Stella

[butnut]

OK - I admit I nicked this off Linehan's blog. You can watch the first episode here:

http://www.comedycentral.com/events/stella/first_look/index.jhtml

It's starting in the States quite soon on comedy central. And from what I can make of it from the slightly stop/start playback I got, it looks really good. Several really big laughs for me in the first 5 minutes. I was reminded of all sorts of things - from Absoultely to the Goodies, even the goons and the Marx brothers. No doubt torrents will be available once it starts, for those of us not in the US.

Does anyone know anything about the guys who make it? Will I be mocked at for liking this? I don't know, but if you've got a spare few minutes, give them a go!

[Jemble Fred]

Ooh, ouch. The vid didn't work at all for me, but the Trandem put my back up. There's no reason at all why another three-man comedy group shouldn't use a trandem (if they're American, they've probably never even heard of The Goodies), but it just seems... wrong, to me, personally. Perhaps I'm hidebound.

[The Mumbler]

The Goodies was shown on PBS a fair bit in the mid-70s.  Funky Gibbon even reached the Billboard Top 100 in 1976.

[Bean Is A Carrot]

I got this show on DVD as a bonus with a CD I ordered from Tower Records in the States. The bits where they're poor on the streets are indeed reminiscent of The Goodies and the Beanstalk, but I didn't spot a trandem. Nor did I find it overly funny.

[Jemble Fred]

To be fair, this is off the Linehan blog, isn't it? He does recommend the most... unlikely things. In fact, I'm still clinging to the hope that it isn't him on there, really.

[Bean Is A Carrot]

And here's something for edit fans. The premiere date on the DVD I got says Wednesday 29th, while the website says Tuesday 28th.

[Banana Woofwoof]

To be fair, this is off the Linehan blog, isn't it? He does recommend the most... unlikely things. In fact, I'm still clinging to the hope that it isn't him on there, really.

It is, I'm afraid.

[easytarget]

Where is this Linehan blog? Google refused to tell me.

[sick as a pike]

This one, apparently.

[easytarget]

Thanks.

Oh dear.
Oh dear oh dear.

This is really Graham Linehan? It seems like its written by an easily amused American.

[DuncanC]

I enjoyed that. For some reason I particularly liked the pouring rain in the hallway gag.

I'm waiting to see Louie CK's new sitcom on HBO. From all that I've heard it's got no excuse not to be great. And probably nothing like this, so it's not that relevant. Carry on.

[butnut]

To be a bit fair to Linehan, he just set it up as a sort of 'links to cool things' for people he knew.

Well I've watched the whole of 'Stella' and I stand by my first impression. I thought it was pretty good - fairly different from most recent comedy I've seen, had several really good gags (I liked the key under the mat thing and the weird kissing straight away scene). I'm hoping all the other episodes can be at least as good.

[butnut]

I've just watched episode 2, and I still like it. Some very silly things going on. I find myself laughing and wondering why I am at  the same time - such as the strange belly revealing shirt that the guy wears. Not of Arrested Development standard I think, but a silly, funny little show.

[thedaviduk]

I've just watched episode 2, and I still like it. Some very silly things going on. I find myself laughing and wondering why I am at  the same time - such as the strange belly revealing shirt that the guy wears. Not of Arrested Development standard I think, but a silly, funny little show.

is episode 2 online? the original link to the first ep is no longer up n running

[butnut]

You'll have to search a variety of popular torrent sites to get any episodes from now on. The first show was only online as an advert for the series.

[butnut]

Is anyone else watching this? I've seen the first 4 and I really like it. Several bigs laughs per episode and many smaller ones too. I think that there's also more than just silliness going on. In the 4th episode for example, I think they do a good job of sending up not just Starbucks, but also people who go there and I really liked the 'God could be a coffee table discussion' pisstake thing. I'm certainly going to keep watching this show, surely I'm not the only one?

EDIT - and they did that 2 people who've just met kissing thing again, which was one of the highlights of the pilot. Maybe it'll be a little thing that'll keep cropping up.

[Gavin]

I watched the first four of these yesterday and I really enjoyed it.

I particularly enjoyed Franz-Ferdinand-alike's speech when he was running to be president of the building's residents' board. ("I was going to rip up my speech and speak from the heart. But I won't do that. Instead I'm going to read my speech all the way through.")

And the Edward Norton cameo showed that cameos can be done without making me want to kill somebody.