'Episodes' Series 1 Review

Wanking, a car crash, and Joey from Friends.

See, I knew you'd read on...

I wasn't sure what to expect as I eagerly, yet anxiously sat on the sofa waiting for episode 1 of Episodes (I have a feeling that a certain 'e' word may be written a fair few times in this post) to begin. I had a horrible feeling that the viewing figures for episode 1 would be sky high, but that the figures for future and successive episodes would be considerably lower. This is down to what I like to call 'The JOEY, IT'S JOEY OMG Factor'. Thankfully this series has nothing at all to do with Friends and its characters (though cheeky references are made). Hell, I love Friends, and I've seen every episode several times, but its moment has passed and we all need to get over it. The channel 5 spin off 'Joey' is probably the best evidence we have to support this notion. It was shit. Back to Episodes though. After the programme had finished, I found myself in a weird situation. What I had watched was moderately, no, slightly funny but quite entertaining - more so than its near empty barrel of laughs would indicate, at least. Episode 1 served as an introduction to the main characters in the series, except Matt le Blanc, who probably only featured for the best part of 20 seconds. Considering he was the only real reason I found myself watching the show in the first place, this disappointed me greatly. That said, the first episode comfortably did enough to make me come back to watch more thanks to neatly explaining who's who and why they're there, and also thanks to the still very much present curiosity I had about Episodes and what its six main episodes would actually contain quality-wise. It's worth me pointing out that this little review is serving only as a rough opinion of the show. I won't be giving away any big spoilers, because hopefully there will be people reading this that didn't bother with Episodes when it was being aired that may now want to see it. For those that have seen the show, you don't need it spelt out to you anyway - you saw it, and the overall storyline's not exactly hard to grasp. From here on in, very few plot details will be explained, but the characters and the general impression Episodes gave me will be.

I found that throughout the series, I felt as though Episodes was trying to make me switch allegiances with the characters at various points and that I was supposed to be sympathising with one character one minute, and then another the next. This didn't affect my view, however. I was nearly always on the side of Sean (played excellently by Stephen Mangan) and Matt le Blanc (played by...you guessed it, Matt le Blanc). Come the season finale, this may have changed a bit though. I found Beverly (Tamsin Greig) rather hard to like, however. Her character was good, just not particularly likeable. The persona of stubborn, forceful woman stayed very strong until the end of the series, and this definitely worked with the dynamics of the show. As a married couple, Sean and Bev seemed convincing in the way that they bickered and argued, yet (nearly) always came through just fine. Of course, I'm not saying that this was acted naturally and realistically; after all, we are talking about an American TV show here. I was very impressed with Matt le Blanc throughout pretty much the whole of the series. He came across as similar to a certain Joey Tribbiani, but never too similar to his infamous role. After all, when did Joey ever say 'fuck'? The swearing is in fact something that I feel adds to the show. It feels good to hear Matt le Blanc curse, and you'd be dead inside not to at least raise a smile at Beverly's raging expletive filled outburst. It makes Episodes feel like a bit more of an adult show, which Friends (I'm sorry to have to make the comparison, because the two programmes really aren't very similar) never truly did. The swearing also allows the intriguing blend of American and British comedy styles to blend together, not seamlessly, but rather well indeed. It makes the show feel fresh, and I think this may be what made me so compelled to watch on at points where the quality and regularity of sustained entertainment was dipping. The whole concept of the Hollywood dream not being what it's cut out to be certainly isn't original though, and as time went on, the concept began to grind. Luckily the focus shifts away from the potential nightmare that Sean and Beverly may find themselves in. The man at the top of the television dream killing factory was Merc. I found him to be average at best as an all round character. He never displayed an ounce of empathy or sympathy towards anyone else in his life (not even his blind wife), and all too often came across as a bit of an arse - meaning that as a viewer it was all but impossible to have any kind of connection with him. Granted, that was his role, but I think it may have been a little bit overplayed. The points at which he was the centre of the comedy (of which there are actually quite a few), I wondered whether it would have been even funnier had he not been trying so hard. Merc was heartless and fake, and this where I found Matt le Blanc to be such a good character. He and Merc are actually pretty similar, but there are regular moments where Matt shows that he does in fact have a heart and is capable of emotion to a reasonable degree. Unlike Joey, and unlike Merc, sex wasn't always on Matt's agenda. This doesn't mean that his penis won't come out to play though...I'll say no more. Other characters in Episodes seem to grate a little bit with me, but that's because I get easily irritated by American accents. Another particular highlight of a character for me, and it's a shame that she doesn't get more screen time, is Myra. She has little in the way of actual lines, but her gurnings and wild face contortions made me laugh on several occasions. I'm not sure whether she was sucking on a lemon or passing wind, but the expressions are priceless.

