Supernova (Tuesday, BBC2)

[Lee]

New thing with Rob Brydon as an astronomer working in Australia, or something to that effect.

Mixed reviews so far, positive and negative in equal measures, so I guess it's too early to say if it's going to be good or not. The clips I've seen have amused me though, so I'm quite hopeful for it. And Rob Brydon's not let me down yet (I even grew to like Directors Commentary), so I'm probably more hopeful than others. Anyway, it's on tomorrow on BBC2, either 9:30 or 10pm I think.

[Bean Is A Carrot]

I'm looking forward to all the Aussie cliches. Get ready for Akubra hats, "spade? Fucking shovel!" Aussie blokes and lots of shots of dangerous creatures that a) ordinary Australians have never encountered in their lives and b) probably don't exist.

[ffogems]

Right. What are the dates of this Comedy Protest, then?

[Lee]

Oh fook, I forgot about this. Typical. Judging by your post, I'm guessing it wasn't up to much?

[Regular John]

It was shit. Brydon was HILARIOUSLY incompetent at everything but his actual job.

[ffogems]

It was just so perfunctory. Abrasive Australians, incompetent Brits. Gosh, how clever.
There was no consistent ambience - the odd gesture or delivery would dissipate it - seemed as though they were desperately trying to ring out as many dribbles of humour juice as possible, which spoilt any distinctive style it may have had.  
How this got past the preliminary stages of development is not just a mystery but an abomination.

Nice landscapes, though.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Yeah, there were too many cheap gags - shifts of tone all over the place. Kinda spoilt what few amusing bits it did have.

[wheatgod]

"Houston, we have a problem" bit was great. Other than that, pretty tripe. Where did they find the australian actors? A dunny? (toilet!)

[The Mumbler]

It was like watching Norman Wisdom visit Australia, but less good.  Brydon would have been better off making a sitcom about Baglan or something - at least he knows that world.

[timothyleighton]

In fairness it was the first episode.  You will always have to sacarafice in-depth character gags for stand alone jokes.  

That said it seemed incredibly expensive.  I can only imagine it gets much, much better to justify the expense.  

Getting three camels for a throwaway gag.  Making a set for the inside of a light aircraft for a throwaway gag.  Very costly with little return.

Fingers crossed it'll get better once it's bedded in.  That said, if Brydon wasn't it, it'd be gash.

And was I the only one to think that it seemed to stop two third through and then jst start afresh (from when he was killing the snake).  And it did bother me that there was a bottle of hydrocholric acid by the sink.  Why?  nd the first scene was obviously an interview.  It only occurred to me thinking back what the joke was there.  And the romantic interest lady seemed to totally break character to deliver the line about finding him emotionally repulsive.

And I was kind of hoping that they'd reveal there were additional cast members who lived on some sort of orbiting space station.  Not just a voice.  Kind of like Francis in Malcolm in the Middle.

And now I think about it, it did bother me that he didn't have the button on the microphone down when he was overheard by the boyfriend.

Hmmm...

Still.  Fingers crossed eh?

It was miles better than some stuff.

[MojoJojo]

From the adverts, I'd got the strong impression it was the BBC trying to cash in on the Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy film.

[Bean Is A Carrot]

Here's the IMDB reference for the writer of this series, Harry Cripps - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0187912/
Wrote The Magic Pudding, I see, which was also rubbish. And yet another film to waste the talents of Barry Humphries. Or does Humphries just do any old shit these days? Hard to tell.

Oh look, Harry Cripps was in Late For School. I have fond memories of that. oceanthroast, 13 schoolyards, do you remember this?

[mayer]

I quite enjoyed it, nice way to whittle away a half hour, it was silly and not-serious and it made me laugh. I wouldn't y'know, buy the DVD or anything, but I might even watch it next week.

[Feralkid]

Didn't Douglas Adams and John Lloyd once concoct a sit-com pilot script about astronomers and their wacky japes?  Snow Seven and the White Dwarfs.  Was the title I believe.

[oceanthroats]

So was this actually filmed in Australia? In the outback or somewhere that you might recognise from a Ken Done towel?
Harry Cripps, I don't remember him from late for school, but I see he was in The Damnation of Harvey Mchugh, a long forgotten show that I have fond memories of, although I suspect it wasn't all that great.
But anyway, Harry Cripps. No. When will the ABC be trumpeting this as comedy of the year? Shortly.

[13 schoolyards]

Written by the writer of Aussie fizzle Flat Chat (shudder).

[Bean Is A Carrot]

So was this actually filmed in Australia? In the outback or somewhere that you might recognise from a Ken Done towel?

In the outback. Somewhere with red sand. The number plate on the 4WD they were driving around with was South Australian. So shot just out of Coober Pedy then, or something.

Best bit: Rob Brydon goes for a walk, collapses in the heat and is brought back to base by the local Aborigines. "No one's ever got to the fence before!" quips one of the astronomers, before telling the silly fish-out-of-water Welshman that you really shouldn't go walking in the outback. Ever.

