Jonathan Creek

...It's as if this show was made specifically for me.

Comedy Night Done Good.

NBC comedies (sans lame two) were ON FIRE last Thursday. I couldn't choose a best or a favorite, which is saying something. I even loved The Office!

ETA: What really got me, I think, is how good-hearted all four sitcoms are. They're light fun with big heart. I do like my comedy black (Nighty Night, jam, etc.), but it's impossible not to fall in love with these really quality, feel-good shows.

Top 10 British Comedy Sketches

I'm green when it comes to British humor. Still working my way through the second series of Blackadder. Still haven't seen the Fast Show. But I am in love, and I want to share my favorites so far.

These are sketches from a range of shows, though you'll find I'm partial to The League of Gentlemen. Sketches, never more than seven or eight minutes, are succinct vehicles for storytelling. Character is often limited to one or two idiosyncrasies because the medium is short and the purpose comedic. However, I consider it a triumph if, within those short minutes, there is poignancy: a moment that makes me stop and think. Laughter could be secondary. You'll find that the higher ranked sketches on my list are ones that combine genres or feature a tonal shift. (Yup, I've written about this before.)

Some are just plain funny, though, and have made it onto the list for that reason alone! Some are also more accessible than others, I imagine (jump in with Tricky Linguistics. Hold off on Masterchef for a while...).

10. Masterchef (The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer)

Brilliant and surreal. I think The Smell of is Vic and Bob at their very best.

9. Pitch of Fear (Doctor Who Night 1999)

I can't not giggle all the way through this. This is solely because I'm a huge pre-2005 Doctor Who nerd. And look, Gatiss and Walliams!

8. American Sitcom Parody (Mash & Peas)
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The first (I believe) collaboration show between David Walliams and Matt Lucas. This sketch was from a special, and features some of my all time favorite comedy actors.

7. Know-Nothing Estate Agent (Monkey Trousers)

Bob and that wig. I don't know.

6. The Debt Collectors (The League of Gentlemen)

I've written about this one before. All of the League at their very best. Superb acting, superb comedy.

5. Tricky Linguistics (A Bit of Fry and Laurie)

Fry and Laurie are absolutely masterful. Not only are they unbelievable actors, they are freakishly intelligent. Stephen Fry has a way with words like no one else. This sketch made me feel like I was reading a good bit of poetry. Fantastic.

4. Elderly Sherlock Holmes (That Mitchell and Webb Look)

I've written about this one before, too.

3. Papa Lazarou (The League of Gentlemen)

Look at the strut. Listen to the gibberish. Papa's one of my favorite characters of all time. Delightfully dark. Typical horror-tinged League comedy.

2. Understanding Barman (A Bit of Fry and Laurie)

Perfect, perfect, perfect.

1. Injure For Friends (jam)

Julia Davis, queen of black comedy. jam is fantastically dark and surreal, straight out of the brain of Chris Morris (Brass Eye, Four Lions). The sketches that comprise its 25 minutes remind me of the sort of deranged collage of snapshots of murder victims and newspaper clippings you might find plastered on a serial killer's bedroom wall. It's that good.

Doctor Who Interlude -- Series 6

I could not possibly be more excited for the next series (and series-point-five) of Doctor Who.

The Monsters

Have you SEEN the previews? Fucking stellar. Creepy life-size dolls and space suits with no one in them. Moff's Vashta Nerada worked because everyone is innately afraid of the dark. They're afraid of Silence, who seems to be the Big Bad of series 6. I love that we're already set up for a big mystery.

Can't wait to draw monster/horror parallels between The X-Files and series 6!

Hopefully scarier monsters means a darker tone, as well. We've been introduced to Eleven, and he's been introduced to himself. Now he can be thrown around and tested a bit.

The Companions

They're the species the Doctor loves most, and any viewer knows they're the heart of the show, a reminder of what the Doctor fights for, why he does what he does.

