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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
No copy and paste catchphrases, thank the lord, 28 Jan 2008
This review is from: That Mitchell & Webb Look - Series 1 [DVD] [2007] (DVD)
After years of copy and paste sketch comedies, where people take one joke and bleed it to death with merchandising, video games and celbrities guests being bought in to say the same catchphrase I was amazed when this came along.
The Mitchell and webb look does not rely on the same joke, week in week out, and does genuinely attempt to keep its comedy fresh and new every episode.
This is so refreshing to see and the skills of mitchell and webb as comedic actors does help in lifting this above the average.
Whilst, there are still some catchphrase moments ('numberwang' etc) these are never over done and written with an air of uncertainty so that it is not overtly obvious what the final punchline is the second the sketch starts.
But mainly, the sketches are one offs, usually in the style of monty python in that they tinker with the format by stopping sketches half way through or having a sketch based behind the scenes of filming, this all leads to a superior sketchshow by people who clearly study and love the format.
It is certainly not going to get the audience Catherine tate has but it certainly keeps a much higher level of comedy. I reccommend this to anyone looking to see why sketch shows used to be (in the 1990s anyways) such a brilliant part of British comedy.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent., 7 July 2008
This review is from: That Mitchell & Webb Look - Series 1 [DVD] [2007] (DVD)
Sketch shows have a rich British tradition, The Fast Show, Harry Enfield And Chums, dating all the way back to Monty Python. However, first season aside, Little Britain heralded a different brand of sketch show, a lowest-common-denominator, catchphrase-and-gross-out based style. This predictability removes the one thing which made shows like Monty Python in particular great, namely the unpredictability. The whole point of a sketch show isn't to have recurring characters every week, but to just spent a couple of minutes in each little world and then move onto something totally different. That Mitchell And Webb Look restores this balance, reviving sketch shows as they were originally intended.
This is not to say that there aren't recurring characters in That Mitchell And Webb Look. The likes of delusional tramp Sir Digby Chicken Caesar, conman Barry Crisp and spectacularly surreal gameshow Numberwang all have repeat appearances, but crucially have enough material to make it worth seeing each time, with each rendition having a new spin. Also funny are the Extras-style, 'backstage' moments, with Mitchell and Webb playing perverse, childish verisons of themselves to great effect.
In addition to this, each episode is crammed full of one-shot sketches which deliver home-run gangs and then disappear; like the abusive detective on the phone, the man with the telekinetic power over biscuits or the BMX Bandit and the Angel Summoner. Best of all is the saga of Chip And Pin, a hilarious mini-biography of the rise and fall of four stage performers. An original, sharp, witty show that's well worth watching from front to back; and the DVD comes with a bunch of deleted sketches and outtakes which are worth watching, as well as an interesting (and funny) making-of documentary.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Das ist Numberwang!, 6 Nov 2007
This review is from: That Mitchell & Webb Look - Series 1 [DVD] [2007] (DVD)
That Mitchell & Webb Look is one of those sketch comedies which I didn't think was entirely fantastic, but some of the sketches had me in stitches and I had to re-watch them.
I suppose pretty much all sketch comedies are hit and miss as you can't love all the characters. Most of the sketches are catchphrase based, but they don't rely on them. Take the snooker commentators Ted and Peter for example, the sketches aren't solely reliant on one saying "..and that's a bad miss", the sketch goes on to explore the hollow lives of the guys and their homoerotic descriptions of the players.
The surreal sketches are the ones I love the most, such as the Clarinet of Embarrassing Secrets, Angel Summoner and BMX Bandit is pure genius, `Big Talk' is a brilliant spoof of late night political debate shows, and everyone seems to love the Numberwang sketches. The `behind the scenes' sketches are the least funny, maybe it's because they lack the creative energy of the rest of the programme, and they seem to interrupt the pace of the show.
There's nothing here that's going to change your life, you might find some of the sketches mildly amusing - but you'll find some of them to be absolutely brilliant. This isn't as well honed as the seminal Peep Show, but the unstructured format and the performances from two of our best comedy performers/writers means that this is an important piece of British Comedy which will proudly adorn the DVD shelf of many a comedy fan.
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