Comedy Series Review: The Office

The Office UK

This is one of the British sitcoms that was successfully adapted to the USA. Nowadays both the British and the American version are well-known and loved around the world. Not only the USA has received its own version, also Israel, Sweden, France, Germany, Chile and French Canada have their own versions. There are distinct differences and common factors between all of these. Here we will focus on the USA and British versions, as these are the best known and otherwise this post wouldn't end.

Both the English and American versions deal with a paper merchant, the British company is called Wernham Hogg, the American company is Dunder Mifflin. The British Wernham is lead by regional manager David Brent, Dunder is at first led by Michael Scott, but later by others including Deangelo Vickers, Robert California, Andy Bernhard and Dwight Schrute. The UK and American version share the same universe, this is not sure about the other series. The American show ran for the longest time, with 9 seasons totalling 201 episodes. The UK series ran for 14 episodes over 2 seasons and a two-parter Christmas special. Both the American and the UK series received several awards. The UK version won 2 golden globes and over 20 other awards, the American version only received 1 golden globe, but won more other awards (including 5 Primetime Emmys) and had nearly ten times as many nominations.

The Office US

Both series were highly critically acclaimed and received high ratings. Although the UK version faced cancellation after the first airing due to low ratings, it has since developed into one of the most successful BBC shows ever made and was sold to over 80 countries.

Both the American and British series followed a mockumentary format, which includes the characters sometimes directly addressing the documentary crew behind the camera. This achieves comic effect, since their requests to cut something from the episode are never honoured.

The Office in both versions is a highly appreciated show, both of which had an incredible impact on the world of humour and comedy. Both have generated many spoofs and have obviously inspired many other series. Both are great shows, go check them out if you haven't seen them yet.

Comedy Series Review: The Simpsons

The Simpsons on their signature couch

The longest running American prime-time, scripted television series, longest running American sitcom and longest running American animated series, the Simpsons have managed to captivate their audience for over 20 years. Over this impressive run time over 500 episodes have been aired, the series received a star on the Hollywood star of fame, countless awards, a 9/10 rating on IMDB and a solid world-wide fan-base.

At the start of the series it distanced itself from other series by producing strong, character-focused stories as well as a unique style of animation. It was clever, witty and in many ways a classic American sitcom, which utilised the possibilities animation offers over live-action.

Later in the series, many people agree it was around or just after season 9, the story shifted from character-based to more situational and focused on antics, rather than character. Many people and critics feel this has negatively impacted the shows quality. Sydney Morning Herald's reviewer Jim Schembri summed up most of the criticism in one quote:

"The central tragedy of The Simpsons is that it has gone from commanding attention to merely being attention seeking. It began by proving that cartoon characters don't have to be caricatures; they can be invested with real emotions. Now the show has in essence fermented into a limp parody of itself. Memorable story arcs have been sacrificed for the sake of celebrity walk-ons and punchline-hungry dialogue."

Matt Groening, the show's creator, in 2010

Matt Groening, the shows creator, doesn't agree. He has stated the show is still new, as good or better than it's ever been and there is no creative reason to quit. As the show is still being watched by over 7 million people per episode and even more people watch episodes on-line, there is still a strong backing from the fan-base.

In 2007 the Simpsons Movie premiered and became a huge success. The film focused on the family having to leave Springfield after Homer causes the Springfield lake to become so polluted the government decides to cover the town under a giant glass dome, and later to destroy the town. It made over $500,000,000, with only a $75,000,000 budget.

Although there is a lot to be said for the criticism, the Simpsons is still a very enjoyable show. It is no longer the sharp and witty series of the 90s but is has evolved into the funny animated comedy series it is today. Still worth a look, the Simpsons are entertaining for the whole family.

Comedy Series Review: It ain't half hot mum

The Royal Artillery Concert Party

This is one of the classic war-comedies produced by the BBC. With 52 episodes broadcast between in 8 seasons between 1974 and 1981, it was the second British sitcom to be set in World War II, after Dad's Army. This series focuses on a Royal Artillery Concert Party, that travels through Asia to amuse the troups fighting the Japanese.

