As a child I still fondly recall afternoons spent at my paternal Grandparent's home watching Star Wars: A New Hope on VHS.  I was captivated by the combination of fun dialog, mystery, excitement, "magic" (The Force), space ships, the cool Han Solo, the mysterious Ben Kenobi and the terrifying Lord Darth Vader.  It was a film that dominated my childhood - along with the David Jason animated version of The Wind in the Willows, The Neverending Story and The Shawshank Redemption it remains one of the most watched movies of my life.  I watched that VHS copy until the tape wore out in multiple sections and I can still recite many lines from memory with great accuracy.

Flash forward to 2005 and I'm walking out of the cinema after watching Revenge of the Sith, the prequel trilogy for me wasn't a total deal breaker at the time - there was a lot in them I found pretty boring and from faintly ridiculous to absurd - but it was clear that they were far from the level of quality that the first three were created to.  However, in hindsight I know that it was the prequel trilogy that made me fall out of love with Star Wars and science fiction in general.  I can still vividly recall the moment where it happened, where even the original trilogy broke... forever?

A day or so after watching Revenge of the Sith my friends gathered together and we started to watch A New Hope again.  Things went fine until Vader's first appearance, at which point everything came crashing down for me, the connection between the snot-rag whiny Anakin Skywalker from the second and third prequel movie (ignoring the annoying little boy from the first one for the moment) and this menace from my childhood came together.  That final cliched scene where Anakin stumbles from the table as Vader and yells 'NOOOooooo!' was the straw that broke the camel's back.  As such, when Vader made his menacing appearance on Leia's ship in A New Hope; a moment that used to terrify me as a child, I was forced to permanently make the connection between Anakin and Vader.  No longer was this figure a terrifying menace, the magic had been broken - I could see the strings (I figured out the magic trick, if you like).  I stood up from my chair, fell to my knees and yelled 'NOOoooooo!' in my very best James Earl Jones impression then walked out of the room and never watched any Star Wars movie again.

Recently my better half; Datura, discovered that The One Man Star Wars Trilogy was playing in Cardiff, Wales.  In exchange for booking tickets to see Dave Gorman's Powerpoint Presentation I agreed to go and see it.  Needless to say, thanks to the history I briefed you on up there I wasn't that excited about going. (It's also needless to say that due to Datura being my wife I wasn't going to complain... much).

We arrived at the show and outside there were already one of my greatest pet peeves, cos-players.  They were dressed mostly as clone troopers, which felt extra ridiculous - because this was for the original trilogy there were no clone troopers in those movies (and about 99% less shit overall).  My observations about the ridiculous nature of the fan(atic) however did not go down well, we narrowly avoided a huge argument that would have spoiled the entire evening.  My bad.

The opening act, John Cooper as Danny Pensive, was a lot more subversive than you'd initially think.  Danny Pensive is Cooper's alter ego - a semi simple, duffle coat wearing man with a goatee and a bad hair cut.  His main traits are writing things down, making observations about them and then talking about it in an abrupt fashion.  It's an act that took us both a little while to gel with his delivery, where the punchline often comes about a line or so sooner than you'd expect - but once you click it works and it works well (check some out here).  "Danny" had to deal with the issue that the Cardiff audience tends to be unresponsive to any participation type comedy, but he did very well and had the audience well warmed up by the end of it.  It was an odd, but welcome act.

After Danny had shuffled his way off the stage it was time for the main act, all three movies back to back in the space of an hour courtesy of Chris Ross.  It was an experience I wasn't completely prepared for, I'd not done any reading or preparation for the show and I was caught completely off guard by Chris's delivery.  The most notable surprise for me was the fact that he does not only all the characters but he also performs the music.  With exceptional talent and accuracy I might add.

Chris manages to fit each film into about a 15 minute performance, it's a high energy show with lots of laughs containing the very best parts of each film.  Some scenes pass by with barely a mention while others are covered in detail.  But most of all, the spirit of what makes each film great, all the classic and fun moments, are present in spades.  Chris embraces the films with a professionalism and enthusiasm that showcases a great deal of love, pride and polish.  This is a man who has come to love what he's doing and had many years to perfect it.

Sections of note include his performance as an AT-AT falling on Hoth, superb impressions of Luke, Obi-Wan, Admiral Akbar and most of all, a star turn as Yoda.  He really gets to the heart of each character and highlights the things that make them great, while also lampooning their flaws.  The prequel trilogy's are touched on in moments as well, especially the way in which they've impacted on the first three movies and diluted some of the more potent scenes.  It's impossible to look at the original trilogy in isolation any more (shame), but Chris remained entertaining in his performance even when touching on the prequels.

I have to write that Chris was a pro throughout this performance, he had two major problems (apart from Cardiff's lack of audience participation) and both of them were dealt with in a way that did not detract from the experience at all.  The first was a series of technical issues, it started with the stage crew missing Chris's cues, repeatedly, Chris was professional enough not to make a deal of it and re-cue them, but once I'd noticed this was happening it was hard to ignore.  This is, of course, not Chris's fault, rather it's the fault of the staff at Cardiff's St David's Hall - and I hope they apologised to him afterwards.  Technical issues did not end there as Chris's mic started giving up the ghost towards the climax of Return of the Jedi, cutting out during his more vigorous scenes and requiring adjustment.  Chris was obviously frustrated with this, but he should feel reassured that it did not detract from the experience one iota.

The second issue occurred with young lad in the front row, he held up his phone to snap a couple of pictures and Chris spotted him doing it.  Fortunately for the boy Chris thought he was texting, something that he took up making fun of, mentioning that 'lad in the front row texting' by bringing it into the act several times.  However, part way through the show, when doing a quick bit of Q&A he discovered that the boy wasn't texting, he had in fact taken pictures.  Sure enough, at the end of the show Chris stopped to talk to the lad and ask him to delete the pictures.  The boy just did not get the seriousness of the request and sat there in mute refusal, I assume at first he thought it was a joke, then he became embarrassed.  Not even an offer of an autograph and official pictures was enough to get the boy to come up on stage and delete them, instead he was escorted to one side by an usher (at which point I think the reality of the situation hit him).  Chris smoothed this over by chatting with the audience as it happened, distracting people from the awkward scene occurring to one side.  In short, he dealt with an problem in the best fashion he could, as a professional.  (I have no idea if the lad got his picture and autograph afterwards, but I was sat a row behind and to the right of him and I think I saw him just get up and hurriedly leave at the end of the show.  So I guess not).

So, can I recommend the One Man Star Wars Trilogy?

I think I can sum it up as such, despite my opening story about how Star Wars lost it's magic, at the end of Chris Ross's show I wanted to watch the original trilogy again.  And I think that's all you need to know about how good it was, he restored my faith in the films and showed me that you could enjoy them despite what came afterwards.

