Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 29, 2024, 12:14:32 AM

Login with username, password and session length

We Are Lady Parts - C4 Muslim Girl Punk Band sitcom

Started by ASFTSN, May 27, 2021, 01:17:41 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

ASFTSN

Anyone watching this? One of the Comedy Blaps made into a six-part series.

I'm four episodes in. Unfortunately there's not been all that many laughs from me, and it's all feeling slightly twee. Tonally it feels something like a blend between umm.... The Inbetweeners and The Young Person's Guide To Becoming A Rockstar maybe (if you're old enough to remember that)? It's clearly making an attempt to show different attitudes present in UK Muslim culture which is cool, although I think I'd like to have seen even more of that.

To do the white male music nerd thing, I think an all female muslim punk band would have no trouble getting booked on some pretty decent bills in London's punk scene just by virtue of what they represent, and wouldn't need to bother "auditioning" for shitty battle of the bands type events. I wonder if it might have carried more weight if it was set somewhere in the UK that's less open minded (for want of a better word) or had a shittier music scene.

On the other hand right now I can't think of a British sitcom with a female muslim protagonist, let alone five of them. So that's good!

JaDanketies

Quote from: ASFTSN on May 27, 2021, 01:17:41 PM
To do the white male music nerd thing, I think an all female muslim punk band would have no trouble getting booked on some pretty decent bills in London's punk scene just by virtue of what they represent

There's a band called Big Joanie that are a black feminist punk band and who I heard getting interviewed / played on the BBC a lot more than I might hear NOFX, Anti-Flag, Leftover Crack or any substantially bigger punk band. Saw them at Supersonic Festival 2019 but didn't stay for the whole show, it didn't work for me. So you might have a point.

Not watched this show and your review doesn't inspire me to do so.

Pink Gregory

Big Joanie are ace.

Are auditions for shows and 'Battle of the Bands' type arrangements actually a thing over here though?  Seems like that kind of scene wouldn't really indulge in that.

ASFTSN

Battle of the Bands are occasionally judging by some of the flyers I've thrown away after gigs (whether or not they have to audition I don't know), but that's where this seems all over the place.

Lady Parts are a portrayed as a fiercely independent band who don't even have a social media presence because one of them thinks it will taint the brand, yet they're desperate to audition for this event clearly run by pricks, and they don't seem to be aware of any other bands in the DIY 'scene' although that's the general outlook of the characters on creating art (one of them is a small press comix artist and sells her artwork from her a stall etc). 

QuoteI'm four episodes in. Unfortunately there's not been all that many laughs from me, and it's all feeling slightly twee. Tonally it feels something like a blend between umm.... The Inbetweeners and The Young Person's Guide To Becoming A Rockstar maybe (if you're old enough to remember that)?

One or two solid laughs per episode and decently enough put together for me to watch a couple of episodes at a time over a weekend. Lots of little details that sold it to me. I mean, if you watch all 5 episodes, 2.5 hours reasonably well spent.

QuoteIt's clearly making an attempt to show different attitudes present in UK Muslim culture which is cool, although I think I'd like to have seen even more of that.

I liked how they dealt with the parents/older generations, there's one or two scenes towards the end of the series that I thought worked well.

QuoteTo do the white male music nerd thing, I think an all female muslim punk band would have no trouble getting booked on some pretty decent bills in London's punk scene just by virtue of what they represent, and wouldn't need to bother "auditioning" for shitty battle of the bands type events. I wonder if it might have carried more weight if it was set somewhere in the UK that's less open minded (for want of a better word) or had a shittier music scene.

Not that I know what its like now, but none of the getting gigs stuff rang all that true to me.



