That Mitchell and Webb Look (last night, BBC2, 9.30pm) was met with reasonable excitement last night… well, by me at least. It can be said that I quite enjoyed Peep Show, and have laughed hard at the various inclusions of David Mitchell on various shows. Sadly, it would seem that Mitchell is best when unscripted.
It would seem that the Beeb is pretty desperate to push this show, as our TVs have been awash with promos starring the pair as mock super heroes Angel Summoner and BMX Bandit. Unfortunately, the clip that has been rammed down our throat for the past fortnight featured second on the show, leaving you feeling like you’d seen it all before. That said, I still gave it a chance as it surely wasn’t their fault. So, just how did the rest of the viewing go?
Well, like many that have gone before it, That Mitchell and Webb Look, is an ‘irreverent’ sketch show with slightly off-the-wall characters in surreal situations. It’s hard to avoid any (The )Fast Show or Big Train comparisons, as they are two examples of this type of show working. Where The Fast Show and Big Train seceded, Mitchell and Webb have seemingly failed. The beauty of the former(s) is the depth and variety in character. Mitchell and Webb seemingly only had a small fistful, namely, repeated appearances by Angel Summoner, two drunken snooker commentators, two gay people and a drunk tramp called Sir Digby Chicken Caesar.
The whole thing is clunky and cloddish, but on hunting down a press release, it would seem that the show won’t repeat too many characters in future episodes ("at least half the show is made up of one-off sketches with characters we don’t bring back"). I fear that the one success of the show won’t return, and that was the anxious Nazis. The characters noticed the skulls on their uniforms, and a worried gobbed Mitchell turns and says "are we the baddies?" I rewarding moment in a wash of average comedy.[Mof Gimmers]
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I think one of the weaknesses of this outing, for me, was the failed attempts to reuse radio sketch material. The anxious Nazis were an extremely successful single radio sketch that got chopped in half and then had the best bit (comparing the plot arc of ‘baddies’ vs ‘goodies’ against the Hollywood cliches of eventual winners) removed. The ending was clumsy and unimaginative. Again, “Angel Summoner … etc” was very funny on radio, because it gave you a lot of mental imagery to play with. The TV translation was, unfortunately, exactly the sort of thing Ricky Gervais had so poignantly expressed in ‘Extras’ just moments earlier – good, lasting comedy has to be more than joke wigs and silly costumes. I’ll give it some more time to see if the production gets to match the underlying writing skills, but I agree, it was a bit of a disappointing start.
I Feel the show is an exccellent asset to modern comedy. Its a more likable and more satisfying comedy show than little britian thats goes for the shock value in the form of vomiting old women and racial slurs.
this show brakes the mold by NOT returning old characters which results in regurgitated catch phrases every week.
characters like Sir Digby Chicken Ceaser is brilliant with an off the wall humour that had me and my friends laughing for days to come.
the show has patential and obviously not all the jokes work, but i think its brilliant and i hope it finds its feet so that it can be the next fast show.