Nathan Barley: Series 1 [DVD]

I wanted to write a quick review, not just to say how much I personally love Nathan Barley, but to make a note on what I read in so many other reviews of this show. Many of the lower ratings for Barley state how much different Nathan Barley is from the rest of Chris Morris's work. And that's true, but mainly because it's not trying to be. Barley isn't exactly the socio-political satire of Brass Eye or The Day Today, it's attacking a social trend that I happen to believe is still very much alive: pretentious idiots who deem what they create as genius, and worthy of greater regard.

Personally, I think the show is more similar to the work of the other writer of the show, Charlie Brooker. Fans of his show Screenwipe or his Guardian column Screen Burn should get a similar sense of misanthropy from the character of Dan Ashcroft, the disenchanted journalist surrounded by idiots.

I'd also like to note that the show itself is pretty exceptional. The characters, while almost completely non-likable, are all well played. Julian Barratt is particularly excellent, especially for fans of The Mighty Boosh who see him exclusively as Howard Moon, and Nicholas Burns is also fantastic as the titular character. The stories can be simple, but this is definitely a character driven comedy, and the jokes come thick and fast, with the heavy majority hitting home.

Put simply, don't expect Nathan Barley to be the return of Brass Eye, repackaged as a modern day sitcom, because you're more than likely going to be disappointed. The show is as much the work of Brooker as it is of Morris, and manages to create a world full of wonderful, if horrific characters, which makes this, in my opinion, a brilliant comedy series. If you're a fan of casual misanthropy, I'd advise you to buy this, but there may not be quite enough stupid jokes for fans of My Family or Two Pints.

Chris Morris advances on the agitprop satire of Brass Eye, and the ambient weirdness of Jam, with the wonderfully caustic and gleefully vicious Nathan Barley. As others have noted, 'Barley' is probably Morris's most-subtle creation yet... a seemingly conventional sitcom about life in the world of the media, with cutting edge magazine publishers, idolised DJ's, crusading digital filmmakers and techno-wiz-kids all standing in as the centre of attention, complete with their own annoying txt-speak characteristics, daft costumes, anti-establishment opinions and ever-so-trendy idiosyncrasies. However, the joke here is not what is written into the scripts (though, more often than not, this is incredible funny!!), but rather, the notion that these kind of characters - which do exist in real life - will no doubt buy into the whole joke, watching each episode eagerly before going into the office the next day to confront their friends with the usual, "hey, did you see that bit on Barley last night... wow, that's so like me!!!", etc, etc.

Morris, writing here alongside Charlie Brooker, is to television what Luke Haines is to pop music... someone who can work within the confines of an industry, gathering acclaim and a legion of devoted fans, whilst simultaneously trying to bring said industry down from the inside!! Morris and Brooker seem to have a genuine contempt for the characters that they write about, and - as with Brass Eye and The Day Today - the joke sometimes becomes so scathing and so accurate, that you actually forget that you're watching a satire (a notion continued by Morris's faux-edgy directorial style, which has swerving hand-held cameras and random zooms to, I would hope, rip the piss out of all of these trendy new TV shows that want be challenging - in a Dogme-style sense - so bad, they can practically taste it!!). Some of the media pastiches are fantastic too, like the so-chic it hurts art gallery that consisted of nothing more than pictures of celebrities urinating, or the Russian underground website, which includes pay-per-view downloadable clips of "tramp marathons" and tooth-pulling competitions, complete with armed police threatening anyone refusing to take part with assault rifles and teargas.

The madness of the show works because Morris and Brooker tend to anchor the shows to the character of Dan (The Preacher Man) Ashcroft, a cynical and fairly down-to-earth sort, who seems at odds with the backslapping and self-congratulatory cretins who populate his office. As a result, the jokes work because we can relate to Dan's anguish at being celebrated by these fools, who find humour in irreverent spreads on child molestation, have chainsaw ring tones and have a unhealthy habit of composing raps while they get it on with the opposite sex (Nathan's seduction of Claire is absolute comedy genius... "yeah, well plastic, man!!"). My favourite gag would have to be Dan unintentionally creating a new trendy hair-style when he falls asleep under the paint table. "What's it called?" asks Nathan. "Errr... Geek Pie" replies Dan. Cut to Nathan on Japanese TV promoting said hair-style without a shard or irony or good humour.

Most of the jokes work on multiple levels, often acting as an out-and-out parody of the kind of pretentious, novelty, tabloid-bating nonsense that seems to be continually spat out of these nu-media outlets (digital television, on-line publishing, underground advertising, or remnants of the shallow mid-nineties art scene, etc)... but then, there's also the integration of the characters, the disgust and contempt that Dan has for his colleagues, and the sheer genius of the word play used by these bizarre caricatures (typical Barley invitation, "you should come dollsnatch, it's gonn'a be Mexico!!"... all this and more from the man who gave us "fact me till I fart"). The cast is great, padded out with characters form The Mighty Boosh and the brilliant Garth Marenghi's Darkplace (when can we get this on DVD??), so you know the timing and delivery will be pitch perfect and the plausibility spot on.

Nathan Barley may not scale the comedic highs of Morris's more on-the-nose satires like The Day Today and Brass Eye, but it is, nonetheless, very funny, not just in the way the jokes are constructed, but in the believability and plausibility of the characterisations and the recreation of that kind of self-conscious, self-styled universe. Morris (and Brooker) should be commended for taking a risk with this serious, creating something that almost passes for a normal sitcom, but with that much loved/much needed Morris contempt always lurking, just beneath the surface.

Nathan Barley is Chris Morris's (and co) hilarious sitcom that revolves around the life of self-obsessed new-media idiots and in particular, the titular character, a shallow, narcissistic individual who has no talent except for self-promotion but believes he is at the cutting edge of 'something'.

The soul of the programme is Dan Ashcroft, a features writer for vacuous style magazine Sugar Ape. Dan thinks his colleagues are all idiots but they think he is deeply insightful; this is the essence of Dan's own personal hell: every attempt he makes to escape only further impresses the colleagues which he despises, plunging him deeper into his inescapable nightmare.

If all of this sounds rather serious, it isn't - it's hilarious. While Dan is the heart of the show, Nathan Barley provides most of the plentiful laughs. Nathan's pitiful attempts to be too-cool-for-school and his blinding lack of self-awareness are the stuff of comedy gold. The incidental characters are all superbly well played, too; a special shout-out for the always outstanding Kevin Eldon, who has a fantastic turn as a none more wierd depressed barber.

Some critics have dismissed this show as having missed the boat: "It's so 1999!" However, it is just that kind of 'I'm with it, you're not!' attitude that the sitcom is parodying. Others criticised the show by claiming that if you didn't live or work in new-media in London, then you wouldn't understand the show. This is simply not true, anymore than saying that you have to be in the mafia to appreciate The Sopranos, or work in government to understand The West Wing.

If The Office represents the gold standard for U.K. sitcoms, then Nathan Barley can certainly stand alongside on the same podium. Whereas The Office is going for an inobtrusive, observational approach to comedy, Nathan Barley is going for a heightened, stylised feel, which is appropriate to the material. In short, this is a great, fresh show that, whilst it is not cut from the same cloth as Chris Morris's superb previous efforts, The Day Today or Brass Eye, still retains a distinctive style quite apart from anything else on the fool's lantern.