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March 28, 2024, 10:10:37 PM

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Game On

Started by MrMrs, January 03, 2022, 11:36:34 PM

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MrMrs

They're all on YouTube.

Rewatching now... First season is still golden. Lots of it doesn't hold up nowadays and the second Mat is a big downgrade.

Thoughts?

dead-ced-dead

I remember the "Mean Streets of Herne Bay" line being a highlight since I lived there for a while.

EDIT: I remember reading an interview with Simon Pegg who said Game On's existence was one of the reasons he was inspired to write Spaced. He said shows like Game On felt like a show about 20 somethings living in flats that felt like it was written by 40 somethings. I think it was just one of many examples, but I remember Game On was an example he used.

Ben Chaplin is great in it, but he was quickly whisked away to bigger and better things.

Replies From View

Used to annoy me that he dared to have the surname Chaplin.

shoulders

WALLLLYYYYBAZOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

Virgo76

Quote from: dead-ced-dead on January 03, 2022, 11:59:38 PMI remember the "Mean Streets of Herne Bay" line being a highlight since I lived there for a while.

EDIT: I remember reading an interview with Simon Pegg who said Game On's existence was one of the reasons he was inspired to write Spaced. He said shows like Game On felt like a show about 20 somethings living in flats that felt like it was written by 40 somethings. I think it was just one of many examples, but I remember Game On was an example he used.

Ben Chaplin is great in it, but he was quickly whisked away to bigger and better things.

Writer Andrew Davies was actually closer to sixty by the time Game On came out. And it showed. He was a very prolific and successful TV writer elsewhere and I really like lots of his 1980s, 90s and 2000s stuff (A Very Peculiar Practice, the UK version of House of Cards etc) but he was a bad fit here. Presumably he was given free rein to write whatever he wanted after his Pride and Prejudice success.
It wasn't all bad - I liked Ben Chaplin too. Shame his Hollywood ambitions came to nothing.
Generally a bad show though and I would suspect often pretty offensive today?

Virgo76

Quote from: Replies From View on January 04, 2022, 12:13:55 AMUsed to annoy me that he dared to have the surname Chaplin.
Fairly bizarre thing to say.

Replies From View

Quote from: Virgo76 on January 04, 2022, 06:08:32 AMFairly bizarre thing to say.

Well it was true at the time; just thought I'd share.

H-O-W-L

I remember seeing repeats on late night on Dave or sommat in like 2010 and being absolutely dumbstruck at the sheer shoddy shiteness of it. "This is some parody from Mars, or some Morris work or something." I thought. I genuinely couldn't believe it. I've seen a lot of shite but the absolute by-numbers shite that Game On seemed to my 17 year old mind made me believe it was a Bumming Off style satire.

Not seen any since. It's probably not that bad, but you know, I'm always right.

dead-ced-dead

Quote from: Virgo76 on January 04, 2022, 06:07:24 AMWriter Andrew Davies was actually closer to sixty by the time Game On came out. And it showed. He was a very prolific and successful TV writer elsewhere and I really like lots of his 1980s, 90s and 2000s stuff (A Very Peculiar Practice, the UK version of House of Cards etc) but he was a bad fit here. Presumably he was given free rein to write whatever he wanted after his Pride and Prejudice success.
It wasn't all bad - I liked Ben Chaplin too. Shame his Hollywood ambitions came to nothing.
Generally a bad show though and I would suspect often pretty offensive today?

That was a shame that Hollywood didn't seem to stick. He was handsome and talented enough, but sometimes that isn't enough.

Let's hope over the 5-7 years where he was getting Hollywood work he made some nice money.

Icehaven

Just goes to show the range of opinion on here as there was another Game On thread not too long ago and it was mostly very positive about it. I really liked it at the time (I was in my late teens when it was first broadcast) and rewatched it recently and mostly still enjoyed it although I also never took to the new Matthew. I think there was something in the other thread about how Ben Chaplin worked much better precisely because he was so good looking and had such a big personality, he should have been out there taking over the world so there was real pathos in his agoraphobia and paranoias. The second one was far more believable as a shut in loser so it was harder to care.

Edit; yep here's the other thread
https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=80417.0

BeardFaceMan

Quote from: icehaven on January 04, 2022, 09:48:40 AMJust goes to show the range of opinion on here as there was another Game On thread not too long ago and it was mostly very positive about it. I really liked it at the time (I was in my late teens when it was first broadcast) and rewatched it recently and mostly still enjoyed it although I also never took to the new Matthew. I think there was something in the other thread about how Ben Chaplin worked much better precisely because he was so good looking and had such a big personality, he should have been out there taking over the world so there was real pathos in his agoraphobia and paranoias. The second one was far more believable as a shut in loser so it was harder to care.

Yeah I think part of the joke in the first series was that Matthew had the world at his feet if he could only make it out the front door, the replacement Matthew didn't give off that vibe at all, he was just a nerdy bloke who stayed in because of the skunk pussies.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

It's no Marmalade Atkins.

Fucking Hell, is Andrew Davies in his eighties nowadays? That can't be right, can it?

" Educating Marmalade", that's what it was called. Scripted by Davies. Bad Manners did the theme tune. John Fortune was in it.

dead-ced-dead

Quote from: BeardFaceMan on January 04, 2022, 09:51:03 AMYeah I think part of the joke in the first series was that Matthew had the world at his feet if he could only make it out the front door, the replacement Matthew didn't give off that vibe at all, he was just a nerdy bloke who stayed in because of the skunk pussies.

It really is a wonderful performance and great bit of casting, my reservations about the show aside.