See more about The One Man Star Wars Trilogy at it's site here.
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Image from here

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Standing as the longest season of Futurama so far, with a whale sized serving of twenty six episodes it's rather difficult to review the entire of the sixth season without missing out some elements, however I'm going to do my best by looking at the high points and low points of the season.

I have to be honest, around the first two episodes of the show I was left thinking 'Maybe they shouldn't have brought the show back...'  The first episode, Rebirth is a middling affair with little good to recall about it, it's not terrible - but the jokes are pretty flat and there's a little too much time spent on pointless exposition.  This is Futurama, we don't need exposition or explanation, we need jokes and episodes that make us cry without warning.

The second episode, In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela is in my mind one of the worst episodes I've seen - it could have been a middle of the road episode with some good jokes, but the throwaway gag at the end of the episode - having Leela engage in sex with Zap - was the writing equivalent of taking a dump on the viewers, in their open mouths, while telling them to enjoy it.  Now I will skip That's Lobstertainment nine times out of ten, but I'm never watching In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela again, it has nothing worth going through that.  Proposition Infinity is a similar piece of fecal matter, this time breaking Amy and Kiff up for the purpose of the story, before 'returning everything back to normal' in that old sitcom cliched manner that I thought comedy writing was starting to grow out of.

There are other terrible episodes in this season, The Futurama Holiday Special is boring and fails completely to live up to the 'Tales of Interest' heights that occurred in seasons two and three; Attack of the Killer App seems like little more than a pointless shot at Apple and Consumerism and Yo Leela Leela turns from a fun episode into a preachy rant at reality shows and the quality of television writing in general - don't get me wrong, I'm not for reality shows as a whole, however Yo Leela Leela really doesn't have anything new to contribute to the discussion.

That's the awful taste of Futurama poop in your mouth there, and this is one of the problems with the season, there's a lot of episodes that are just not, not good enough - it didn't need to be twenty six episodes, twenty would have resulted in a superb season, but there are six turds floating around in the soup and that's a problem.

Fortunately there are also some real gems in the sixth season, Lethal Inspection is one of those beautiful tearjerker episodes that can hit you out of nowhere; Law and Oracle and Benderama are also personal favourites.  In fact most of the episodes that are Bender-centric tend to be a cut above the rest.

There is also one episode that stands up above the rest, stands head and shoulders above all else and ranks as possibly one of the best episodes of Futurama all time, if not the best.  I refer to, of course, 'The Late Philip J. Fry' the episode is exactly what makes Futurama great; it's funny, thought provoking, true to character and plays beautifully with mainstay science fiction concepts - in this case time travel and the big bang.  It's such a great episode that I can't help wish they'd used it to close out the season.  Overclockwise and Reincarnation are OK, the first one being a nice end to the 'cannon' storyline and the second being... well... just Futurama filler. But The Late Philip J. Fry should have been the last episode in the season, it's just that... right.  It's what Futurama always should be.

On the whole the sixth season of Futurama is great, the show is still among the best shows still airing at the moment, something we need in an increasingly stale world of television (is it a coincidence that the number of good shows going down coincides with a reduction in the number of female television writers?)  However the season has rough patches and really could have done with some objective quality control.

It does leave me hopeful for the seventh season, I expect some great episodes.  But I also have my sewer diving suit at the ready, because I'm expecting a few stinkers.
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Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place (later known as Two Guys and a Girl) is one of those shows that has for a long time seemed rather bipolar in my research about it.  Some people rave about it as being one of the best shows they've ever seen, but many others tend towards 'It's good, but not amazing'.  This is quite evident when you look at the ratings on IMDB (7.7/10) vs TV.com (9.1/10).  It's the difference between being a solid show that passes the time well and something that takes your socks and blows them away from their usual location inside your shoes.


It was enough to make me curious about the show, and so I researched a little and found out that it starred Ryan Reynolds, or as I like to call him 'The man who made Blade 3 watchable', Traylor Howard - from Monk and some guy called Richard Ruccolo who I recognise, but didn't know too well.


Two Guys and a Girl is a light hearted twenty minute sitcom created by Rick Wiener, Kenny Schwartz (both now involved in American Dad) and Danny Jacobson (Rosanne, Mad About You) about the trials and tribulations of a trio of twenty something friends living in Boston and "working" in a pizza place.  You have Michael 'Berg' Bergin (Reynolds) an aimless drifter through life who isn't sure what degree/career he wants, he's effortlessly brilliant but endlessly lazy, his flatmate is Pete Dunville (Ruccolo) a more regular guy, if a little highly strung and their friend from university (and upstairs neighbour) Sharon Carter (Traylor - side note: who calls their little girl Traylor?  Don't get me wrong, she's a fantastic actress, her work in Monk replacing Sharona was excellent - she filled the void admirably - but Traylor?  It's rather masculine and it also sounds a lot like trailer...) who works for a chemical company that 'kill the environment'.


Also joining this triplet are the regular supporting characters of Pete's girlfriend Melissa (Jennifer Westfeldt - 24), the pizza place owner Bill (Julius Carry) and the oddball Mr Bauer (David Ogden Stiers) who compulsively claims that his life is whatever movie he watched most recently.  Mr Bauer, for me, was the character who softened my opinion to the show, he's almost a one note character but I've loved Stiers' work since he played the is he evil or isn't he Reverend Purdy in the 'cancelled one season too soon' Anthony Michael Hall show 'The Dead Zone'.  It was his Jedi impression that swung me over, I guess despite falling out with Star Wars (over fiddled with these days) I still have a soft spot for a good Alec Guinness/Obi-Wan quote when applied correctly.  However, from what I've gathered so far, none of these characters make it into the second season.  So don't get too attached to them.


Two Guys and a Girl is a pretty lighthearted affair, unlike the traditional sitcom it does occasionally carry on the consequences of events from one episode to the next, but for the most part each episode is standalone.  That makes it easy to pick up and put down, but it can still be a tad confusing if watched in the wrong order.


Guess who watched the first season in the wrong order?


Despite this, I did enjoy the show, it has a humour that grows on you the more you watch it, initially I didn't see what the fuss was about, but having watched the first season I can say that I have adopted a few funny lines/quotes here and there (especially Pete's fish impression) and I am looking foward to watching the second season.


So I think I'd call that a bit of a success and I'll leave it at that until I take a look at the second season in a few weeks time.


(Incidently... Searching for pictures to this show is a minefield - even with Google images set to 'Moderate'.  I guess that's what happens when you go for such a provocative/risque name.  Git writers/creators!)
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Sometimes I feel that my watching of television is an endless quest to find replacement shows for old favourites.  I've tried out shows like Boardwalk Empire and Treme to replace The Wire and Southlands to replace The Shield and each time I've only found middling success.  However, Community has filled one hole - the one left be the ending of first Seinfeld and later Arrested Development.


Community's first season was a magical journey of realisation about how superb comedy is still out there being produced.  It was a season that mixed bitter cynical humour with optimism and light hearted comedy.  The second season had one hell of a bar to reach.


