The reveiws i've seen have not been that complimentary. However I'll still be watching on Friday night.

hollis wrote:The reveiws i've seen have not been that complimentary. However I'll still be watching on Friday night.

Really?

I'm interested to see what the Groiniad makes of it, since they're being super complimentary about Jaques Piretti's (sp) new show (who, like Brooker rights for 'em.)

I can't see it being much cop.

Champion Rabbit wrote:I'm interested to see what the Groiniad makes of it.

There was a feature about 'Nathan Barley(/Box Of Slice/Cunt) in G2 last week. They didn't really talk about Brooker too much, prefering to focus on the 'enfant terrible' Morris, or whatever it is they are calling him these days. They did mention that CB writes 'Screen Burn' and that CM has written pieces for the Guardian, but it was non-partisan and non-committal.Pretty much straight down the middle.
Interestingly they did have a quote from some bloke who had a website called 'Shoreditch Twat' or something who said that the show looked very dated - referencing combat trousers and microscooters or something. But that guy sounded like a twat. From Shoreditch.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1405545,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1405547,00.html

I'm interested to see what the Groiniad makes of it

You can do that here and here.

undoubtedly made-by

Two coruscatingly funny individuals who have yet to put a foot wrong? Out of date - Hoxton may have come and gone but these are recognisable human types. It will all be in the details and with Morris on board there will be a feast of demented visual idiocy. Let's come back to this in a week's time.

Ooops, sorry. cjh beat me to it with those links...
Looking forward to the Nathan Barley C/NC thread.
Now, back to punching A&R men....

I agree with Neil Boorman. Don't forget Brooker and Morris' last TV series outings weren't great - the TV Go Home series wasn't a patch on the website, and 'Jam' was to 'Blue Jam' as not very good is to very good. Like NB says, I suspect you could set up a camera in certain unmentionable Hoxton caffs and get much more hideously weird conversation. I think it will be funny but not the evisceratingly, agonisingly, astonishing surf-out we know it could be.

Indeed; people tend to be very blinkered when discussing Morris. He's produced some amazing stuff, and some dross.

I'm having trouble imagining that his missed-the-boat attack on fashion-victim/media wannabe sitting targets has much mileage in it.

Rabbit, we shall not fight about this. I'm well above the deification of Morris but at the same time I can't think of anything he's been involved in over the last decade which could be described by any reasonably-minded person as dross.

The Richard Geefe column in the Observer was quite weak and disappointingly the ad-hoc conversations with Peter Cook were flabby but even those yielded some wonderful moments and a perversely inventive bending of English - my Blue Monday remix doorbell went off like an earful of cattleprods. Although perhaps quoting him 'like a student' is something that gets your back up?

But dross? these are some harsh words.

I think people need to get away from the idea that everything he does must be unrelenting, provocative or an absolute minutely accurate up to the minute satire. Have a listen to his radio shows from the mid 90s with Pete Baynham; they're goofballs engaging in lightly deranged banter in between playing Pixies records. As thin a premise that may sound it made for great listening. Because it was funny.

Nathan Barley a sitcom. It will be superior entertainment next to most of the slop currently airing. Bits of it will be very funny indeed. I'd urge you to tune in.

Cjh; you make a strong argument, perhaps I am being overly damning in my comments.

I shall certainly tune-in and see with my own ears and site-holes whether or not it am crap.

I am not above the deification of Chris Morris. He doesn't do dross. Some of his work is not as good as some of his other work. That's all I'll concede.

To keep on topic, every A&R guy I've met has been a cunt. I'm sure there are some good ones, somewhere, though.