Category: Television

Alan Partridge’s Scissored Isle – Review

Christopher William Kinsey1 Comment

Steve Coogan returned to our screens this week with the greatest comedy creation ever. That’s no small tag but Alan Partridge deserves it. The expectation to live up to the legacy is almost as hard as writing a spoiler free(ish) review. But here goes.

Within the opening seconds it is clear Coogan will deliver on expectation. The mockumentary format, last utilised in Welcome to the Places of My Life, sees a downtrodden Alan referring back to his breakdown in Mid Morning Matters.

He replays the sheep-shagging comment incident and backs it up with another slip-up, filmed on a mobile phone during a dinner speech. This was Partridge putting positive spin on a bad situation. His mission now: to discover how he had become so distant from the “chavs” he poked fun at.

Even in the prologue there are hidden gems. Cycling down the YouTube page of the dinner video, the viewer sees a series of angry comments, beneath one Lynn Benfield asks a naïve question. It’s a good touch and a nod to the past.

Before the halfway point there are enough one-liners to refresh the storage banks of Partridgeisms. This is great news for a man that uses around twenty a day. From the ladies on the tills at Tescos having the mental and physical dexterity of fighter pilots to “the 9/11 debacle,” it’s clear Coogan and his writing team is on top form.

He takes a trip to Manchester, to see how those on the rough side of life live. There, he mingles with street gangs and parties with them. The morning after he conducts an interview with the Manchester Mayor. Yes, he rehashes the dub over interview gag from Welcome to the Places of My Life but it isn’t through laziness. In jokes go hand-in-hand with the familiarity Partridge has earned over the years.

The scenes here give Alan the chance to be his cringe-worthy best. The more self-aware Coogan has become, the more self-deprecating he can be through the medium of Alan.

He also mingles with those that have, the well-to-do. Once again he manages to show how he can be awkward and fail to fit into any social scenario (but we’d all love to have him in ours). Watching a farmer, he reflects back to his time at Tesco with the already classic line: “What is a trolley man but a shepherd of the town?”

It shouldn’t be understated how good Scissored Isle is. It combines all the best elements of new Partridge and leaves the viewer hankering for more. There’ll never be a third season of I’m Alan Partridge but one-offs like this make it bearable. It manages to strike a balance for the old generation of fans and includes fresh takes on the character, some that could be seen as slap-stick.

A once divisive character now has enough to please everyone.

Coogan seems at ease in Alan’s skin now. There’s no shame in playing the role and the comfort shows in the performance. Hopefully it means many more years of an ever-changing but always familiar Partridge on our screens, both big and small.

9/10

New Top Gear Review

Daniel Simms2 Comments

One of BBC’s flagship shows has finally returned to our screens. Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc replace Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May as Top Gear presenters. The interest in how they’d do has been intense as the shadow of the three departing hosts looms large. At last, we have some answers.

The show pulls no punches in the opening segment. Evans and Sabine Schmitz (a German female driver) head to the actual Top Gun facility in America. Cue movie quotes galore, one of which Sabine gets comically incorrect, and two co-pilots. Their job is to control a laser guided targeted system attached to Evans’ and Schmitz’s cars.

It was Dodge Viper versus Corvette Z06, and while the concept was fun, it becomes clear early on this new Top Gear is going to be very scripted and staged. “Hit the brakes and fly right by,” the famous quote used to avoid a lock-on. Without proper planning, two supercars would have been written off.

That’s not to say the old show wasn’t planned but it always felt natural. That lack of organic feel becomes evident once Evans and LeBlanc share screen time together. At this moment there isn’t a spark between them. It may come over time, and there’s enough promise to suggest they deserve the chance.

This week’s theme was USA v UK and was decided by driving Robin Reliants to Blackpool, a series of challenges (standard dragging Ice Cream vans around stuff), climaxing in Jeeps hauling the Reliants to the top of a hill. The main thing to take away from it is how much Matt LeBlanc looks like Ross Kemp if you put him in a helmet and goggles.

Breaking up the challenge was LeBlanc in a buggy skipping around Morocco. Again, it was a decent feature but the stunt at the end was pure script and felt out of place.

The show has justification sticking to the tried and tested formula. Star in a Reasonably Priced Car got an upgrade. It’s now a Mini and there’s an off-road section in the track. Gordon Ramsey and Jesse Eisenberg the first to take the new layout. But sticking to the old way too closely leaves Top Gear feeling dated.

Evans has said the show isn’t in competition with Clarkson and Co.’s The Grand Tour, and with good reason. They will never go head-to-head and The Grand Tour’s £140m budget dwarfs BBC’s own production. But what it does is highlight how “New” Top Gear now feels old.