Spoilers:  It raised it.  In fact it raised the roof and threw it into the neighbours garden.  Crushing a small shed in the process.


I don't know how the third season is going to manage to top the second one, the season managed to introduce exciting new support characters, continue running jokes, bring new ones in and provide not only a stop motion episode but also a zombie movie, a western, Star Wars and more besides.


Starting with the gang returning to Greendale after the summer break we follow on from the events of the last season.  Senor Chang is no longer a teacher, Jeff and the guys are now studying Anthropology together instead of Spanish and things have both changed and stayed the same.  Jeff's relationship status is 'resolved' and everything kicks up into a higher gear.


There are just so many highlights in this season; "Basic Rocket Science" provides a superb space film homage; the superb "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design" features good old Dean Pelton in a story so twisty that you'll stop caring about understanding what's happening and just enjoy the fun and "Paradigms of the Human Memory" puts a fresh spin on the clip show.


But the personal favourites for myself were "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons" and the two part season finale which built on the brilliant paintball episode of the previous season ("Modern Warfare") with a first part that homages the Western Genre and a second part that just gives up pretending to homage and rips huge sections of Star Wars off - the best sections I might add.


As before, performances are class throughout - While Chevy Chase is known to be a bit of a handful off screen, his delivery on screen is spectacular and the use of Pierce as a villainous foil to the group works exceptionally well.  Likewise Senor Chang's new role is possibly better than his original one, the mixture of adoration and hate he has for Abed and Company is something to really relish.  But for me, the best part is the increased role Professor Ian Duncan has John Oliver is a class act all the way, and he's just perfect in Community, rating alongside
Professor Eustice Whitman (the brilliant John Michael Higgins) as one of my favourite characters in the show outside of the main cast.


I dared to hope that the second season would surpass the first one, and it did.  Last time I wrote about Community I called it the best sitcom on air right now.  I feel justified in this opinion, it's sheer class.
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Will I ever get tired of this logo?

It's slightly old news at this point - but I thought I'd write a little about what I've read on Red Dwarf's return to the small screen, something which has become official at this point after Craig Charles let it slip on Real Radio last week.

From what I've gathered we're looking at a return of the core cast - sans Kochanski and with Holly played by someone other than Norman Lovett.  Of course, as filming isn't due to occur until the latter part of 2011 this is probably still up in the air - but I would be disappointed with the lack of Chloë Annett - who I really came to appreciate as time passed - and of course Norman's brilliance as Holly.  I guess I could live with a return of Hattie, but a third actor as Holly would be disappointing to say the least.

The run will most likely be six episodes, and that's a fine length, but as Craig himself said it's only worth doing if it is "as funny as it used to be" he went on to say "we've got to recapture the highlights like series 5, series 6, that kind of stuff. If we can hit that mark, then brilliant. There's no point doing it if it's a bit so-so."

That's a spot on observation, because series 7, 8 and the mini-series Back to Earth really missed the mark at times, both on the comedy front and the plotting.  I'd welcome the show returning if it could hit the quality of the series 3-6 run (yes, I'm very fond of series 6 despite the loss of Red Dwarf and Holly, it was an interesting experiment, but it should have only run for one series without the small rouge one).


Six episodes seems the right amount to provide quality, but I can't feel confident until I read that Rob Grant and Doug Naylor are onboard in some aspect, when it was just Doug by himself the rhythm of the show went off.  It still had some excellent moments, but they were not the norm.

I'm excited, but apprehensive.

You can read a bit about Robert Llewellyn's thoughts on this at his blog here
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Spoilers, I've come to the conclusion that NBC's half hour sitcom Community was at the very least the best new comedy show of 2009 and it's possible that it was the best sitcom of that particular year. The show completely caught me by surprise last Autumn with just how good it was and most recently I caught up with the entire season in a marathon weekend session that solidified the shows place amongst my all time favourites.

The premise behind Community is based on the creator/writer Dan Harmon's personal experiences in community college. He found himself gradually becoming attached to a group of disparate people who had very little in common apart from the subjects they were studying. "...I was in this group with these knuckleheads and I started really liking them," he explains, "even though they had nothing to do with the film industry and I had nothing to gain from them and nothing to offer them." (read more here).

In the show it's currently disbarred lawyer Jeff Winger (Joel McHale - The Soup) who plays Dan's analogue. Jeff is a cynical, independent, disdainful, womanizing individual who's only come to Greendale community college in order to gain a proper law degree and return to the job he loves. The attractive Britta (Gillian Jacobs - Choke) catches his eye and he invents a Spanish study group in order to get close to her. Unfortunately for Jeff Britta invites Abed (Danny Pudi - Greek) to the group and he in turn invites Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown - Drake & Josh), Troy (Donald Glover - writer, 30 Rock), Pierce (Chevy Chase - you should know where he's from) and Annie (Alison Brie - Hot Sluts - seriously, check it out here, it's in the category 'so intentionally bad it's kinda good' and of course Mad Men). This study group is not what Jeff wanted from community college, he was looking to just coast through on the bare minimum, sleeping with hot women and avoiding as much human interaction as possible. Instead he finds himself the head of a group of people devoted to passing Senor Chang's (Ken Jeong) Spanish class together.

Community is a phenomenal comedy show, it's a creation that's partially driven by the excellent cast, partially driving be pop culture references that are both nostalgic and on the pulse, partially by excellent plotting (especially in the genre of sitcom) - but it's mostly driven by a layered core of morals. Jeff is an excellent protagonist lead and the show plays up to his faults and strengths with exceptional skill. The show delivers moment after moment that at first appears hopeful and optimistic, but then you realise Jeff is doing it for selfish reasons, so it becomes cynical, but then he can turn around and just do something selfless that compromises his original intentions. It's rare you find a character who can turn around on the spot and alternate being sympathetic followed by being a complete arse without feeling like a flip-flopper or a detestable shrew. Joel McHale nails the role and gives you an exceptionally complete and rounded character with a lot of complexity.

But, whilst Jeff is the lead, Community is an ensemble show and without great performances from the rest of the cast and the supporting characters the show just wouldn't hold up. Fortunately just about every other character in the show is memorable and fun to watch. Abed is a wonderful portrait of Asperger's Syndrome and just a fantastic character and possibly my favourite (I also adore Jerry Espenson from Boston Legal, but I myself display many traits of Asperger's and fall just short of 'qualifying' - so it's no wonder I have such a connection with these two characters). Abed is a lot of fun, especially thanks to his film knowledge resulting in close to fourth wall breaking moments, describing situations in the form of television tropes and even saying that he was going to 'lay low for an episode' at one time.

Donald Glover's performance as Troy is one that takes a little time to warm up, he's a character that is very controlled and almost prim due to his lack of experience amongst people who don't idolise him. Now it did take a bit for me to warm up to Troy, but his connections with Piece and Abed really shine out and the various end of episode sketches he performs with Abed/Danny are without exception brilliant. Yvette Nicole Brown is instantly adorable as Shirley, she displays a mixture of mother-ish traits combined with an almost girlish glee that comes from someone reconnecting with the world and themselves. You can often count on Shirley to provoke the unexpected response from others (and herself) and when she squeals in delight at something you just can't help but smile.

