Misfits, Comedy Showcase & Miranda

So E4 have done the right thing and taken the only two good shows they've made (apart from The Inbetweeners) and made a new hybrid of sorts. Well loosely. The shows I refer to of course are Skins and Dead Set. The first being the best drama of the decade and the latter being in my top 5 zombie things of all time (In order: 1. Dawn Of The Dead 2. The Walking Dead 3. Shaun Of The Dead 4. Left 4 Dead 5. Dead Set (Dead)). Actually I'd probably swap it for 28 Days Later. But that doesn't have dead at the end. So Misfits is pretty much Skins meets Heroes. First episode introduces the raft of distinctly unlikeable characters. There's a chavy one (She's vulnerable though! Awww), the slutty one, the strong one, the quiet one and the chatty, jokey, pointlessly Irish and overly punchable one. While watching the show this morning (and slightly day-dreaming about the brutal deaths they could commit on the latter character) I pondered whether its about time some shit super powers were brought in to play. Like in The Lost Room, which I watched before, they had objects with pointless powers. This was a breath of fresh air. Surely if powers are given by chance (we obviously don't know yet in this show, there was big bits of hail in the murky storm) then someone should have the power to chat to squirrels, smell limestone or change the size and shape of their anus. I hope something like this is brought in to the show. I somehow doubt it though. Although no-one has been able to fly yet and they even referenced the cliché in the episode. This could be like a Skins in comparison to Grange Hill in terms of genre revitilization. I hope so, as its enjoyable, shot on that same lovely filter as Dead Set and is undoubtedly going to be full of sex, gore and swearing. Lovely.

Channel 4 have got a Comedy Showcase season again. Which is good, new comedy is always good isn't it. Isn't it? Well not always, but more about that later. Last week was Campus which was from the makers of/producers of/someone who once saw Green Wing. Which is a selling point for me. Like putting "From the producers of Superbad" on any comedy is a winner for idiots. Somehow though the program just didn't come together, it may have been because it was a pilot but it more felt like there was no-one really interesting in it. I don't know if its just me I found all the characters unlikeable and tiring. I'm fully aware that half the characters are made to be that but I still felt nothing for them. Empty. I'm sorry Campus, I just. I just can't do it. Its not you its me. Tonight I met (saw) Phoneshop instead. This show on paper looked terrible. In many ways it is as well. But it was quite enjoyable, some good jokes (best was probably the Ross Kemp one from the trailer) and some good characters. Should be more characters though. Five is not enough. Especially when two are made out to be pretty much the same. I'm looking forward to next weeks now. I hope its the one with Will Arnett in. We all love Will Arnett.

You can tell that the BBC is funded by the taxpayer. Else why would anyone choose to make shit sitcoms like Miranda unless you had to. Its got everything you hate about sitcoms. It looks cheap, filmed on around 3 sets, has those same actors you see in everything and worst of all, isn't written by Graham Lineham. Admittedly I liked that Lee Mack one they did. At least that was just him doing bad joke after bad joke. It felt like Friday night comedy, run down after a hard week, beer in hand, dog snoring on the floor, fire blazing. Happy memories. This though. This is made for people that like ITV and read the Daily Mail. Primairly everyone you could say. Poor old Miranda is reduced to making a show about her being lonely and fat as well. Its a shame because she was good in stuff like Hyperdrive. But I guess its in your contract if you're a comedic actor at the BBC. "Do at least one sketch show/sitcom of poor to average quality". In summary, its the worst sitcom I've seen all year. Well probably, I imagine I've blanked the rest out. Hopefully I will for this too.

The Lost Room & Lost

I like it when people recommend new shows or films to me. Especially stuff that would never have entered my peripheral vision otherwise. The Lost Room is a prime example of this. The effort it was going to take to watch it all already paid off when I realised there was a Fanning sibling in it. Yeah that's right, another one. Who knew? There's also that bloke from Six Feet Under. That show that you never get round to watching. That and The Sopranos. Probably will make some time for The Sopranos though. Anyway, the premise of the show is this; a motel room in the 60's disbanded from reality creating a host of "objects" with special powers. For example a watch that cooks eggs or glasses that prevent combustion. So there's a key to this mysterious room that floats in another dimension or something and the bloke from Six Feet Under has it. He then loses his daughter in it (mini Fanning) and thus proceeds on an epic quest that takes him all over America (well the shit places like New Mexico and Texas) to find objects to rescue his daughter. Of course its all guff, with characters falling over themselves to help the protagonist and handing over helpful tit-bits with little to no coercion. I even thought that characters constantly stating "But its all I have!" when they hand it over would bare some significance at the end but it did not. Still, I sat through the entire four and a half hours in one sitting as it is enthralling and very entertaining. That bloke from Six Feet Under is also very good and likable in it too, I'm sure he was in Six Feet Under as well but I doubt anyone bothered to watch it all. Anyway, definitely worth picking up and proof that the Sci-Fi channel does more than poor quality Bigfoot movies.

Speaking of Lost I've also been watching Lost. Lost, Lost, Lost. Just felt I needed to write it a few more times there. I'm about halfway through season two now. Although I got up to the end of season two when it was first broadcast on Channel 4 however many years ago. I don't think it was that many. But I remember I was single and still living up in the Midlands. So we're talking at least three years ago (just checked on wiki and 2005/2006 is the date). The funny thing is that I can't really remember what happens more the reactions I felt to what happened. Such as the episode where it shows the other survivors first 48 days and I remember how I found the episode pretty boring and annoying. Surprisingly I felt the same second time round. I've also started to get frustrated by the flashbacks to everyone's old lives, I just want to find out about the island stuff now. I couldn't give a shit if your wife left you, even if it does show more about your character's reasoning, etc. I'll keep ploughing through though, safe in the knowledge that I've got three season of unseen surprises to come afterwards.