Nathan Barley comes to TV

It was a nice surreal motif, I think, that now he's being pwned by Jonattan, these things appear in his pockets/bag of their own accord.

I don't know what's real life and what's chris morris any more.

Barms, it's next Thursday at Cargo and the lineup is: Lady Sovereign, JME, Crazy Titch, Klashnekoff, Durrty Goodz, Stush, Kano, Demon & Ghetto, Katie Pearl, some folks from Roll Deep, DJ Logan Sama and DJ Ross Allen and MC Riko. All for £5 advance, too.
-- suzy (theartskooldisk...), March 15th, 2005.

the junkie was singing about his slavery to an audience of black people for gods sake...

Sven, how can you say that Nathan isn't cynical after Episode 5? He didn't stumble into the idea that he'd get sex for his money.

I laughed a lot, but I'm not sure I should've been.

though, what is an ending anyway?

The end was very My Wrongs. I don't there's any cliffhanger element to it - the idiots win, Ashcroft is beaten (the degree of his incapacitation kinda irrelevant), the end.

I didn't want to ruin it.

Or do I mean 'Mexico'?

I'll buy this on DVD if it comes out, though.

The hospital bed bit was a bad move too - if it'd've ended on the rewinding tape and Nathan's grinning then we'd've got the point and we'd've had the idiots winning on their terms, making the incident part of Nathan's TV series and getting Dan to sign for it just wasn't needed. It seemed to be there for 2 purposes - one to bring back the rest of the cast and secondly for those "you can be a producer on my show" pronouncements. Fuck knows what conclusion you draw after that. That Morris and Brooker are saying that THEY are Nathan Barley? God knows. Seeing how we knew that Nathan was an idiot, the culture farm is being taken over by the idiots and that Dan was a bit rubbish during the first five minutes of episode one it's no sort of ending.

I can count a hideous amount of elements throughout that are like that - the right elements misplaced, wrong tone at the wrong time. I think when it comes down to it Chris Morris isn't a director. I wonder how script reads? I've already heard someone who worked on the show say they're mystified how such a fantastic script misfired so badly. Brass Eye and The Day Today seem tightly scripted almost to the frame, I'd be interested to see how detailed this one was. I suspect there was some Mike Leigh style "improvise the scene together" stuff involved.

There was a really good TV show in there somewhere, but its just didn't go hard enough in any direction to be anything. Not comedy enough, not comedy-drama enough, not sitcom enough. Too much mish mash. And certainly not hard enough on its targets.

-- why must we cut onions? (pau...), March 1st, 2005 3:29 PM. (Lynskey)

I stand atop the Clever Clog, riding the waves of recognition and respect. I also am aware in the back of my mind that I am now Comic Book Guy. Strangest. Few Seconds. Ever. . . . . Shut up. *falls out of window*

"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."

Claire should (would?) never have TOLD Nathan about her interview/pitch

Dan should've (would've?) known better than to try and play Nathan at his own game

the end scenes were really disturbing i thought - all throughout the show Dan seemed helpless and unable to control what was happening anyway, so he may as well be in the hospital bed for all the power he has. it was 'awful' to watch but then neither he or Claire were 'strong' enough to just tell The Idiots to stop/make them stop/take a stand - so they don't deserve the sympathy. it's this 'no hero/nobody wins' msg that seemed to emanate from the piece overall that i found unsettling (tho expected, this ain't Gervais & Merchant after all), but pretty fascinating to watch unfold. of course no-one is really satisfied by the end are they? but i don't expect a second series.

did you watch the whole series RJG? despite thinking it was rubbish?