The Young Ones (DVD)I started off with some mixed feelings about this one.
At first it felt very dated, but then when I was midway through the second episode I was starting to become more acclimatized to the humour again.
As the third episode finished that was me hooked.
Who needs a DeLorean when time travel is possible by simply buying a Young Ones box set.
Some of the material still hasn't transferred into the present as maybe it could have.
Ben Elton comes across as a bit of a twat whenever he appears.
Very much someone who was part of the establishment poking fun at it.
That he wrote a Queen musical makes sense now.
(His books are still good though)
However Alexia Sayle who I was less keen on first time around has managed to maintain far more relevance.
His surreal political outlook probably makes more sense now that then.
The key players who the show revolved around are all still great.
The stereotype gauge is on max throughout and the larger than life characterizations are still very recognizable.
It has to be said though that while there is much said about the birthing of alternative comedy you just can't get away from this being a mainly a slapstick show that is rooted in skits that are historically tried and tested.
Proof of that is in how my daughter at twelve loves that aspect of it.
I think I'll have to get myself the Comic Strip box set at some time and see how that goes down with the kids.
I watched all of, The Comic Srtip Presents...' boxed set last year and while it's budgetary problems didn't do the execution of either the cinematography or sound design any favours, there are episodes that stand out as being classic comedy, both of it's time and transcendent of it. 'Bad News Tour', is a British, 'This Is Spinal Tap,' finished just a short time before Guest and Reiner completed their movie. It's a really cool example of convergent artistic evolution. In my opinion, I prefer the depiction of lower-level industry hopefuls' delusions of grandeur and I actually feel the lead character has a more fleshed out personality. Yet, I don't think the two are terribly or too similar, in the end. Two tiny facets of a bigger beast.
ReplyDeleteOf course there are tonnes of surrealist moments and episodes littered throughout the series that may bewilder some, but when the gags aren't laugh out loud funny, you can always mutter, "Oh, that was quite clever".
'The Young Ones' is the bridge, the way point between it's component parts and an integral part of the BBC's stellar comic history and something that tends to find new fans every generation.