Britta and Annie are two other characters that take a while to bloom, Annie grows a lot faster than Britta and thanks to Alison Brie's obvious talent. Annie's repressive and barely restrained nature results in some excellent inappropriate outbursts and she's a character who just grows in strength from one episode to the next. Britta on the other hand is a little uneven, she's fun and snappy but she's stuck mostly in the role of the group's spoil sport/kill joy - functioning often as the 'straight man' of the show, but the occasions where she gets to go off the page are great and Gillian Jacobs shows her comedy chops well at times.

The huge piece of the puzzle is Chevy Chase's role as Pierce, Pierce is outright the funniest and most outrageous member of the group. He's set in his ways, closeted, inappropriate, mildly racist, delusional and at times downright offensively ignorant. But there's a vulnerability to him that keeps him from turning into a complete toad, he genuinely wants to connect with other people - he's just lacking the right tools at times to do so (a bit like Michael Scott from The Office). His outbursts are almost always hilarious and the moments where he genuinely connects with other members of the group helps humanise him. The most impressive thing is his total lack of fear about making a fool of himself, he makes a lot of poor choices and then commits to them wholeheartedly (something he has in common with Chevy himself) and it's this trait that's the most endearing part of him.

Edit: Matt Murrell (@mattmurrell) quite rightly pointed out that I've done Senor Chang a crime by not writing about him in detail. Senor Chang rocks very hard and is frankly hilarious, I could go into this with more detail, but instead I shall share the youtube video Matt used to educate me with a gentle reminder on why Senor Chang rules.


In the supporting cast there are three notable members who deserve a great deal of praise, the first is Jim Rash as the sexually ambiguous and often inappropriate Dean Pelton, John Michael Higgins as the brilliant Professor 'seize the day' Whitman (John is almost always great in everything I've seen him in, I love his performance as Mentok the Mindtaker from Harvey Birdman) and John Oliver as Jeff's friend Professor Ian Duncan.

The episodes are often brilliant, considering it's a show about the low end of the education system and a small group of disparate individuals there's a remarkable scope in the situations and style of episodes that are employed. The show even manages to lampoon Die Hard and war movies in one excellent episode in a way that hasn't succeeded since Spaced did it. It's a show with some genuine talent behind the writing and it's always a delight to see each new episode.

Community has fast become one of my favourite shows, one of my top ten sitcoms and the best new show I saw in 2009. It's a quality piece that deserves to be trumpeted from the rooftops and I hope it runs for many years to come.
You'll enjoy Community if you like Arrested Development, The Office, Spaced, Black Books, How I Met Your Mother and 30 Rock.
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Chuck is one of those shows that I'm glad is around, in part because it's nice to have a light-hearted, semi-serious spy show on the air and in part because Adam Baldwin should always be on our screens as some angry individual with barely contained violence inside him. John Casey isn't as great as Jayne Cobb, but he'll do in a pinch (hey, they both share the same initials!)

The third season picks up after Chuck downloaded the Intersect 2.0 and spouted that famous line from that film with the two terrible sequels "I know kung fu." I did note at the time that Zachary Levi's martial arts skills weren't really up to the job, there was plenty of camera trickery to try and conceal this, but as long as the show took the time to train him up in time for the third season I wouldn't have a problem with it.

Good news everyone! They did, and Chuck's action sequences are now tighter than ever, they're not quite at the standard of say - Kung Fu Hustle, but they're believable and high energy. They're also tight enough that when there is a deliberate punch/kick being pulled 'in character' you can identify the difference immediately - that's as close as I'm going to get to writing about that moment.

I'm also glad to report that there is plenty of character development for just about everyone in the cast, Devon (Ryan McPartlin) and Morgan (Joshua Gomez) become privy to some huge secrets while Sarah's (Yvonne Strahovski) past is expanded on a bit further and we get some resolution to the will they/won't they between her and Chuck. Brandon Routh joins as the newest member of 'Team Bartowski' and even Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) gets to do more than just look put upon and bewildered.

There are also some exceptional guest stars, including the brilliant Scott Bakula back as Stephen J. Bartowski and the superb Swoosie Kurtz has a star turn in one episode as half of the super spy couple team, Brandon Routh is also pretty good as Agent Shaw, his performance being a key element of quite a few scenes and he's admirably up to the task.

The pacing in this season is a little off, but it's no more so than any of the seasons, Chuck often seems to have a ponderous and slow start to the season before it kicks up into a decent gear. The third season is no exception, but once it is rolling the episodes become phenomenal and the final stretch of them is something to behold as everything on the show comes together in a perfect blend of action, romance, emotion and comedy.

If I had one other complaint it's that the Buy More sections of the show are quite lacking this season, as the show has evolved the Buy More has faded in importance to the point where it feels a little superflous to the plot, it should be an entertaining distraction from the spy action part, and at times - like the Fight Club incident - it is, but also quite often it feels a little like padding. In particular the character development for Morgan and the loss of Anna as a regular has made the Buy More less significant and that's left the weight of the Buy More sequences on Big Mike along with Jeff and Lester. They're two admirable creeps and a source of a lot of laughs, but they're too shallow to hold things up by themselves.

The set is pretty much a Chuck DVD by the numbers, the case is significantly easier to use than the horror that the original first season set came in (I still have problems opening that box) and the extras are relatively spartan in their quantity but enjoyable. It's not going to wow you, but they are interesting to watch.

The issues of the season are little compared to the glorious whole that is Chuck, it's not the most intelligent show on television right now, but it is one of the most fun and it's for that reason I'm giving Chuck's third season two thumbs up.
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I just recently had a chance to check out a few of the fall American shows that are beginning to grace the shores of Blighty, frankly I'm thrilled that more and more legitimate ways to watch these shows are being set up quickly via platforms like iTunes. The world certainly is, as the cliche goes, a smaller place and the electronic world is even smaller again.

The Big Bang Theory is one of the shows that's having its latest season promptly shown on E4 (airing started November 4th) and I've had a chance to see the first four episodes. What follows is a series of mini-reviews about each episode and then some thoughts on what's to like and what's improved in comparison to the earlier seasons.

Episode One: The Robotic Manipulation

"Howard, slow down, the robot hand is stuck on your what?"

Carrying events on from the Sheldon/Amy (or "Shamey") incident The Robotic Manipulation is a solid opening episode with some great moments. In particular I'm glad that the writers decided to put some work into the character of Amy, The Big Bang Theory - like Chuck Lorre's other show Two and a Half Men, suffers from interesting secondary characters being brought in and then dropped without explanation. This could still happen to Amy, but at least she's being given a chance as a character to grow and explore.