Episodes isn't necessarily a laugh out loud comedy gem. Nor is it especially creative. However, it does enough to set itself apart from the crowd, and you'll probably find that like me, you'll be sitting on the sofa again ready to watch the next episode, curious about what will happen next. It's no award winning drama, not at all, but it's oddly compelling in a way that I find difficult to describe. It's not hilarious, but it's funny. It's not quite great, but it's certainly good. The characters don't 'click' at all times, but they more than work - particularly the mini ongoing 'bromance' that went on between Sean and Matt. It'll be interesting to see where Episodes can go from here, because the finale certainly does change up the dynamics between the most prominent 3 characters of the cast. Thankfully the ending does strongly hint at a second series, so with any luck before too long we'll be able to see what happens next in LA. If you've not seen series 1 of Episodes yet, I highly recommend it. Check out BBC iPlayer.

I guess I should loosely assign a score out of 10 to Episodes...as though it matters

7.5

-

10

OCD

I don’t think I’ve actually got obsessive compulsive disorder, no. In fact, I definitely don’t; I’ve checked several hundred times now. I’m not really a perfectionist as such either. If I was I’d be a hypocritical one. That said, there are some areas in which certain details have to be just right, otherwise I’ll get genuinely a bit annoyed. None of it’s for superstitious reasons, but purely out of habit do I do it. Pedanticism in a grammatical sense is the main player, and in beautiful irony that I’m glad has come coincidentally and not through scripting, that lovely red zigzag line has slid itself beneath ‘pedanticism’ – indicating to me that it is not a word. Damn, it sounded good to me. Next time I’ll just stick to ‘pedantic antics’. Everyone loves a rhyme, right? My so called ‘Grammar Nazi’ ways are getting me nowhere, so where possible I do try to suppress the twattish urge to correct someone’s mistake or rant about their general display of embarrassing illiteracy. My weird OCD occurs in other places too though. For example, I have a seemingly insatiable desire for things to be symmetrical, I must have an even number of Facebook friends at all times, and I always find myself rubbing my face with my hand without even realising. Wait, if I always find myself doing it, then I of course must realise. What I mean is that for a period of time prior to the realisation, I would have been rubbing my face with my hand unconsciously – but I’m sure that you knew what I meant. I guess I had to correct myself there, didn’t I…?

How to get your blog seen by thousands of people

D’you really think I’d know?

Sod’s Law

“Typical, absolutely typical.” How many times have you found yourself uttering those words, or different words to a similar effect? We all do. Sod’s Law is an ever-present phenomenon; a ubiquitous fiend, ready to make you tut, roll your eyes, shake your head and/or wind you right up. Whether it’s a real notion or in fact just a figment of our imaginations is completely up in the air for debate. In this respect, it’s similar to fate. Personally I feel that as human beings with conscious minds, egos and personalities that are all far too easily damageable, we need to find something imaginary to blame to cushion whatever bad news may have reared its head. Whatever it is, it does seem to crop up a lot of the time. Returning back to home to England from a college trip to Munich made me focus some attention on Sod’s so called law. Every day I find myself searching the same musical artists and bands on Wikipedia, in the hope that even the smallest dregs of information have surfaced on the topic of any forthcoming material. Of course, rarely do I have any joy, and I’ll often find myself having to get excited over a hurried provisional release date, or even the title of one particular track on an album. So, after a 4/5 day long holiday of sorts in Germany, in which I choose not to check up on the status of my favourite artists’ work, I come home to find a few things. Elbow have a new single, which is soon to be released. So do the Foo FIghters (though it hasn’t been pushed into the limelight yet), but instead they’ve put out one of their album tracks on to Youtube. They’d even given the record a title, the thoughtless bastards. What shocked and rocked me most of all though, was Radiohead’s back-and-forth flurry of activity. First they released a single, with an utterly surreal video to boot. Then comes the title of their album. Then they announce that they’re soon to play their album via a live broadcast from Tokyo, before turning back on themselves, cancelling the plans due to safety concerns, and rush releasing the album for download. Typical, absolutely typical.

