Small Screen Surfin'
Created | Updated Oct 4, 2003
Well, it's intro time again and I am still trying to find a niche in my biased
unbiased reviews of UK Television.
A curious anecdote is that in my first week I had three replies to my complete destruction of Big Brother, but my review of the 'Animatrix' last week was met with one reply from everyone's favourite cat, Greebo1. Was it a question of my review being over long? Or that people were just being nice to me because it was the Small Screen Surfin' pilot?
Strangely, that last (rhetorical) question subtly leads onto this week's review. Just replace 'me' with 'Hugh Laurie' and 'Small Screen Surfin'' with 'Fortysomething' Yes you've guessed it, this week the Surf's up for: 'Fortysomething', ITV1's latest
Sunday night offering.
All I can say is 'Oh dear'. Well that's all I can say in a nice way to describe this... comedy. Last week I made mention of 'Hugh Laurie's nasty 'Fortysomething' which I put off reviewing until this week because I wanted to give the programme a second chance. I'm a big
Laurie fan having enjoyed his comedic expertise in 'Blackadder II', 'A Bit of Fry and Laurie', and 'Jeeves and Wooster'; but 'Fortysomething' really disappointed me. Especially with all of ITV's hype.
Hugh Laurie is Dr Paul Slippery, he's fortysomething (44 if the go by the opening sentence of the pilot) and is having problems coping with it. He can't remember the last time he had sex and thinks he can hear what other people are thinking.
His three sons: Edwin (Joe Van Moyland), Daniel (Neil Henry) and Rory (Benedict Cumberbatch) are after what all young males want in life and wife, Estelle (Anna Chancellor),
is trying to fend off the advances of Paul's rival, Dr. Ronnie Pilfrey (Peter Capaldi).
It's quite hard to describe what type of comedy this is supposed to be. It seems a cross
between farce, slapstick and sitcom. Laurie is actually great as the stressed Slippery and
when he's on the screen the laughs are plenty (if only for his reactions), but the other actors
just seem... bland. It could be that I'm a Laurie fan that I see him as good where others fail
but the script is just nasty. Paul fears his wife is a lesbian in the first episode and in then in
the second he fears her having an affair.
Some critics described this as the live action 'Stressed Eric' which is a favourite
show of mine and is certainly not the same. Slippery's children don't actually appear to be
his, as he seems to be a step-parent or adoptive father to them, because they refer to
him as Paul which is only acceptable in the Simpson’s with Bart and Homer. Son Edwin doesn't
go to school which has coined the catch-phrase 'You should be at school!' which usually goes unheard as he is either ordering pornographic instruments or fridges, and Laurie seems to be just a flatmate than father figure. Same goes for Rory and Daniel. Daniel has been having an affair with Rory's girlfriend Laura, and even Laura's sister Lucy who appears to be some kind of hippy. But Rory doesn't mind and has gotten over this fact by the end of the first episode and Lucy has gotten over this by the end of the second episode in which she
first appears. There is no animosity, there is no sense of caring and the brothers just seem fine with it.
It's only Laurie that holds this programme together, but he doesn't appear to have a firm
grip on his household when the wife's away. Though Laurie raises a smile, it is not until the
last half hour of show two that has real comedic effect is seen. Paul is helping the father of
Lucy and Laura over a mobile phone with some problems that have occurred using a drug
prescribed by Dr. Pilfrey. The father dislikes Daniel Slippery and thus Paul is using the
alter-ego of Dutchman Dr. Christian Den Haag, a name he got from one of Edwin's video
deliveries, leading to a situation with Derek the Fishmonger (Stephen Fry cameo) throwing
Slippery out of the shop of his beloved fish.
I'd like someone else's opinion on this programme as I just don't find it entertaining. It is
a decent hour's watch before 'The Sketch Show' comes on but it's no different than
any other non-repeat comedy shows on at the minute. It's just that it's not real enough (not
to be confused with my opinions on reality TV). Other comedies make you feel absorbed like
the Office, Fawlty Towers or Red Dwarf, but this show tries to be bigger than it is. Don't
fall for the trailers.