It doesn’t help when Evans is sat in cars trying to do a Clarkson impression. He has enough natural charisma and presenting experience to avoid this. The problem is worsened by LeBlanc’s blandness. It could be seen as a cynical move having the American on the show just to increase its export value.

Overall the show just got a lick of paint when it’s clear it needed the type of overhaul Matt LeBlanc’s Robin Reliant required.

Based on the Top Gun section and the potential, it gets 6/10.

The Leftovers – Season 2 – Episode 8

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So Kevin took the magic potion and fell down the rabbit hole. Watching Michael Murphy drag him away at the end of episode 7 looked like the ultimate betrayal. Virgil had then taken the “easy way out” and blew his own head off.

But wait…maybe he did it to ensure he was there on the other side to assist Kevin. We find him in a purgatory of sorts. Fans of Lost cringe. I never had a problem with that particular show and understood what happened on the island (many still don’t). Despite what naysayers spout, Lost was pretty simple and clearly laid out by the end.

The same can’t be said by this turn of events in The Leftovers. The eagle-eyed viewer will have been picking up on clues. Like the guy reported in Australia that can’t be killed. Where’s Kevin’s dad again? Oh, and he pops up in this episode through some mystic TV channelling.

Kevin dons a hitman outfit and plays this persona to assassinate a version of Patti that is the leader of a large political Guilty Remnants movement. To do so will free him. Her bodyguard is the spiritual leader Wayne, from season one.

He’s told to avoid drinking the water in the purgatory hotel they occupy. This leads to questions of metaphor. Will he pass over forever with his acceptance of thirst? Is this a flash dream before death really occurs?

The answers are being drip-fed as the questions stack up.

The end of this episode is shocking and further demonstrates Justin Theroux’s acting ability.

Some may not like this turn used by the writers, I have zero complaints. It has made a great season become a classic.

9/10

The Leftovers – Season 2 – Episode 7

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In a show where the main character is hanging by a thread, eventually things will become unhinged. After Kevin’s soul bearing admission to Nora that he can see Patti, he finds she has left him. Nora is, and as we’ve witnessed throughout the entire story, a survivor. He’s viewed as a danger, so she ups and leaves with the baby and her sister-in-law.

This leaves Kevin with an angry daughter and an unwelcome offer. The latter comes by way of Michael’s grandfather Virgil, the guy that has touched kids inappropriately. Not the first choice a man should go to for salvation. He refuses – storms away, in fact – when Virgil says he has to face Patti in death.

By chance, Kevin gets a call from the troopers that his wife Laurie is at the gate requesting his presence. Handy that a psychiatrist pops into his life when he needs it. For the second time in two episodes he tells a woman he’s going crazy. This one agrees, and says she’ll help nurse him back.

Then we get a turn of events and a twist (so stop reading before you hit spoilers).

Kevin has a heartfelt conversation over the phone with the estranged Nora. She agrees to return if he is 100% fixed. So a long path to recovery with the professional help on hand, right? Nope. A trip back to Virgil and a jug of poison.

What follows will have you reaffirming that you should never trust a paedophile.

9/10

The Leftovers – Season 2 – Episode 6

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The sixth episode of the season throws us back into the main plot. Everything that has been back-flashed and filled in, all the new arcs set in motion, begin their final ascent – or should that be descent?

After the appearance of the Guilty Remnants in previous instalments, we now get the researchers making a return. It was thanks to the scientific study Nora came away $3m. This time they bring her only aggravation.

Along with this they have a theory. That certain people act as a “lens.” These potential lenses cause people within close proximity to vanish. Not a great suggestion to a woman who lost her entire family. A scientific explanation would be something people would search for after a rapture with the same intensity that religious folks would look to God.

The oddness here, is Nora is later told the lenses over the phone, about the spiritual connection. It could be this group are separate from the main scientific movement. Clearly the script writers have given themselves room for manoeuvre regarding cause and consequence.

The peak of the episode, and potentially the season, is a conversation between Erika and Nora. It takes place in the Murphy household after Erika has an outburst at a town meeting, assembled for the missing girls. While there, Nora robs a new version of the questionnaire used to determine the validity of sudden departures.

Both actresses build tangible tension and its possibly the most charged scene ever witnessed in a television show.

This would have made for a perfect episode, but after this scene Kev drops his bombshell to Nora. His acceptance and admission he is going crazy (or is he?) should have been a season peak but it was overshadowed by the previous scene. Instead it felt flat.

Still, worthy of its rating.

9/10