ASFTSN

I've watched the remaining episodes now. #5 was a clear highlight, when
Spoiler alert
the band get massively misrepresented by the hipster online magazine, and the conflict they all suffer as the band briefly breaks apart because of it. The difficulty of them trying to show that they aren't actually ashamed of being muslim while still being punk and shaping their own values, and how the internet can't handle that with any nuance seems pretty much exactly how it would go down.
[close]

As A Hat Like That said above, the sequences with their family members talking to them are the standout, and the majority of that happens in episodes 5 and 6. The scene with her off Eastenders talking to Amina was particularly good, it's not just a case of "you have to follow your own path" but also a clear admission of how difficult that is at times if you're not part of the usual white middle class set that is expected to rebel.

I was also pleasantly surprised to see a brief appearance by Matthew Holness!

I feel as though the writer knew that the music written for the band to play was pretty weak stuff since the final triumphant scene is them playing
Spoiler alert
a punk version of We Are The Champions for fuck's sake.
[close]
Again I'm being a mansplaining music nerd here but I'd loved to have seen this done with the band being a hardcore band or something. It would also have been good to show them being accepted (or rejected) by other bands in the punk scene since there's such a clear tradition of feminist punk etc. Still, I enjoyed it enough and I hope there's more stuff like this in future.

steveh

Thought this was a good concept and the basic story was fine but while enjoyable enough it didn't quite come off.

The key problem was there wasn't really enough material for the six episodes so it seemed rather padded at times, especially in the middle ones. Newcomer Amina as the focus to introduce the audience I didn't feel was entirely successful as she wasn't really that interesting a character and her ambivalence about the project didn't help in drawing you in to its world. It needed a bit more passion really, and for the music too. There were hints about more interesting backgrounds to the other women but we never got to see enough of that so everyone seemed a bit superficial.

paruses

Felt very much the same. It felt too condensed to do anything properly interesting. If it was set up from the start as a 2 series project I think it would have been better all round.

Having said that I really enjoyed it even though whilst not an apoplectic gammon, I am quite far away from the target audience. I would love more of it but got the feeling that everything had pretty much resolved itself by the end.

Is it based on a book? I thought that was an opening credit. If so I imagine that's a much richer world.

Thought the actor who played Amina was a very good comic performer. And I did laugh at Gita in the last episode even though it was almost June Whitfield as a punk sort of joke.

Also very pleased that the writer didn't
Spoiler alert
throw the best friend character under the bus and kept that realistic
[close]
.

Edit - see from the OP it is based on a comedy blap not a novel(la)

Retinend

The music by the fictional band is really good.

ASFTSN

I thought the music written for it was a weakpoint, personally. Lyrics weren't too bad though, I liked the one about
Spoiler alert
reclaiming the honour killing of their sisters
[close]

king_tubby

Semi-watched most of this as my other half watched it. Decent enough, I thought. Having been in a band that took itself far too seriously 25 years ago, and had a 'manager' the trying to get gigs thing seemed legit from my experience, but that was pre-internet saturation so no idea what it's like now.

As has been mentioned, the choice of song for the finale was incredibly ill judged, no anti-racist punk band should be playing anything
Spoiler alert
by the band who broke the cultural boycott to apartheid South Africa, played to segregated audiences and didn't give a shit.
[close]

Bob-Kate

Sad to read the negative reviews of this. I binged it a few nights ago and thought it was great.

Thought it was particularly interesting seeing different types of young Muslim women (mostly) and their experiences and particularly that they didn't go for a full-on feel good ending, it was more muted than that.

Really loved all the performances too, there was a genuine sweetness to it.

Would have been good as a film.

perdothegit

For other US members of the forum, this show is now streaming on Peacock.

kngen

Quote from: ASFTSN on May 27, 2021, 01:17:41 PM

To do the white male music nerd thing, I think an all female muslim punk band would have no trouble getting booked on some pretty decent bills in London's punk scene just by virtue of what they represent, and wouldn't need to bother "auditioning" for shitty battle of the bands type events.

People went fucking nuts when London label La Vida Es En Mus put out a 7" by Taqbir, a clandestine Moroccan feminist punk band. It sold out in minutes, I believe. They'd be headlining shows immediately if they were ever to break cover. The sitcom band might not have the same element of danger attached, but they'd be welcomed with open arms all the same.