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Brian Donaldson finds the digital channels finally getting it right with the whole comedy thing. Sort of.
Older viewers may recall Christina Applegate as the slightly slutty teenage airhead from annoying 808 US sitcom Married with Children. And should you have not seen the cinematic likes of Anchorman or Employee of the Month in the intervening years. you may still have an embossed image of her in yOur mind as a bottle-blonde bimbo constantly on the phone or reading out loud from Garfield. So. watching Samantha Who? {E4, Thu 78 Sep, 70pm) 000 will be something of a jolt to the system to see her all grown-
up playing a victim of amnesia who wakes from a coma only to find that before her accident she was a fairly detestable. property-deveIOping individual. Coming over all My Name is Earl. she seeks to become a better person which proves harder than she thinks. Despite having been created by Irish chicklit-merchant Cecilia Ahern. this is barely dreadful at all. with fewer boardroom cliches than Ugly Betty and a central performance that wears thicker than Jason Lee's.
Probably the most original new US comedy on our screens is Rick and Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World (E4, Wed 24 Sep. 70.30pm) COO . That is. unless yOu know of another gay-based stop- motion animated sitcom doing the
rounds. Set in the fictional 'gay ghetto‘ of West Lahunga Beach (‘the gayest of gay ghettoes'). it features three couples who more or less despise each other. a gender non-specific baby called Echinacea. a cat called Pussy and Alan Cumming voicing a wheelchair-bound HIV-positive 50-year-old called Chuck Masters. Raucous. silly and Quiche- chokingly funny. it's a South Park for the rainbow set.
There's nothing especially original about prank-call show Foneiacker (E4, Wed 24 Sep, 70pm) COO. . it just happens to be ball-achineg funny. A shaded and balaclaved mobile menace adopts various personas (faux-innocent schoolboy. dodgy dealer. internet
DRAMA MERLIN 8801, Sat 20 Sep, 7.30pm 000
It would perhaps be unfair to describe this new BBC1 post-teatime ‘is it ok to let the kids watch?’ show as ‘Robin Hood meets Doctor Who’, but you can see what the schedulers were going for when they plopped this fresh take on the Arthurian legend into that particular slot. With a little bit of magic, some heavy armoury, good looking young ‘uns and charming oldies (Anthony Head as the King and Richard Wilson as Merlin’s mentor), this focuses on the early period of Camelot, with Arthur as a boorish prince, while the legendary spell-weaver rises through the ranks in an age when
scamster and a man who talks in abbreviations) to annoy innocent individuals in homes. restaurants and offices who are generally trapped by the notion that the customer. while not always right. has to be tolerated right up until breaking point.
BBC3 have produced a litany of comedic poo this year but against every odd in the book. Coming of Age (BBC3, Tue 30 Sep, 70.30pm) 000
does not stink. Scripted by a 19-year- old and filmed before a pandering studio audience. this has all the hallmarks of being a third-rate Two Pints of Lager. yet its filthy charm and
any evidence of sorcery was met with the death penalty. The opening episodes feature Torchwood’s Eve Myles being possessed by a vengeful crone and Two Pints of
tendency towards puerile pyrotechnics make it more than watchable.
There's plenty iuvenilia going on in music industry-based Massive (BBC3. Sun 27 Sep, 9pm) 00.
: after all. its
cast includes Paul Kaye. Ralf Little and Johnny Vegas. But again. it's of the irritatineg winnable variety. even if too many characters employ that overly familiar confused-appalled sitcom expression whenever anyone says ’does anything confusing appalling.
To find the real comedic failures at the moment we only need to press the appropriate digits for ITV2. No Heroics (/TV2, Thu 78 Sep, 70.30pm) O is a sitcom about a group of four superhero friends battling with the
Lager’s Will Mellor as a nasty knight handling demonic snakes as Merlin tries to subtly protect Arthur without his mercurial skills being exposed. While it may never match the Timelord’s show as a global sensation, Merlin pleasingly avoids the cartoon capers of Robin Hood, settling down into an existential tract with light wit and only throwing itself into brash swordfights and vivid special effects when the moment truly calls for it. And hats off to John Hurt who lends his gravy-smooth vocal cords to the riddle-setting Great Dragon.
(Brian Donaldson)
embarrassing details of haying dual identities and trying desperately to get their alter egos on the news. So. Alex AKA The Hotness meets a groupie who is only interested in his cape and mask existence while Sarah lEiectroclashi chooses not to save a sexrst shopkeeper from being robbed and shot in the guts. This might have been a half-decent sketch in That Mitchell and Webb Look. but for it to take up three hours of screentime shows how low things have slumped.
is hard not to have some affection for Katy Brand’s Big Fat Ass l/TT/Z. Tue 23 Sep, lOpmi 00 but when
an impersonator has to guickly mention the names of the people she's impersonating. you know that trouble lies ahead. The raft of female pop culture figures mocked is larger predictable rKate Nash. l..in Alien. Amy Winehouse. Kate Mossi. but most disturbing of all is that Katy Brand dressed as a British soldier proudly showrng off mobile phone images of tortured lragis is a dead ringer for disgraced Abu Ghraib abuser Lynndie England. Now that's Just not funny.
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