Guitar Zero

I guess this news was coming, but even so, I’m rather surprised by it. Activision, believe it or not, hasn’t been making as much money (nor have they been exploiting their fanbase as much) on their other games. Other than Cash-cow of Duty, I mean. Guitar Hero is being killed off (if only for a little while). Since the release of the very first Guitar Hero game, the sales figures and the profits have been gradually sliding. This is in no small part also down to the increasing size of licensing fees for the music. They’ve been consistently critically well received though, but it seems that nobody gets excited by the genre any more. Warriors of Rock sold pretty poorly for what you’d think is such a large franchise, and EA’s Rock Band 3 didn’t exactly fare too well either. Activision has always played it (too) safe with GH, so it was at least refreshing to see EA do something a bit different and ambitious, even if it was admittedly a bit shit. Sorry, no, it played fine, but there’s one slight gripe I have with it…IT’S COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY. ‘Pro’ mode sucked, because you may as well (for the time, money and effort you have to put into the game) just buy a real guitar (y’know, without the coloured fret buttons, and with strings…) and slog it out until you can play the damn thing. Silly. Make no mistake though, neither of 2010’s two big ‘rhythm action’ were bad titles by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s clear to see that the consumer is getting really quite sick of them. The concept’s got a bit boring now, and by the nature of the control scheme, nothing much can be done to alter the gameplay. That said, I always used to look forward to the next instalment of Guitar Hero, so I am pretty disappointed. I was desperately pining for either a Red Hot Chili Peppers or Muse version of the game, but I guess that dream will have to wait…! Thankfully, the series does still have a future. Think of it as though it’s just hibernating; it’s likely that in a few year’s time, most probably on the next generation of home consoles, we’ll be seeing the rejuvination of Guitar Hero. There’ll probably be some innovative twist, but it’ll mostly be driven by the fact that after a period of starvation, the public will be hungry for that type of game again. RIP for now Guitar Hero, I had some rockin’ good times with you…even if your tracklist selections were a bit…’meh’.
DJ Hero is also dead, but nobody gives a flying fuck.

Albums of 2011 - Part 2

It’s time for a second helping of what music I personally can’t wait for this year – not at all selfish of me, just blurting out my opinion and expecting you to give two shits…

Foo Fighters - Untitled
Due: April 12th
This one's been a long time coming, and now, with very little information actually available about it, it's nearly right around the corner. Scary stuff. Since the release of Echoes Silence Patience & Grace in 2007, the Foo Fighters have been rather quiet indeed - In 2009 they delivered the world a premature Greatest Hits compilation (along with the decent single 'Wheels'). It wasn't such a great CD. Well, it was, because the Foo Fighters are awesome, but there were a couple of glaring omissions from the tracklist and the very nature of releasing a Greatest Hits compilation led fans like me to believe that Dave Grohl's men were finished. Fret not though, because a beast awaits us. Mr Grohl announced that their seventh studio album would be rip-roaring from start to finish, with no empty space left for delicate, morose breathers of songs (a trend the band has always followed), or words to a similar effect. First thoughts? 'This could kick arse'. What makes this tantalising prospect all the more tantalising is the drool inducing 30second long ('short' more like!) teaser that's been handed to us. 2 words: spontaneous ejaculation. I'm bloody excited, and what better year for their heaviest LP yet to be released - Dave Grohl's going to be presented with NME's Godlike Genius award. Top stuff from a top man. Let's hope he can keep this momentum up for some serious Them Crooked Vultures drumming...

Check out the typically tiny teaser here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d0Ri9naqVE

It's come to my attention that since writing this piece, more information has been released. A couple of track titles have been loosely announced, and another teaser has been released to the general public. An incredibly low level gig has also been played, showcasing the whole of the as yet untitled album in full. Wowzers. I'll let you find these nuggets for yourselves...

Radiohead - Untitled

Due: 2011

I'll admit, I'm not particularly excited about this one, but nevertheless it deserves a place. There's no denying Radiohead's genius artistry. I guess. It's just that I find myself quite reluctant to appreciate them at times. There's so many variables to put you off; vocalist Thom Yorke's demented twitchings and wobbly vocals to name but two...well, they're the only two, but boy can they get on your nerves. I cannot deny how much I enjoyed listening to OK Computer though. Every single time it resonates with a node in my head, that tells me that it's a modern work of musical art. It flows, in a very Pink Floyd-esque way, and I'd argue that it's one of the only true classic albums to come from 90s, or in fact the next millennium's rock music. I'll do my best to be unbiased here, and put my strange opinions of Radiohead to the side. They're excellent, and they've always been ready to try new things - and crucially, make it work. This time, apparently they're looking at more ways in which they can innovate and shock the music industry. Last time around, 2007's In Rainbows was released in its entirety as a free download. Well, that's if you were a stingy little bastard (which I probably would class myself as...), because the idea was that you could choose how much you'd pay for the record. Perhaps the best idea would be to 'Youtube' it, listen to it, and decide how much you think it's worth then, before actually purchasing it. But as I was saying, Radiohead will be returning to the scene that they've revelled in leading, and though details are scant I'd watch this space...

Mr Yorke, looking a little bit more normal than usual, would you believe...?

Cheers for reading the second part of my long, drawn out saga of posts about what music I think is going to be worth your attention over the next year. Feel free to comment and have your say!

I'm writing this at a time which is most probably too late for my health, and also for my literary quality, so please, just this once excuse any grammatical errors (or in fact generally shit bits of writing) that you may have found. Proof reading is hard when you're spending half the time typing with your eyes half shut. Apologies.