As is customary in the army, all members of the group have nicknames and generally only addressed by their nicknames. The group consists of: “Shut up”, “Lofty”, “Parky”, “"La-de-dah" or "Paderewski", “Atlas”, "Nobby", "Nosher", "Solly" and "Gloria". “Shut up” is the commander of the unit and the only 'real' soldier. The rest are draftees and don't want to be in the army, but are happy to not have a fighting position.

Sgt. Shut Up

Tudor Brynne 'Shut Up' Williams is the sergeant-major and day-to-day commander of the group. He has been a professional soldier most of his life and hates being assigned to work with the concert party. He is often seen shouting at the men in the manner of a drill sergeant and is usually working on schemes to get the group disbanded and assigned to front-line positions. His schemes are always thwarted by the men, often with the help of the officers, even though the officers aren't always aware of what they're doing.

Colonel Charles Arthur Digby St John Reynolds is the most senior officer in the concert group. He is a huge fan of the group's work and always enjoys the shows. He is a solicitor which in all probability makes him the highest-educated officer in the group. He is the stereotypical British officer with a stiff upper lip and proper appearance and behavior. He is generally good-natured and tries to keep his easy life behind the lines at all costs. He thinks his life as a soldier in Asia is very hard, although he spends most of his time in a well-ventilated office sipping gin and he indulges in luxury dining with the elite.

Captain Jonathan Tarquin 'Tippy' Ashwood is the second-in-command in the group, but is an absolute twit. He has about as much military bearing in him as a cucumber and he is a huge fan of the show, in particular the drag-acts. Due to his position of authority and his lack of wit he is often manipulated by others to achieve their own goals. He is also known to often unintentionally ruin other's plans and he is pretty much useless when it comes to solving problems. His catch-phrase is “It's a tricky one, sir” which is his standard answer anytime the Colonel asks him for his input.

Bombardier 'Solly' Solomons is a highly intelligent, Jewish, soldier who always plays the male lead and is the party's producer. His main goal is to stay away from the front and he remained successful in this right up to his going back to England after the second series.

Gunner (later Bombardier) 'Gloria' Beaumont is a very effeminate man and a huge coward. He considers himself an artist and feels he doesn't belong in the war. He has difficulty adapting to the heat, mosquitoes and violence that comes with army life in India.

Gunner 'Lofty' Harold Horace Herbert Willy Sugden is a tiny man, with an amazing tenor singing voice. Even 'Shut up' can't resist his voice when he's singing. He is although often ridiculed for his appearance, especially by the Sergeant-major and he is always picked as 'volunteer' for nasty or dangerous tasks.

Gunner 'Parky' Nigel Parkins is the youngest member and possibly major Williams' son. As a result he is Williams' favorite and is often complimented by him. Huge blunders such as destroying the officer's mess (instead of clearing up the mess) are easily forgiven. He has no exploitable talent for the actual show so he is appointed the company clerk. The other men like having him in the group, since they figure the Major would want to keep them all safe as long as his son is with them.

The show's title card for the first 2 seasons

Gunner 'Paderewski' 'La-De-Dah' Jonathan Graham is the pianist. He has a university degree in English literature and speaks in a very upper-class accent. His education and accent are reason for Shut up to constantly mock him. His intelligence is often relied on by others – including the Major – to get them out of sticky situations. His plans often fail however, leading him to utter his catch-phrase “oh well, bang goes that theory”.

Gunner 'Atlas' Mackintosh is the party's strongman. He is very masculine and a little short-tempered. He is however good at heart and copes with the situation to the best of his knowledge.

Gunner 'Nobby' Clark is not the smartest of the party and often makes funny but useless comments. He has a whistling act and can do a marvelous bird imitation.

Gunner 'Nosher' Evans has a paper tearing act, and eats a lot. He often talks with his mouth full, spraying food on whoever he's talking to.

