Saturday, October 01, 2005
TV: Broken Comedy: SPOONS Channel 4 Friday 10pm
A new series in Channel 4’s youth oriented Friday evening lineup, Spoons is a sketch show about modern relationships. The show focuses on the lives and loves of twenty or thrirtysomething urbanites pointing out the ridiculous hidden in ordinary situations. The humour varies from the more traditional punch line/catchphrase gag to the embarrassment based laughs pioneered by Steve Coogan (Alan Partridge) and Ricky Gervais (The Office). A warning to the squeamish: there are frequent strong sexual references and swearing.
The writing is good but, as is almost inevitable in a broken comedy, variable. The performances and direction are subtle and controlled, playing it almost straight, allowing the lines to speak for themselves.
Editing can make or break a TV comedy especially a broken comedy show. Fortunately this one is well put together; the jokes are tight and there is little dead time. The whole show has a definite attractive clean style from the logo to the lighting.
I always wonder when channels run programs such as this which appear aimed at twenty to thirtysomethings at a time (10pm on Friday night) when a large proportion of these people won’t be in the house. Perhaps there shows are watched by younger viewers aspiring to the twentysomething dating world or older people intrigued by it. I’ll leave it to the marketers. They probably know something I don’t.
If you are not offended by candid discussion of sex and you enjoy squirming in embarrassment at your comedy, you’ll enjoy this. For me it did not have the magic something that puts a show up into the 5 or 6 star bracket. But is has everything you could reasonable ask for in sketch show. Try it.
POTENTIALLY OFFENSIVE CONTENTS: Frequent strong sexual references and swearing.
YOU’LL LIKE THIS IF YOU LIKE: Smack the Pony.
RATING: ****
The writing is good but, as is almost inevitable in a broken comedy, variable. The performances and direction are subtle and controlled, playing it almost straight, allowing the lines to speak for themselves.
Editing can make or break a TV comedy especially a broken comedy show. Fortunately this one is well put together; the jokes are tight and there is little dead time. The whole show has a definite attractive clean style from the logo to the lighting.
I always wonder when channels run programs such as this which appear aimed at twenty to thirtysomethings at a time (10pm on Friday night) when a large proportion of these people won’t be in the house. Perhaps there shows are watched by younger viewers aspiring to the twentysomething dating world or older people intrigued by it. I’ll leave it to the marketers. They probably know something I don’t.
If you are not offended by candid discussion of sex and you enjoy squirming in embarrassment at your comedy, you’ll enjoy this. For me it did not have the magic something that puts a show up into the 5 or 6 star bracket. But is has everything you could reasonable ask for in sketch show. Try it.
POTENTIALLY OFFENSIVE CONTENTS: Frequent strong sexual references and swearing.
YOU’LL LIKE THIS IF YOU LIKE: Smack the Pony.
RATING: ****