Some of the funniest moments in the episode don't entirely rest on Sheldon, while I adore Jim Parsons and his character I do think it's important that the rest of the cast get their fair share of the light and laughs. Howard gets a huge slice of them here with his "theft", use and then horrific misuse of a robot arm. It ends with him having to experience one classic trope in the form of a hospital visit and the classic line "I slipped and fell" that is resolved with another equally classic trope (without giving too much away, think I.T. Crowd) - the nurse in the scene is so great that I hope she'll make later appearances on occasion. There are also some superb Penny/Sheldon interactions, including a fruitless discussion about the triple knocking habit Sheldon has and her interest in Sheldon's relationship with Amy is equally endearing (especially when Sheldon begins to speculate and calculate Penny's romantic bedroom entanglements over her lifespan.)

Episode Two: The Cruficerous Vegtable Amplification

"For your convenience I disassemble into four pieces."

The largest part of the episode's humour rests on the shoulders of Sheldon and his "robotic manipulation" which occurs when he decides to try and expand his lifespan (with the intention of reaching the singularity and thus potential immortality) by sheltering his physical form from the outside world by interacting with it via a "virtual presence" (effectively a monitor, camera and microphone on tracks.) This is without exception the funniest episode of the entire show to date, Jim and Johnny Galdeki's interactions reach a new level of comedy throughout this - Sheldon's overjoyed expression on the monitor is sidesplitting in itself, but his obvious joy in experiencing the outside world without having to actually be in it is comedy gold.

Needless to say the episode culminates in a suitable form of hubris for Sheldon, and although the situation is resolved I do find myself hoping that virtual Sheldon makes another appearance at some point in the future.

Episode Three: The Zazzy Substitution

"You should lend him your copy of Bombay Ba-donk-ba-donks!"

This is the episode I was worried about, the one where the promise of "Shamey" is dropped in favour of returning to the status quo. Sure enough, after discovering irreconcilable differences (due to the equally massive egos of Sheldon and Amy) the pair split up and Sheldon transforms into a terrifying cat person.

I shouldn't have worried, things are resolved in a more than satisfactory fashion (and a neat closing gag), due to Sheldon's ability to consistently underestimate his mother's intelligence and shrewd understanding of all things Sheldon.

In addition, this was a fantastic episode for Rajesh - the situations where he manages to interact with Penny are always hilarious (mostly because he's drunk and offensive). In fact the entire four episodes have a lot of great moments for Rajesh - Kunal Nayyar is an understated piece of brilliance in The Big Bang Theory and it feels like he's been given stronger lines in these episodes and he's risen to the occasion.

Episode Four: The Hot Troll Deviation

"An entire subcontinent where cows work in the street and nobody has had a solid bowel movement."

Penny's willingness to embrace all four of the guys and try to assist them is something I've enjoyed watching as time progressed, in particular the subtle change in relationship between Howard and Penny - since he's stopped continuously sleazing at her and showed a little emotion the dynamic has improved a lot.

The Hot Troll Deviation is a welcome episode on this front, but it's also exceptionally welcome for another reason, the return of Melissa Rauch as Bernadette. Bernadette's appearance and involvement with Howard was a great leap forward for the show and heralded a great deal of promise. Howard needs something else to move him beyond the hormonally imbalanced semi-stalker that he is and Bernadette was a great fit. It also helps that Melissa Rauch is just adorable in every aspect and perfect for the show. I'm hoping her return results in many more appearances.

Rajesh's work relationship with Sheldon also pays off dividends when Rajesh decides to turn the screws onto Sheldon with an audacious piece of furniture. The tit-for-tat that follows is hilarious and Kunal plays them beautifully, but it's nothing compared to the superb guest starring roles George Takei and Katie Sackhoff take as icons of Howard's fantasy and manifestations of his unconscious mind. Katie is pretty good, she is limited by the role of 'cheesecake fantasy figure' in this situation (I can't wait for the episode where she actually plays herself and Howard mistakes her for another fantasy) but she plays what she has with gusto. George Takei on the other hand grabs his part with both hands and shakes all the awesome out of it everywhere. Just about everything he says is hilarious and serves as additional insight into the usually one dimensional Howard.


I've enjoyed The Big Bang Theory ever since the writer's strike managed to get the show to kick itself into a different gear, and while the show has now embraced Sheldon as the primary character I'm pleased to be able to say that everyone else is getting a fair share of the plot and the funny (though Leonard is a little sidelined at the moment due to the post-Penny fallout removing a lot of his character motivation, he's no longer chasing after Penny so he's left to just observe and snark at Sheldon. I'm sure that'll change given time.)

In particular the continuation of more supporting character incidents, especially endearing ones like Bernadette and Amy; along with Penny taking a stronger interest in Sheldon and Howard's relationships and an expansion of comedic stories for Rajesh means that the fourth season of The Big Bang Theory feels stronger and fresher than ever.

(Image originally from the most excellent "The Televixen" check her out here)
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Recently I had a chance to check out the The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (Here by shortened to Avengers:EMH) mini-series, a 20 part series that provides the back stories for each member of the line up and the creation of the super team. The Avengers is a pretty well established team, existing as the analog for DC's Justice League (and vise-versa). As the animated series Justice League and it's continuation into Justice League:Unlimited are two of my favourite cartoons (especially the latter Unlimited series) I thought I owed it to myself to try out the mini-series so I could decide if I wanted to plunge into the complete show when it starts airing.

The Avengers is (as I'm sure most people will know) the big boy league for Marvel, containing all of the greatest heroes from the Marvel universe of comics. Avengers:EHM is set up with the classic line-up for the team - containing Thor, The Hulk, Iron-Man, Wasp, Ant-man/Giant-man, Hawkeye, Black Panther and Captain America. The mini-series provides an episode for each of these, but The Hulk shares his with Hawkeye and Ant-man shares his with Wasp and Black Panther.

The Avengers are formed when a series of simultaneous prison breaks occur in the four S.H.I.E.L.D. prisons for super heroes, this frees a whole host of top level villains (and other minor ones), including one particularly dangerous master of gravity named Graviton. SHIELD themselves play a major part in the series, especially Nick Fury, often interacting in antagonistic ways with the various members of The Avengers.

At this point comparisons to the Justice League cartoon are inevitable, the two shows share a very similar art style and they're both about the same core concept, albeit with different brands. The art style in particular is a surprise, it is animated by Marvel Animation, but at times it's almost indistinguishable from Justice League. This is actually a bonus; because Justice League's art style, while exceptionally stylised, is without a doubt fantastic. So Avengers:EMH is an exciting and beautiful show to watch, I don't completely appreciate Wasp's look, there's a little bit too much of the Wapanese anime style creeping in where she is concerned but look of The Hulk, Thor and Captain America more than make up for any shortcomings elsewhere.