It was interesting to me that through series 5, Amy seemed to be separate from us, the viewers. Rose Tyler was our eyes and heart, close to home, but Amy is fiery and distant. She's likable, and relatable to an extent, but there seems to be more to her, whereas Rose laid everything on the table from the first ten minutes of series 1. Moff revealed that there's more to her too, and I wonder if her specialness is different than the RTD brand of the same: Donna Noble, the most important person in the universe; Rose, the Bad Wolf; Amy Pond... I hope the reveal will be darker. Nothing Bad Wolf or DoctorDonna. Maybe something Judas. A betrayal would be quite twisted. We've had Amy's Choice and she chose the Roman soldier. But how about a variation on the theme, with a darker edge?

The cliffhanger to 6.5 will hinge on Amy, and maybe Rory, if Arthur's role as a companion expands (did he get opening title billing in the Christmas Special?). Series 5 was about Eleven finding himself, reconciling his past selves and his dark and light sides (and duplicity via the Dream Lord, Pandorica vs. TARDIS, etc.). Series 6 must be more external, more about his human sidekicks.

Also can't wait to find out who River really is. Astounding that in a fandom as huge as Doctor Who's, no one can agree on one theory. I think that's good story telling on the Moff's part. She is a great mystery. I personally hope she's the daughter of Mel and Glitz (hey, it fits) because I won't buy her as a Time Lord.

The Guest Stars / Spoilers

David Walliams (I resist the urge to insert a "Fucking" before his surname. I'm constantly repressing the urge to be more colloquial here. It's not in my nature to talk about TV formally, but I try). James Corden in episode 12 (THE LODGER IS ENDGAME. I knew it, knew it, knew it!!). Lynda Baron (AKA Captain Wrack in Enlightenment, one of the absolute best one-off characters this series has ever, ever had, in one of my favorite serials. She blew it out of the water. She is one of the reasons that story is as good as it is. If only she were back playing that character, though! What if.)

Walliams is an apt comic actor and he'll do fine with drama, or whatever the role calls for -- Corden's Craig was played for comedy though I'm sure he too can add weight if needed. What a thrilling casting, though. Surprising, at least to me, and warmly welcomed -- I find that comedic actors (especially ones as versatile as Walliams) often turn out to be fantastic in dramatic roles, perhaps because of their timing.

Also exciting is the return of Craig from series 5's "The Lodger." Something as big as another TARDIS had to have gargantuan implications. No way around it. TARDISes are of the Time Lords, and I am exhilarated hearing all the rumors and buzz about a possible return of John Simm as the Master (to regenerate soon after; who else is vouching for Colin Firth? Or Cumberbatch? Too exciting), or a female character with "a new face" (quoth Moff) immediately calling to mind the Doctor's extinct people... specifically the female ones. The Rani? Romana? President Flavia? I'm a huge nerd. I might be too excited about this. But Moff is a fan of the old, and my fingers are crossed. And, Gaiman's episode does claim to be influenced by The War Games, an absolutely stupendous, epic, Two-era serial -- has the War Chief reincarnated female? Is the Doctor a pawn, being ushered around a chess board (sounds more like The Five Doctors) by an invisible hand? Or hands? Time Lords, Silents, or other enigmatic being?

Rumors point to the reemergence of Time Lords, at least, if not Gallifrey. And that's huge.

And lest we forget: the ubiquitous Mark Sheppard! Lily Cole! Cybermen! Cybermats!

The Moff

I'd trust him with my life, basically.

The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer

I raved about The League of Gentlemen, I lauded Mitchell and Webb, yet now when it comes to writing about my newest obsession, Reeves and Mortimer, I find myself oddly stuck.

Their humor is silly and a bit surreal, decorated with various fake mustaches (plastic horses, magic marker, pipe...) and often featuring increasingly violent slapstick fights with bats and frying pans and cartoonish sound effects. They're an acquired taste, or they're tailor-made for the 13 year-old boy who likes jokes about passing wind. One or the other.

Mortimer met Reeves (real name Jim Moir) at one of the latter's stand-up shows, after which he approached him and found they had the same sense of humor, though it's really more than that -- the rapport of a double act is its triumph or downfall, and Vic and Bob demonstrate some of the best. You couldn't replicate the banter they do because you're not on the same wavelength. They're on a different plane completely. A plane where Ulrika Jonsson is a stewardess in a short skirt and Matt Lucas is the baby pilot in a onesie.