This series is a classic for good reason. Making fun of the army is, especially in Britain, a sure recipe for success. The British soldiers interaction among themselves and with the native 'Wallahs' is hilarious. The series wasn't repeated too much on British television due to the controversy over Michael Bates, an Indian-born white actor playing one of the natives. The series was repeated in other countries though and has had several DVD releases which had the success they deserved. 

Comedy Series Review: Arrested Development

Michael: “Tell me the truth. There's been a lot of lying in this family”

Lucille: “And a lot of love.”

Michael: “More lies.”

There's probably no better way to summarise the relationships within the Bluth family than the above quote. The Bluth family is the main family in the American classic Arrested Development. With the head of the family, George Bluth Sr indicted after years of “creative accounting” his son, Michael Bluth becomes the de facto head of the family and the Bluth corporation. Michael's authority is constantly being undermined by his incompetent and selfish older brother George Oscar 'Gob' Bluth. This leads to hilarious situations where Michael is desperately trying to do the good thing and keep the family together, while the rest is trying to fend for themselves.

Michael is a widowed single father, who has one son: George Michael Bluth. George Michael has many of the positive characteristics his father has, but is also less connected to the rest of the family. Throughout the development of the series, Michael's bad sides become more and more apparent and he is often seen ignoring his son's feelings and becoming more selfish and detached from the family.

Lucille Bluth, the family's mother

The series gets a lot of it's hilarity from the voice-over who tells the story in a dry manner and is often disillusioning whenever a positive development seems to come up. Also there are a lot of running jokes, such as George senior mentioning there is 'money in the banana stand'. After the banana stand is burned to the ground, he reveals he meant this literally: there was $250.000 cash lined in the stand's walls.  After finding out Michael burned the stand down, George Sr. becomes infuriated, trying to strangle Michael and demanding to know how he could be clearer when saying “There's always money in the banana stand”. Another running joke is a family member stating “I've made a huge mistake” whenever they get themselves in over their heads.

The story features a lot of 'archive footage' and 'home videos' which were often made with a handheld camera to create a feel of amateur videos. These are often used in flashbacks to the family's past, often before the series started. This sheds some light on the character's background and the family history.

The Bluth family, left to right:
GOB, George Sr. Lindsay, Tobias, Michael, Lucille, George Michael, Maybe, Buster

Because most of the family's assets were seized pending the investigation into George Sr.'s accounting, they are forced to live in a model home, which was intended for viewing and as such doesn't have real plumbing or a sewer connection. Also most of the furniture and appliances are cardboard models for show only and don't really work. This doesn't exactly contribute to the family's bonding. Also most of their cars have been seized, leaving them with only a stair car, which was originally used for boarding the private plane. The plane had also been sold to help deal with the financial trouble. This odd mode of transport contributed to many hilarious scenes as it was used to break people out of prison, take down homecoming banners and for promotional purposes during election campaigns.

The dysfunctionality of the Bluth family and their complex internal relationships with secrets everywhere make for a hilarious sitcom. With 68 episodes already aired, a 9.2/10 rating on IMDB and the creator hinting on a film and fifth series to come, this series is here to stay. And so it should.

Comedy Series Review: The Young Ones

The Cast of the Young Ones;
Jerzei Balowski, Neil, Rick, Mike and Vyvyan

Over 30 years ago, in London, there was a successful club circuit for young stand-up comedians. The success of the scene prompted the BBC to approach a few of the most successful stand-up acts and make a series with them. This became The Young Ones.

The Young Ones follows the lives of Rick, Neil, Mike and Vyvyan, four lazy students living in a shared house in the early 80's. The massive differences between their personalities and their regular violent clashes made this series one of the big hits of the time. It's profound violence, blood, sex and foulness had never been seen before in any mainstream comedy series and certainly not in a flagship series at the BBC. Several attempts have been made by other series since to incorporate these matters into their shows, but never quite as successful as The Young Ones.