One of the areas I felt that Justice League came up short in the first two seasons, was the way that the show felt like it took place in isolation from the rest of the DC mythos. Many different villains made an appearance but on the whole the show felt like it was about the Justice League and almost every other superhero in the DC universe just didn't exist. This was addressed with Justice League:Unlimited and the added weight of all those extra heroes helped make the show feel more weighty and interesting. Characters like Green Arrow, Booster Gold, The Question and Doctor Fate were superb additions to the rotating roster and in many cases more interesting than some members of the original line up (although Hawkgirl was made far less one dimensional once JL:U started, which helped).

Avengers:EMH takes on the the entire weight of the Marvel universe from the very start, and it achieves it in quite a subtle fashion. Much exposition and explanation of who the various heroes/villains are is passed over, if you happen to recognise people like Constrictor, Blizzard and Wonder-man then fantastic, but if you don't it's not spelt out who they are. This even applies to more prominent characters from the Marvel universe; Wolverine makes an appearance that's wonderfully understated and references to characters like The Punisher are genuine Easter Egg 'blink-and-you'll-miss-them' affairs. It's this acknowledgement that there is a larger world beyond just the immediate characters and their own stories that helps cement the realism.

Avengers:EMH has also decided to make an exceptionally bold move by introducing multiple, long-term and over arcing villain plots; HYDRA, The Masters of Evil, Loki and Kang are all present and each one seems to have a long game scheme in mind. I for one always applaud serialisation of TV shows, I think the mix of stand-alone episodes and long term stories is a great compromise for viewers. I prefer shows that tell long, involved stories that draw you in and hold you (like that perennial classic The Wire), but I do appreciate that shows need to be 'dippable' in order to catch and hold the attention of the attention span deprived channel swapper that has become an ever increasing issue. Standalone episodes, which can be picked up and then discarded, combined with multiple episode (or even season) arcs is a good compromise and one that might perk up the interest of the casual viewer enough to get them to want to watch the next episode.

Ultimately Avengers:EMH is a children's show, it's aimed at kids and comic book fans (big kids!) primarily, but for someone like myself, who has a moderate to passing interest in superheroes there's plenty of good characterisation, fun moments and solid dialog to keep you interested. The action in the show in particular is building shattering in it's scale, the fights really do feel quite epic (even if a little ridiculous at times) and this makes every action moment great fun to watch. When Graviton makes the erroneous error of claiming to be 'The strongest one there is', even a layman like myself can't help but perk up and think 'You've made a mistake now sir!'

As a consequence the mini-series was a complete success for myself, it's drummed up enough interest that I want to watch the upcoming episodes and see where this show goes, because if it carries on as it's started then it'll become one of my favourite cartoons alongside other greats like Justice League, Frisky Dingo, TMNT 2K3 and Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law.

A promising start for the Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
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Mongrels is a strange beast of a show to try and describe, it was initially recommended to me by my father - a lover of the following categories of shows Science Fiction, British Sitcoms, Documentaries and "sick" comedy (and probably others, but these seem to be the types he recommends to me). There's a fair amount of crossover between the shows we enjoy, so it's always enough for me to check out a show he's recommended.

To quote here's the recommendation I got from him with Mongrels "You've got to see Mongrels, it's this sick show about animal puppets. Really funny, but disgusting as well."

My curiosity was peaked enough to give one episode a try on the BBC iPlayer and I enjoyed it enough to pick up the entire first season on DVD.

I think you can encapsulate the essence of Mongrels with the following description; it's an adult orientated sitcom in the vein of the Muppet Show. It centres around five animals who live in (or near) the back yard of a pub. There's Nelson (voiced by Rufus Jones), a metrosexual fox and the slightly neurotic lead of the show; his best friend Marion (Daniel Tetsell), a stray cat of an indeterminate origion who is best described as being - off the wall and easily persuaded into bizzare acts. Nelson has a crush on Destiny (the beautiful and hilarious Lucy Montgomery -
whos performances here, in The IT Crowd and "The Armstrong and Miller Show" contines the trend of my favourite actresses being called Lucy - she's now in the Lucy Hall of Fame along with alltime favourite Lucy Porter) an beautiful afgan of questionable intelligence; Vince (Paul Kaye) a proper fox and general hard case; and Kali (Katy Brand) who is best described as a chav pidgeon with ideas well above her station. They're joined by Gary (Tony Way), Destiny's owner - who barely interacts with any of them apart from Destiny, existing as the token human in the show, while the animals can talk with each other, they cannot communicate in a meaningful and direct fashion with Gary (though they can communicate with other humans, it depends on the situation).

Visually the show is quite a treat, the puppets are distinctive and well put together, this combined with the superb voice acting and talented puppetering brings the show to life and is quite capable of imersing the viewer to the point that you forget that you're watching puppets. The stories are outlandish and deal with a range of "taboo" subjects including genocide, incest, murder, castration/neutering, forced "bum love", inter-species fornication and much more besides. Mongrels is a show that considers no subject too sensitive to lampoon and it gets away with it thanks to the inhuman appearance of its cast and the obviously "non-serious" intent of the show. It's there to make you laugh, maybe make you feel a little queesy and entertain you at the same time.

Mongrels is not a show to everyone's taste; it's often crude, low-brow and at times downright unpleasant, but it is also - most importantly - exceptionally hilarious and the DVD of the first series represents exceptional value. Two opposable thumbs up!
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I recently got my Wii set back up and it's now become my standalone BBC iPlayer. I suppose I could use it for other things, but I can't really figure out what else it would be any use for (having grown tired of the balance board that came with it). Fortunately for me the BBC iPlayer works pretty well on it and as such I've been using it to explore the various BBC programs that are on offer. On Demand viewing is pretty much my preferred viewing method these days, I don't want to be tied to watching the television at a fixed day and time, I want television to suit my lifestyle and my choices. If I want to go out for a cycle or an impromptu gathering I don't want to go through the hassle of having to remember to record any shows I miss.

Sure, I could set up series links and what have you, but again that doesn't suit my temperament. I prefer to look at a list of shows and pick one to watch immediately rather than draw up a list of shows that I want to record in order to watch at some point. I can now dip in and out of shows, taking a chance on things like Cowards, Mongrels (more on this one next week for sure) and returning to shows such as My Family and Armstrong & Miller whenever I feel like it.

This is how I came across the BBC 2 show Vexed; something about its entry in the comedy section of the iPlayer made me decide to click the play button. I'm pretty sure it wasn't the synopsis provided - "Police detectives Jack and Kate have very different approaches to the job and life in general. In fact they disagree on everything" - that just sounds, well bloody awful. And I know it wasn't the cast - I've never heard of Lucy Punch, Toby Stephens, Ronny Jhutti, Roger Griffiths or Rory Kinnear before and looking at their imdb entries it's not really surprising - none of them have performed any monumental roles, though they've all appeared in episodes of shows I have watched.