They probably don't consider themselves surrealists. I'm pretty sure they just do what they think is funny. This results in absurd, outlandish sketches and characters. Some are visually grotesque, adding to the surrealism of the show.

I guess what I find hard to write about is why I find them so funny, why I was compelled to watch this show, and Bang Bang It's Reeves and Mortimer, and the abysmal Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), and more than four series of the celebrity-style quiz show Shooting Stars. I think maybe it's because I adore the pair so much. I love their tremendous chemistry. It's a joy to see them interact. I also love the surreal element, intended as such or not. The Mighty Boosh certainly must have been influenced by these two.

Really good stuff. Juvenile and strange, but good. I don't know what else to say!

The Office - Threat Level Midnight, 7.17

Oh, Office. Harkening back to the halcyon days wherein Beesley was not so fancy or new, when Ryan started the fire (his cheesy pita, and reputation, up in flames) and went to business school, when Jim searched the state for Herr's Salt and Vinegar potato chips, all the while thinking instead of Mixed Berry yogurt and the artist who favored it.

I could reminisce for days.

This show is good. One of the better comedies on television. It's written well and has a terrific cast of talented actors. But it's past its prime and should end while it's still got its dignity. Its UK predecessor understood that it was a small show. It's about an office. Tim was complacent about his job and his life, and then he wasn't; and there was the arc of the series: he flirts with Dawn, runs into some roadblocks, gives up, settles, and then goes for it one last time. Dawn returning to the office party that night was the greatest payoff one could hope for. And there it ended. David Brent was not going to get more self-aware. The two relatable characters on the show found closure and the audience was left with a superb two-series show.

It didn't end because there weren't anymore jokes left to tell (unless Gervais had said anything to the contrary, of which I'm not aware). Is that what the American version is waiting for? There will always be jokes where there are good writers. But these characters are tired, and more pressingly, so is Dunder Mifflin itself. We've spent seven years with these people in this building and to me, it feels empty and hopeless. Tim and Dawn got out. Jim and Pam have settled (they're not even likable anymore, most of the time). I prefer Michael Scott to David Brent because there are more layers, but even those are worn through...

There will always be new viewers, and that's the lifeblood of The Office. They're casting a ton of new roles, too, so there's that. Keeping it fresh in Scranton. Though isn't that the oxymoron?

- - - - -

It's Always Sunny did Lethal Weapon and that was gold. I've been watching Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, and you cannot beat that kind of spot-on parody. Excellent. Threat Level Midnight (not even addressing the issue of these people agreeing to be in it, having the time and resources, etc.) isn't a great parody, and when it's shot and cut so fancily, it's not believable as a Michael Scott side project either. Lazy Scranton, and then this?

All in all, this season is about saying goodbye to Carrell and Scott, and I'm fine with an episode like this to look back and relieve glory days.

One day, I will write about Catterick.

Four box sets are on their way to me from across the pond.

1. Human Remains -- I cannot wait to write about this one. I've seen the first three episodes (of six) online, and they are brilliant. Julia Davis, of course, is the queen of dark comedy, and she is beyond fantastic in a myriad of vastly different roles. She has such a clear idea of what humor works and she pushes it in her writing and acting. Superb. Finished Nighty Night the other day, and though I didn't think the second series was as strong as the first (the first episode being the strongest of all, by far) I thought it was still a very strong, very funny series. Very Julia Davis. And then Human Remains has got Rob Brydon, whom I adore after seeing The Trip (someone buy this for me please?!), which is one of my top shows of 2010. Maybe ever. Anyway, these two actors came together to make Human Remains, a dark (in places, extremely dark) comedy in which they portray six different, dysfunctional couples. Brilliant.

2. The League of Gentlemen Are Behind You -- Amazon reviews were sort of negative, but it's the League, so I'm going to love it anyway.

3. Black Books -- BOX SET! SO EXCITED! What a stupendous comedy. More Linehan perfection. Can't wait for Moran on the commentary.

4. Catterick -- The series I keep saying I will one day write about. And after a re-watch or two, I totally will. Totally. One of my favorite series ever. So bizarre. Vic and Bob, Shearsmith, Lucas, Higson. You can't go wrong.