection so far.  A second series would be nice so I can imagine the veins of others throbbing on temples at the very thought ;o)

Indeed.  If it irks the purists that much, I'd like to see it run as long as "Last of the Summer Wine".

Cambrian Times

What do you expect from a series whose protagonist is played by a man whose name sounds like a euphamism for VD?

Edit: PROOFREAD!

Neil

I think they'll just show static for half an hour next week, and this forum will still be full of people stating that it was better than every second of Brass Eye, and that it actually signifies Dan's breakdown, duuuuur.  Nice to know that people even love it when Chris Morris makes sloppy continuity errors, lap it up.

Dusty Gozongas

Heads up.

When NB finishes there's a thread over in GD taking a family show called "Dr Who" just as seriously.  It might appeal to those who like to flex their bile muscles whilst watching the goggle box.

Hoogstraten'sSmilingUlcer

arqarqa wrote:


QuoteI dunno... maybe I like watching stuff I know is going to wind people up? That said though, NB is more than that for me. It's light relief with a dirty edge to it, tried in a way I'm not sure I've seen tried before.

I'm not sure whether it does wind people up, though. Certainly not in the same way Brass Eye did, where people were morally outraged by it because they felt it an affront on their morality or because it went too far et cetera. It might wind some of us up in a 'Morris could do better' kind of way, but not on the level of BE. This is nothing compared to that.  NB hasn't got a shred of that originality or humour, or even mischief, but it absolutely thinks it has. It's by far one of the smuggest, most self-conscious sitcoms I've seen, because it's complacent in the belief that it is funny and edgy, when really it's as safe and Channel Four-ish (think: Teachers, 10 Things to Do before you're 30...) as a show could possibly get. It's no dirtier or ruder than the thoroughly shitty Bo'Selecta, no more innovative than a bog-standard Morris-imitating student revue, and no funnier. Wanking, blowjobs, and faux-teenage porn - treated in the lad's mag way M & B do it - don't make a show a rude or naughty, especially when it doesn't have the humour to back it up.

Mentadent P

I quite enjoyed the little multi coloured mini spinning wheels that appear when one stares at it for far too long whilst stoned!

imitationleather


Dusty Gozongas

Quote from: "23 Daves"
Quote from: "arqarqa"Gloat away if it falls flat on it's arse.  It's in my Gold Collection so far.  A second series would be nice so I can imagine the veins of others throbbing on temples at the very thought ;o)

Indeed.  If it irks the purists that much, I'd like to see it run as long as "Last of the Summer Wine".

*SHUDDER*

But yes, that would be interesting in it's own way if it weren't so unlikely.

Quote from: "Identity Crisis Ahoy!"Johnatton Yeah?

Give him his own show!

You can have my login ID, I'm bored with it:

Username: Jonatton Yeah? (that's the correct spelling from the show, I checked)
Password: password (change it, remember)

This episode was definitely shit. Chris Morris, get over yourself, wooo you caused a controversy and you're taking the piss out of it. That's clever!

Dusty Gozongas

Quote from: "Hoogstraten'sSmilingUlcer"

I'm not sure whether it does wind people up, though.

It's not winding the previous targets up...

Identity Crisis Ahoy!

Another Identity Crisis!? NO!!!!!

Cheers, I'll leave it though. Auction it on eBay.

Sexton Brackets Drugbust

Quote from: "alan strang"Dan inadvertantly giving his name to the bloke in the lav - a "Don't tell him Pike" for the 90s...

This is exactly what I thought!

teejay

Episode Five was by far the lowest point in a pretty dreadful series. The inconsistencies are getting more marked as time goes on.
We know the Nathan Barleys of the world are arseholes: do they really need to drive the point home by turning him into a boastful paedophile.
By the way, I doubt that  the toilet scene would have been a swipe at  Russell Brand, as I believe that CM met up with him, and took an interest in what he was doing around the time of "Wanky Wanky" (the name of the programme featuring the infamous handjob). I'm pretty sure that Chris Morris would have seen it though.

Hoogstraten'sSmilingUlcer

Quote from: "arqarqa"
Quote from: "Hoogstraten'sSmilingUlcer"

I'm not sure whether it does wind people up, though.

It's not winding the previous targets up...

So who does it wind-up? Barley-a-likes probably love it; some critics adore it, other's don't but there's no sense of anger; no tabloids have demanded to ban it. In fact, it's only really wound some Verbwhores up, hasn't it?