Rick is a wannabe leftie anarchist and Cliff Richard fan. Deep down he really is quite conservative and doesn't actually come from a worker's class background, but from an upper-class conservative family. He writes horrible poetry and refers to himself as “The People's Poet” and “the voice of a generation”. Vyvyan has described him as a “classic example of an only child” due to his entitled nature and tantrum-throwing.

Mike refers to himself as 'the cool guy'. It is unclear whether this is his actual surname, or just a title. He assumes the position of ladies' man and natural leader of the house. These positions are also challenged, as he is often shown to share his bed with a blow-up doll and in one episode he nearly admitted to being a virgin. His authority is mainly enforced by Vyvyan tolerating his authority and Rick's sucking up to him.

Vyvyan isn't entertained

Vyvyan is often described as a bastard. He is a punker with orange hair, and metal stars apparently embossed into his forehead. He sometimes portrays superhuman strength and abilities, such as his extremely high tolerance of alcohol, his ability to eat virtually everything, his teeth being able to bite trough bricks and his power to lift people above his head with apparently little effort. He is on occasion able to solve complicated calculations fast and without the aid of a calculator or even pen and paper, although he can't tell time from a watch.

Neil is the final member of the house. He is a clinically depressed hippie and stoner who has attempted suicide on at least 4 occasions in the show. He is generally abused by the rest of the house, and is forced to perform housework and cook for the rest. He believes sleeping causes cancer and as such tries not to sleep, although he is on occasion shown sleeping. He has several hippie friends including Warlock, Neil and a female friend called Stonehenge. This possibly makes him the house-mate with the most friends and definitely the only one with a female friend. 

The Young Ones aired 12 episodes over 2 seasons as well as several specials including a hit single with Cliff Richard's Living Doll to benefit Comic Relief. Despite its short lifespan it has won a BAFTA and has had several DVD releases around the world. An American pilot was also made for FOX but it wasn't picked up, much to the relief of Nigel Planer (Neil) as he was the only actor from the original cast to join and he was worried he'd have to spend 6 years with people he hated making sort of a grubby Benny Hill. The series remains popular and has inspired numerous other alternative comedy shows and sitcoms. 

Comedy Series Review: South Park

Eric Cartman, Stan Marsh, Kenny McCormick, Kyle Broflovski

South Park is Comedy Central's flagship show. Always rude, often gross, sometimes shocking and eternally on a quest to stretch the boundaries to the max, this show has attracted a huge fanbase over its  17 season lifespan (so far).

Matt Stone and Trey Parker are the masterminds behind this stop-motion animated comedy show. They first created an animated short entitled The Spirit of Christmas in 1992. This showed the four boys, largely as they would be depicted in the later series, although Kenny didn't have a name yet, and who is now Eric Cartman was called Kenny. A mutual friend and FOX producer then asked them to create a second animation for a Christmas card. This was created 1995 and already looked like the later series. The FOX producer sent the card to some of it's friends who uploaded it to the Internet, where it became one of the first viral videos ever.

After FOX refused to pick up the series the second short was shown to Doug Herzhog, executive with Comedy Central and he commissioned a series to be made. The first episode started the gross and shocking tradition straight away, entitled Cartman gets an anal probe and featuring Cartman getting

Muhammad, Prophet of Muslims and Lord of Fire

abducted by Aliens who install a giant satellite dish in his rectum. This episode later got a sequel with Cancelled, which has the exact same opening, after which the kids realize they've had that scene before.

Part of South Park's signature style is its animation. Although only the pilot episode was complete cut-out stop-motion, the rest of the series is animated by computer, keeping close to the stop-motion style of the pilot. This creates a unique and instantly recognizable style, which is now found on countless t-shirts, sweaters, bags, lunch boxes etcetera.

Due to it's kind of humour and complete disregard of conservative values and liberal causes and its portrayal of religion for comic effect, South Park has generated plenty of controversy and criticism from parent- and teacher-associations. The depiction of religious characters such as Muhammad has resulted in death threats and even the creator's home addresses were shared via the Internet. The depiction of Buddha snorting cocaine led Sri Lanka to completely ban the series.