The local Aborigines turn up quite a lot in the show (rather like red double-decker buses in films set in London), except that they seem to be in a permanent state of cooroberie, with the white paint on their bodies and everything.

Oh and for some reason the incidental music is the kind of music that always turns up in Aussie kids dramas. Kind of tinkly movie music. I guess that'd be because the Australian co-producer was Fox World Australia and they probably bought a job of that kinda music ages ago.

Given that it's a Fox show I'm not certain it'll turn up on the ABC. Maybe on cable? Where it belongs, methinks.

[13 schoolyards]

It's currently showing 'down under' on Pay TV - UKTV to be exact, so we've hardly embraced it as one of our own.  Not enough outback wanderings, no doubt.  Is there a Kingswood parked anywhere?

[Bean Is A Carrot]

It's currently showing 'down under' on Pay TV - UKTV to be exact, so we've hardly embraced it as one of our own.  Not enough outback wanderings, no doubt.  Is there a Kingswood parked anywhere?

There should be a Kingswood, shouldn't there? So far only 4WDs. I reckon a Kingswood will turn up outside the pub in one episode. The pub, incidentally, being a tin shed with HOTEL painted on the corrugated iron roof.

[Almost Yearly]

Best bit: Rob Brydon goes for a walk, collapses in the heat and is brought back to base by the local Aborigines.

That struck me as the single most utterly pointless bit. I thought I'd missed the joke, but I see from your explanation that I didn't.

I thought it was annoying and largely rubbish, but there's nothing scheduled against it so I'll watch it again I expect.

[Dark Sky]

I don't know which was worse...the programme, or the "this is pedigree comedy!" tags before and after the programme...

Why the hell is Rob Brydon in this?  The only thing I can think of is that in script form it looked like it might be okay, and it was just the lousy directing which meant that every joke was only half there and the whole thing looked like a really naff mid-nineties children's programme.  Especially with all the wide angle lens stuff of the camera sweeping upward in the many supposedly impressive views of the laboratory.

The lens bit reminded me of the Bean movie.

[Bean Is A Carrot]

Best bit: Rob Brydon goes for a walk, collapses in the heat and is brought back to base by the local Aborigines.

That struck me as the single most utterly pointless bit. I thought I'd missed the joke, but I see from your explanation that I didn't.

Should explain that I meant "best bit" sarcastically. And also in the sense that it was the best example of the Aussie outback cliches thing the show had going.

Fox World Australia or whatever they're called tend to do a lot of kids shows, which explains the music. And the kiddy feel to it which Dark Sky picked up on.

[Gazeuse]

How did the astronaught hear Rob Bryden when he wasn't holding the button down on the microphone like the girl had to???

[wheatgod]

What are "The Numbers" all about?
and who are "The Others"?

oops

[Artemis]

Really, really bad, this one. My only comfort is that Brydon has no writing credits.

A horribly unfunny, shameful waste of half an hour of my time.

I found it very obvious. The black man's penis line raised half a smile but I sat there for most of it thinking I've seen it all before, and done so much better.

I've lost track of Brydon a little. I loved Marion and Geoff, and Human Remains, but never got to see Director's Commentary or his more recent Keith Barratt stuff - has he gone off the boil?

[Dark Sky]

I've lost track of Brydon a little. I loved Marion and Geoff, and Human Remains, but never got to see Director's Commentary or his more recent Keith Barratt stuff - has he gone off the boil?

To be fair though, it wasn't that Brydon was "bad" in Supernova, so much that he had absolutely nothing to work with or anything.  He may be going off the boil, but only regarding what jobs he takes...

I think I'll watch one more episode of this just to see how it goes.  Not that I'm particularly hopeful, but you never know.  In five years time maybe I'll meet people in a pub saying "awww you remember that brilliant comedy with Keith Barratt in it set in Australia?!  That was well Jackson!"

[Almost Yearly]

You might have seen him on Woss last night being his usual disarmingly open self, saying it was a lot easier not doing any of the writing, he'd had a nice time in Oz thank you very much, skydiving and that, and although ep 1 hasn't been well received he had hopes that as a whole the series would go down alright.


Edit: oops, edited the wrong one

[Dark Sky]

You know, if that second episode had been on children's TV, I would have thought it was good.

Not funny (though the 'little thing' line made me smile), but bizarrely watchable.  Odd.  If only the directing/acting was a bit tighter and more obviously cartoony (which is obviously what they're striving for).  The whole thing just looks so cheap, although the special effects were absolutely luvverly!  The wormhole sequence looked fifty gazillion times more expensive than the title sequence to the new Doctor Who.

Shame the ending was spoiled by the Sunday Times' TV listings, but maybe I would have recognised Jon Pertwee anyway; I dunno.

[Almost Yearly]

I did. It was dead obvious, guy.

Better though. Yeah, kids TV though.


Edit: heh, my post above looks really naive, I wrote it in a sarcy tone but it hasn't come over :)

[fudgemonkey]

I thought it was terrible.
I did laugh a bit when the Dr Who bit came up like, but apart from that it wound me up the wall.

Human Remains and Marion and Geoff were great.
What is this, is he another Coogan, starting off well then plummeting?