Vexed is best described as a comedy/drama/police procedural with an irrelevant sense of humour. It's a mild spin on the old cop buddy format with two somewhat disparate partners pushed together - in this case you have the talented and dedicated but somewhat neurotic DI Kate (Lucy Punch) partnered up with a man who seems to be permanently stuck in the 1970s with his misogynistic, womanising, lazy, cut corners attitude - DI Jack (Toby Stephens). It's an old formula and while it's not really a stretch for a show to partner a woman with a misogynistic pig it is one that works. The relationship provides a lot of bounce between the characters (as long as the man isn't too much of a tw*t).

Vexed has just three episodes at this time and with its production company Greenlit Right Productions in administration (or greenlit for termination as The Shield would have it), it's hard to say if there will be any more episodes - especially given the mixed critical reaction. I know that Dan of Dan's Media Digest had a rather adverse reaction when I tweeted about liking Vexed - I believe he threatened to unfollow me! Certainly many critics and reviewers have had negative things to say about the show, in particular about Toby's performance as Jack.

But frankly I disagree, I felt the show had a certain charm from a police based television series that I hadn't seen since Police Squad - Vexed is certainly grounded more in reality than Police Squad was, but DI Jack has a Frank Drebin feel to him - an ironically charged, ham-fisted performance that is over the top - but it's still pretty darn hilarious to watch him in the same way it's hilarious to watch Frank over act in every single scene. He's supposed to be charming and great with the ladies, but instead he tends to come across as ignorant, useless and piggishly chauvinistic and I think we all know those are traits that some women are drawn to like moths to flame. (I said some ladies, I didn't mean you of course!)

Lucy Punch's performance as Kate is the more grounded of the two performances, she's a lot of fun - a mix of a strong woman combined with a neurotic wife desperate to keep her home life together. She's the smarter of the pair by a long margin and tends to use her head in problematic situations - Jack instead seems to rely on a mix of intuition and dumb luck, he's a man who can't remember how to plant a tracking device properly, carries a gun without training (and then loses it) and electronically stalks women to pick them up. An awful piece of work if you met him in real life, but pretty darn hilarious on screen.

It is more than likely that Vexed won't have any more episodes after the third one, the combination of critical panning and the large factor of the production company being in administration seems the right mix to result in it being killed off before it has a chance to develop and that's a shame in my opinion, because there's a lot right about Vexed. It's something different enough to get my interest and it's one of the few new British shows that I found myself enjoying - it's energetic, crude, offensive and born in a timeless fashion that makes it feel like it would be just as much at home in the 1970s or 80s as it is in this day and age.

The three episodes that have been recorded cover a trio of cases - the first involves a serial killer hunting single women, the second a depressed banker under threat of assassination (in a rehabilitation clinic) and the kidnapping of Gemma G - a member of a girl band. Each episode is 60 minutes long and self contained.

In all I'd say you should consider giving Vexed a try, it's an uneven show that is in its infancy but there are times where the dialog and characters shine out with sheer genius and show what it could grow into. Jack/Toby and Kate/Lucy have some solid on screen chemistry that bubbles up in exceptional ways at times, especially when they are dealing with Jack's general incompetence. It's a fun show and something a little different - so spend three hours of your time and give it a go. I'm glad I did.
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I recently watched and wrote about the first season of Frisky Dingo, a mad cap jaunt through the world of a supervillain named Killface and his newly acquired nemesis Awesome X (aka Xander Crews). Frisky Dingo is one of those shows you just have to watch to properly understand the brilliance of the show; it's energetic, funny, clever and frat house stupid all at the same time.

The second (and final) season picks up a short time after the cliffhanger ending of the first season, in an act of teenage rebellion Simon activated the Annihilatrix despite his father's plea not to do so. (un)Surprisingly the world was not plunged into the Sun, instead it was moved a short distance further away from the Sun, thus providing a solution to global warming.

Killface decides to take advantage of this gain in public opinion by running for President, something that the now destitute Xander Crews finds out about and decides to foil - if only he had the resources that is. Ka-Kow!

Much like the original season, Frisky Dingo 2.0 continues to develop and evolve both it's storyline and its characters, often in unexpected directions. This is, of course, a fresh and welcome change when compared to the format of many other cartoons (and indeed sitcoms), normally every story is, as you well know, self contained in a single episode. Frisky Dingo flaunts this by having each episode be a part of what came before, the ongoing storyline has some benefits and some disadvantages. It does manage to provide a narrative that you become invested in, it also gives you a wild ride that twists off to utterly unexpected places - it's only when you stop and take stock do you think "how on Earth did the story get to this point?" But, it also means that the show is almost completely inaccessable to anyone who hasn't watched it from the beginning. Events occurr on screen that make no sense when taken out of the context of the entire show and I believe that's at least one thing which contributed to the show's cancellation (and might also explain why it's spiritual successor 'Archer' has self contained episodes).

The first season of Frisky Dingo was a parody of current events, pop culture and the super hero genre. The second season retains this, but evolves it further by providing a strong parody of the US political structure. Killface, a viciously sociopathic individual 'cured' global warming - so he becomes the Democratic candidate; Crews on the other hand is a rich, decadent individual who lives almost completely alienated from normal society due to his bizzare isolation due to wealth - so naturally he's the Republican candidate. The pair are both moronic, have terrible habits and have no idea how to act like decent human beings (or even be one in Killface's instance).

Still, they push on - Killface supported by running mate (and rapper) Taqu'il, campaign manager Valerie and global warming poster child, the awesome penguine Baby Lamont. Xander supported by his wealth and Stan - his attempts to recruit a running mate prove a little... difficult to achieve.

Frisky Dingo was (and is) a shining example of how surreal and yet fantastic comedy can be. The ten minute episode structure the show follows really helps - much like it does in Harvey Birdman - there's no padding out of scenes, it's just plot, set up, gag, resolution - onto the next scene! This makes the show feel a lot longer than it is and absolutely packed to the (crab) gills with just about everything you could want from a comedy show with a sick sense of humour.

All that said, if still you're unsure about trying the show, perhaps this collection of clips from the show will help.

Second thought, that'll probably confuse you further, so let me try this angle instead.

Buy Frisky Dingo, it's the true American way. BOOSH!
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Starring:
Woody Harrelson
Elias Koteas
Michael Kelly
Sandra Oh
Kat Dennings
and Clark Johnson

The superhero genre is riding on a fair high at the moment, with the Marvel and DC heroes all making appearances in their respective films, films that range from the awesome (Hulk, X-Men: The Last Stand) to the truly awful (The Dark Knight, Spider-Man 2) - wait, did I get that the right way round?

These films tend to cover exceptional individuals gifted with abilities that set them apart from the norm, Spider-Man has some kind of genetic ju-ju that powers his physical strength and then another suit that turns him into an Emo.


Superman on the other hand has a whole range of abilities, the core of which is being a colossal jerk and even 'ordinary man' Bruce Wayne has the super power of being mega ridiculously rich.

But, if you span back far enough you reach a different kind of superhero film, I of course refer to the most excellent Mystery Men. A film that deals with a lower key kind of superhero, those one step above 'the man on the street'.