Virgo76

Quote from: Lisa Jesusandmarychain on January 04, 2022, 10:03:33 AMIt's no Marmalade Atkins.

Fucking Hell, is Andrew Davies in his eighties nowadays? That can't be right, can it?

" Educating Marmalade", that's what it was called. Scripted by Davies. Bad Manners did the theme tune. John Fortune was in it.
He also did Badger Girl.
Perhaps I was too harsh about Game On. I've not watched it since the 1990s. I saw Davies speaking about five years ago (he was about 80 then) but I don't think he mentioned Game On at all.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Did he mention Marmalade Atkins?

Replies From View

Did he mention Marmaloid from Pugwall

turnstyle

Always have a soft spot for this.

I still regularly reference 'Matt, you're in Dogs Bollox!', to the amusement of nobody.

Weirdly I've come across (chortle!) other comedy things that have the same story line from the Big Wednesday episode where Martin goes to buy condoms and then forgets where the intended sexee lived, with humourous consequences.

dead-ced-dead

Quote from: turnstyle on January 04, 2022, 01:20:07 PMAlways have a soft spot for this.

I still regularly reference 'Matt, you're in Dogs Bollox!', to the amusement of nobody.

Weirdly I've come across (chortle!) other comedy things that have the same story line from the Big Wednesday episode where Martin goes to buy condoms and then forgets where the intended sexee lived, with humourous consequences.

There's an episode of New Girl where Winstone forgets where his girlfriend lives after buying condoms.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

John Bird, not John Fortune, soz. Also Brian Glover as a Nun.

jobotic

Put this in the same bracket as Two Pints, me. I mean remember watching it at the time but thought it was shite then. Maybe I'm completely wrong but I won't bother finding out. I also remember that I laughed at a transphobic joke in it, which dates both me and it badly.

Ignatius_S

Quote from: Lisa Jesusandmarychain on January 04, 2022, 01:22:32 PMJohn Bird, not John Fortune, soz. Also Brian Glover as a Nun.

John Fortune was in the cast, however. As I mention in that other thread, Dudley Sutton also played a nun.

Elderly Sumo Prophecy

I only watched it because Samantha Janus was in it.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Quote from: Elderly Sumo Prophecy on January 04, 2022, 02:18:05 PMI only watched it because Samantha Janus was in it.

Also, how handsome was Ben Chaplin? I don't think I've ever seen such a handsome man in all my days. No wonder he buggered off to Hollywood, thinking " Right , It's a film career for handsome old me, so it is", you can't blame him, I'd do exactly the same thing If I was as handsome as him. Neil Stuke's version of the character just comes across as a birrova prick, as others have quite rightly pointed out.


Oh yeah, wasn't John Fortune the social worker's boss? Una Stubbs as a French Teacher prone to bursting into song, and an early small part for Kathy Burke, too.

dead-ced-dead

Quote from: Lisa Jesusandmarychain on January 04, 2022, 02:33:15 PMAlso, how handsome was Ben Chaplin? I don't think I've ever seen such a handsome man in all my days. No wonder he buggered off to Hollywood, thinking " Right , It's a film career for handsome old me, so it is", you can't blame him, I'd do exactly the same thing If I was as handsome as him.

I love how this is becoming the "We Love Ben Chaplin" thread, because even after the Hollywood thing fell through, he's still a handsome guy. He's in his early 50s and this is how he looks:



And despite Hollywood not quite working out, he's had a varied career, has worked with some of the great filmmakers (Coppola, Malick etc) and is still on TV and film quite a lot.

We Love Ben! We Love Ben!

robhug



Ben billed above quite a few on that one.

Neil Stuke would have been over the moon just being above Nick Nolte.

dead-ced-dead

I think that may be Ben's eye in the bottom left.

kidsick5000

Quote from: icehaven on January 04, 2022, 09:48:40 AMJust goes to show the range of opinion on here as there was another Game On thread not too long ago and it was mostly very positive about it. I really liked it at the time (I was in my late teens when it was first broadcast) and rewatched it recently and mostly still enjoyed it although I also never took to the new Matthew. I think there was something in the other thread about how Ben Chaplin worked much better precisely because he was so good looking and had such a big personality, he should have been out there taking over the world so there was real pathos in his agoraphobia and paranoias. The second one was far more believable as a shut in loser so it was harder to care.

Edit; yep here's the other thread
https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=80417.0



In a much earlier thread on the show, I said that losing Chaplin lost the show it's one unique aspect – that until the reveal, you wonder why this good-looking, well off young man can't even get down the stairs.
Oddly, got shouted at for it (the forum was a different place back then).
To be honest, maybe a trad sitcom with a studio audience isn't the best format for the story.
It was always obvious that the audience are reacting to the sounds and cadence of set-up and payoff, rather than listening to what's being said. Even back then, it felt off-colour.

purlieu

For all its mid-'90s bold primary colours and fit blonde birds studio sitcom style, it's such a fucking bleak show. There are actually moments in the third series where some pathos comes through, but for the first two series, there's barely a nice word said on screen, and all three of them are living desperately pathetic lives in their own ways. This basically leads to a mix of some devastatingly funny nastiness and a general feeling of depression for me, which makes it hard to watch. It's certainly got some broad naffness to it in places too, but I'd say it's leagues above Two Pints and the likes.

edit: that bleakness also leads to absolutely no sympathy whatsoever given to Matthew's agoraphobia, which never quite sat right with me. Yes, he's a dick, but the audience brays at him every time he struggles to leave the house, which is a whole weird level of insensitive.

Elderly Sumo Prophecy


Norton Canes