The Walking Dead vs. Dead Set

This will be brief because I watched them both over a month ago, but I wanted to jot some stuff down anyway:

My first thought was "All right, we can probably look at the pair as 'Americans reacting to a zombie apocalypse' and 'Brits reacting to a zombie apocalypse.'" But is that totally justified?

The Walking Dead is truly an AMC show: that is, it's slow. Quality at a snail's pace. There's a sheriff and his familial problems (more running time = more time to build relationships), a racist who saws his own limb off (introducing moral Issues with a capital I), and most importantly, relentless but typical zombies.

I'm a purist and don't like my zombies running about like they do in Dead Set. The Walking Dead had it right with its crawling, dismembered rotting corpses, dragging themselves across lawns...

Dead Set is roughly half the running time The Walking Dead's had so far. Maybe that's why their zombies were more frantic.

Another thing that annoyed me about Dead Set was that everyone was such a good shot, except that one time when Riq wasn't even hit after like five attempts because the story called for it. This bothered me so much it took me out of the moment every time. Brooker games, so perhaps this influenced all the one shot KO's.

The Walking Dead is a zombie show. A good one. Dead Set is a message. Using Big Brother as the backdrop for a story about zombies is nearly perfect: the way the zombie hoard charged the Big Brother house like Mecca, Nyman's producer character as the perfect villain, that final shot of Kel as a zombie shown on every screen... so good!

Something I loved in Dead Set: Kel as a strong female protagonist. I kind of wish that she'd been called Kelly the whole way through rather than her nickname, because then you get that "she's female AND the badass hero" contrast rather than the "she's the hero so she's also masculine so let's call her something less feminine" thing. Did that make sense?

Something I loved in The Walking Dead: Exploration of characters and relationships, slow burn, racial diversity.

Both excellent shows, though I think I prefer Dead Set because I appreciate the metaphor.

Britcom Samplers

...of the panel-show-regular-as-lead persuasion, mostly. I won't be watching more than one episode of these shows for various reasons discussed below, but I wanted to post a roundup with my preliminary thoughts.

Jonathan Creek (1997-)

Not a comedy. I expected to like this one, but it ultimately disappointed. Maybe because it's a product of the late 90's. Reminded me of the awful Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) 2000 remake. Featuring Alan Davies as a super-observant detective/magician's assistant. Not compelling enough to keep me watching, though the synopsis was very intriguing.

Whites (2010)

Now this Alan Davies-led show I liked! I watched all six episodes of the first and sadly, only, series. Reminded me of a classier, British Kitchen Confidential (Bradley Cooper American sitcom, not the book). It's a bit empty; it doesn't really go anywhere, which was a little frustrating, but not enough to turn me off. Good performances all around. Loved Katherine Parkinson and Isy Suttie. Pseudo-Moonlighting thing Davies' character and Parkinson's character had going on was weird because Alan Davies is Alan Davies and Katherine Parkinson will always be Jen (from the IT Crowd) to me. But I liked it. Moderately funny, definitely enough to keep me watching, at least, and directed well. Sad this promising show only got one series. Sign the petition!

Not Going Out (2006-)

Featuring Lee Mack as a character not unlike himself, similar to Jack Dee in Lead Balloon. (Speaking of characters playing fictionalized versions of themselves, check out The Trip or, with less fanfare from me, Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive.) A typical sitcom, but not bad by any means. If there wasn't better stuff on, I would probably continue watching this.

Miranda (2009-)

The appeal of this show is that Miranda Hart is so incredibly endearing. What's more, it made me laugh more than once, which is more than I can say for some of these other shows. The jokes are all self-deprecating pratfalls, which could get old, I suppose, but if I'd kept up with this show from the beginning I'd probably have kept watching anyway. I've seen the first episode and the one with Peter Davison, and I can't help feeling good afterwards. Cute, accessible. I don't even mind the canned laughter.

15 Storeys High (2002-2004)

I do like this one. Atmosphere is fantastic. Subtly funny, and Sean Lock and Benedict Wong are very good. Might keep watching, actually. Mark Lamarr helped write, too!

Lead Balloon (2006-)

Featuring Jack Dee as someone not unlike his public persona. Lead Balloon's kind of an extension of that, a sitcom background to the character Jack Dee affects when on Shooting Stars or Buzzcocks, etc. Haven't seen his stand up, but I assume it's more of the same, which isn't a bad thing. Cool to see Rasmus Hardiker, who I'm enjoying as Raymond in Saxondale right now. Some set-ups to jokes paid off later were too predictable to laugh at. Overall, seems like one of those shows where nothing happens, and I don't like Jack Dee enough to care about his fictional housekeeper's blood sausages.

Hyperdrive (2006-2007)

I like the idea of this one: Miranda Hart, Nick Frost, and Kevin Eldon in SPACE! Decent effects and set, but unfortunately, simply not very funny. The minutes seemed to drag on. Really too bad, as I absolutely adore all three leads. And space.

Friday Night Dinner - The Sofabed, 1.01

In this newish Robert Popper-helmed comedy, Simon Bird plays his Inbetweeners character with Tamsin Greig as his mother, Mark Heap as the creepy neighbor (always a joy to see), in a decidedly Inbetweeners-vibed milieu. As sitcoms go, nothing special so far.

When I watch sitcom pilots I generally evaluate by two standards: the ambiance/tone and the characters. Not many American sitcoms are funny right off the bat (exceptions abound, of course, ex. Modern Family), because the humor typically takes a bit to develop and find its footing. This is the same for tone and characters, though writers usually have a better feel for them initially, I find. The pilot of 30 Rock wasn't very funny, but Liz was Liz and Jack was Jack and the incidental music and direction set the tone for the series as it stands today.

That said, it's different for British comedies. Because the series are so much shorter (22-ish versus 6-ish), the qualities and quality of a sitcom are evident right from the start: the first episode of a series doesn't feel tonally separate from its successors. This is just opinion and personal experience with the genre, of course. Garth Marenghi's Darkplace was a fully formed idea from the beginning. Parks and Recreation wasn't. The Office US wasn't. They took a whole series to find tonal center and balance.

So, Friday Night Dinner. I've only seen the first episode so far. Feels like The Inbetweeners, which isn't a bad thing. Popper is very good. Shot well, cast well, but I'm not yet sure if the laughs are there. The funniest bits were Mark Heap, which did make me laugh out loud. We'll see how this goes!

Surprise Matt Holness!