Well the Canadian born movie Defendor has echoes of Mystery Men in it's construction, and along with it's showboating compatriot Kick-Ass the film deals with a more honest form of superhero, a man who has nothing more than his natural abilities as a human, marbles, wasps and a whole lot of heart.

Woody Harrelson stars as the titular Defendor/Arthur Poppington, a kind hearted but slow man by day and a masked vigilante by night. Defendor uses a catapult, marbles, jars of wasps and his grandfather's trench club in his tireless search for 'Captain Industry', the man who killed his mother.

Despite the subject matter of costumed avengers Defendor is an exceptionally low key movie, Arthur casts a stark contrast when compared against any of the more typical superheroes. He's a below average man of limited intellect who dons the persona of Defendor as a way of escaping from himself. His optimism and determination are pretty much all that keeps him going out onto the streets time and time again. There's no high level heroics, there's no dodging of bullets, there's just one very ordinary man doing extra ordinary things.

Comparisons to Kick-Ass are pretty much inevitable when you're looking at Defendor, but I honestly prefer Defendor. Kick-Ass is a film that may have originally had some real intent behind it's message (maybe), but Defendor wins out due to it's exceptional heart, sad story of a lonely man seeking to connect with a world that looks down on him and the powerhouse performance that Woody Harrelson brings to the screen.

Woody is no stranger to playing "lesser intellect" characters, as he's often taken the role of the below average man in the past, but this takes nothing away from his time on screen as Arthur/Defendor. He delivers a scorchingly painful performance that is both touching and funny. It would be easy to make Arthur seem like a character worthy of nothing more than comedic effect and pity, but Woody rounds out Arthur and makes you engage with him as a human being.

As the story unfolds Defendor meets a prostitute (Kat Dennings), who draws him into a conflict by revealing the location of Captain Industry. He spends time interacting with the always awesome Clark Johnson (Police Captain Fairbanks), hunting after and tangling with a rogue police officer (Elias Koteas) and being interviewed by a psychiatric (Sandra Oh) after he assaults a man in broad daylight. Defendor has his share of successes and failures during the course of the movie, nothing comes easy to him but he shines out as much as he falls behind.

Defendor is an exceptional movie with a great deal going for it. It's able to make you laugh and feel sad at the same time, it can engage you both viscerally and intellectually and it has a meaningful story with a real point to it. Add to this the driving powerhouse that is Woody's performance and you have an enjoyable movie that will stay with you after it has finished.
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Bryan Fuller, the name is now pretty much synonymous with oddball television shows that have an endearing lead cast, an unusual concept and rapid cancellation. He first worked on Star Trek: Voyager before creating the rather fantastic TV Series Dead Like Me - which was cancelled after two short seasons. Most recently he's been involved in Heroes (now cancelled) and Pushing Daisies (cancelled); so it should be no surprise to anyone that Bryan's first project after Dead Like Me was cancelled by Fox just four episodes into its run. Fortunately for those of us who enjoy quirky comedy/drama with strong and well realised female leads the shows first season was filmed in it's entirety and is available on DVD.

Caroline Dhavernas stars as Jaye Tyler; a moody, withdrawn 'Generation Y' underachiever. She lives in Niagara Falls and works in one of the local gift shops with a co-worker she describes as a 'mouthbreather'. Jaye is distant and withdrawn, connecting with few people apart from her best friend Mahandra (Tracie Thoms), even her family (Parents Sharon - Katie Finneran, Darren - William Sadler, Sister - Karen Diana Scarwid and brother Lee Pace, who would star as Ned in Pushing Daisies later on in his career) find her hard to associate with. Jaye lives in a trailer park and has little to do with the world in general if she can help it.


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When The Inbetweeners aired on British television I cunningly managed to miss every single episode, so when I recently received the first two series as a gift from a family member I was finally able to rectify this oversight on my part. When I was given the set both my brother-in-law and my father warned me that "[You] find it a little hard to get into at first. [You] ask, why should I watch something with these horrible people?" But that, "It's worth it, because it's brilliant, revolting but brilliant."

Now I usually take television advice from my father with a pinch of salt; it's not that he has bad taste (he did watch the Survivors remake, but even he admitted how awful that was - and I still recall the incredibly amusing comments he made while we watched the Doctor Who special The Voyage of the Damned - a story redeemed only by "friend of this blog", the awesome Clive Rowe) it's just that he prefers quite a lot of different shows to the kind I like. My main genres are the US Sitcom and the non-procedural police show - his are Science Fiction and gross out British comedy (Mongrels for example). My brother-in-law on the other hand was introduced to The Wire and The Shield by myself and my brother; since then he's embarked on a journey of all that is great in television - I intend to lend him The Sopranos next.

So I wasn't exactly sure what I'd make of The Inbetweeners; but the general consensus seemed to be 'Stick with it, it's really good once you get used to it'. And that's good enough to make the show worthy of a watch, especially when it was a gift.

So what exactly is The Inbetweeners - well if you've been living in a bubble for the past couple of years (a bubble that hasn't been popped by George and Susan of course), it's a half hour situation comedy centered around four friends in their last few years of school. The principle/narrator is Will (Simon Bird) a public school boy transferred to Rudge Park Comprehensive school after his parent's divorce resulted in his mother not having sufficient funds. Will integrates himself with a trio of young lads; Simon (Joe Thomas) a relatively normal, if unpopular, young man; Neil (Blake Harrison) best described as a cross between a boy and large slightly slow puppy and Jay (Joe Thomas) resident pervert and world class overcompensator.

They form a somewhat unpopular, lower rung, clique - not the absolute bottom of the school pecking order (that would be the Freaks and Geeks of coruse), but certainly a long distance away from being near the popular kids. Nowhere to fit in, sort of in between everyone else (oh, I see what they did there - very clever, I guess). And what follows is two series full of hopes being dashed, unpleasant situations, unwelcome advances from a suspect teacher, vomit, pee and teenage fumblings towards the opposite sex. It's simultaneously hilarious and cringe worthy - just like all of the great British comedies.

Performances are solid throughout, but of particular note in the cast is the completely apathetic and child hating Mr Gilbert (Greg Davies) the lovely Belinda Stewart-Wilson as Will's mum Polly and the school bully Mark Donnovan (Henry Lloyd-Hughes). It's also worth saying that Blake Harrison's performance as Neil is consistently outstanding, he brings a naive charm and pleasant attitude to the role that makes him both fun and likable - even when he's admitting to ejaculating all over the interior of Simon's car.

So The Inbetweeners is another great British sitcom; it's charming and unpleasant, fun and painful, nostalgic and fresh. It captures the essence of the teenage wasteland and takes a pretty shrewd look at the British youth. It might be a little easy to shrug off many of the events in the show as being outlandish and unlikely, but a lot of what happens in it reminds me of my latter day school years and the quite frankly outrageous things we did at times - and just like the teenage injuries that have left scars on myself, The Inbetweeners will have lasting impact.
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