It is hard to put into words quite how bad the so-called 'comedy' was. It is equally difficult for me to convey my amazement that this got a second series when the brilliant 'Believe Nothing' of 2002 did not. Check out the other reviews and these will give you a few more details on what exactly makes this show so awful.
I came across it after switching off my VCR one night last Christmas, it was early evening, around 6.30, and there was some horrendous middle aged sitcom in ITV1, with a plot revolving around the fact that someone had invited a corpse to a dinner party and spent the evening trying to explain the mute, expressionless, rigomortis-riven state of the body as "a bit under the weather."
That, pretty much, is the level we are working at here. Quite honestly, to see that kind of material at that time of day was nothing but disturbing. The sight of a dead body being carted around a living room set, in a shopping trolley, was not only shockingly tasteless and profoundly and totally unconcious of how unfunny if was, but it was also down right offensive. Not only to somebody who may have lost relatives, but to people who enjoy real comedy and had been unsuspectingly given this junk instead.
The one plus point would be the appearance of Elizabeth Carling from 'Boon', but she is wasted here as the only member of the cast who can act. True the bizarre and confused scripts, which cross middle class, middle aged domesticity with poorly done ideas that wouldn't be out of place in a disturbing Kubrick film, do not give the actors (if that is an appropriate description) much idea about how to go about their job.
I am not against disturbing images on television, so long as they are though-provoking and useful. The images of dead people being merrily subjected to humiliation at chirpy middle aged tea parties is disturbing, but far from provoking any thought, it was just mind-numbingly awful.
I watched a few episodes of this, whilst reading, just to get a sense of how bad it really is. And the answer is Very. A total waste of time and money, probably the most ineffective and poorly-thought out TV show I have ever seen.
I came across it after switching off my VCR one night last Christmas, it was early evening, around 6.30, and there was some horrendous middle aged sitcom in ITV1, with a plot revolving around the fact that someone had invited a corpse to a dinner party and spent the evening trying to explain the mute, expressionless, rigomortis-riven state of the body as "a bit under the weather."
That, pretty much, is the level we are working at here. Quite honestly, to see that kind of material at that time of day was nothing but disturbing. The sight of a dead body being carted around a living room set, in a shopping trolley, was not only shockingly tasteless and profoundly and totally unconcious of how unfunny if was, but it was also down right offensive. Not only to somebody who may have lost relatives, but to people who enjoy real comedy and had been unsuspectingly given this junk instead.
The one plus point would be the appearance of Elizabeth Carling from 'Boon', but she is wasted here as the only member of the cast who can act. True the bizarre and confused scripts, which cross middle class, middle aged domesticity with poorly done ideas that wouldn't be out of place in a disturbing Kubrick film, do not give the actors (if that is an appropriate description) much idea about how to go about their job.
I am not against disturbing images on television, so long as they are though-provoking and useful. The images of dead people being merrily subjected to humiliation at chirpy middle aged tea parties is disturbing, but far from provoking any thought, it was just mind-numbingly awful.
I watched a few episodes of this, whilst reading, just to get a sense of how bad it really is. And the answer is Very. A total waste of time and money, probably the most ineffective and poorly-thought out TV show I have ever seen.