Snookie from Jersey Shore makes an appearance on the show

The series follows a group of 4 primary school boys: Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny who go through all sorts unlikely and absurd adventures. These include trips to outer space, trips to Imagination-land, a battle against Wal-Mart, a bunch of Mongolians invading the Chinese restaurant City Wok and a war raging over 2 Canadian comedians which involves Satan and Saddam Hussein.

The absurd, gross, disgusting humour and sharp criticism of politics, religion and society as a whole, with a complete disregard for people's feelings and with no limits as to who gets insulted makes this series an absolute gem of contemporary American comedy. It has aired over 200 episodes and it's nowhere near over.

Comedy Series Review: Scrubs

The original main cast of Scrubs

If you like cutaway gags, bromance, slapstick and a fast-paced screenplay, chances are you will enjoy Scrubs. This medical comedy-drama premiered in 2001 survived for 9 seasons, which is remarkable in today’s fast-changing television world. So why did this show survive that long? And why did it end?

Character development

When Scrubs first started, the main characters (J.D. and Turk) were two interns in the Sacred Heart hospital, still learning to be real doctors. J.D. was training to be an attending physician, whereas Turk was training to be a surgeon. Throughout the series the characters mature and rise through the ranks, resulting in J.D. eventually leaving the hospital to become a residency director in a different hospital. Turk becomes Chief of Surgery. In the last season both J.D. and Turk work as teachers in Winston University, while Turk continues his work as Chief of Surgery. This way of developing characters offers the audience a chance to bond with the characters over time. Also, since the audience ages at approximately the same rate as the actors and characters, it stays easy for the viewer to feel connected with the characters.

Humour

Although there is plenty of (romantic) drama in Scrubs, it is also full of humour. As a result of this, in many countries it is aired by Comedy Central; a broadcasting company focused on humour and comedy. The humour in the series takes on many forms, the most recurrent being slapstick and bromance and cutaway gags, in the form of vignets which can often be surreal.

The slapstick in the series is often due to the janitor, usually simply called Janitor, who is in a constant battle with J.D. This started with J.D. allegedly sabotaging a door with a penny, causing Janitor to have to repair it. This prompts Janitor to seek revenge, often by hurting J.D. in any way he sees fit.

J.D. and Turk have a special relationship, described as a bromance, or guy-love. They are not in any way romantically involved, but their friendship goes way beyond the levels most people are comfortable with. This results in hilarious situations, especially when they are ridiculed for it and try to change their ways.

A major motive in the series is J.D.’s fantasies. These come in the shape of him dreaming away and imagining a situation developing in an often absurd manner. In later seasons it becomes apparent his co-workers are aware of this and sometimes imitate him. Also some other characters in the series are shown to have similar fantasies.

Janitor

Drama

Although this blog focuses on humour it’s impossible to discuss Scrubs without mentioning the
drama. There’s a lot of it, but it’s executed in a way many people don’t find disturbing. It doesn’t impede the humour and on occasion it actually contributes to the comedy. Much of the drama involved includes J.D. and his relationships, notably with Elliot Reid, another intern and later doctor, as well as with Kim Briggs, a doctor and the mother of J.D.’s first child. The dialogue and roles within the relationships are generally well-written and realistic enough to be relatable, but still weird enough to be funny.

The end

After the seventh season Scrubs was well-known, well-loved and popular around the globe. At this point NBC announced it would not continue with an eighth season and it appeared as though the series was to end at its peak. Then ABC announced it would be airing an eighth season and then aired a ninth season as well. During these two seasons extra characters were introduced, some of the main characters got lesser parts or completely disappeared and the focus shifted from J.D. and Turk to Lucy Bennet, who takes over narration from J.D. after only a few episodes of introduction.

These changes alienated a large part of the series’ audience and resulted in it being cancelled after the 9^th season. This is a pity, since the series was so strong and popular and, had it been cancelled after season 7 or 8, would have been fondly remembered for years to come. Although the series still has some following and is still being broadcast in different countries, it is not as popular as it used to be and it probably never will be again. The older seasons are still quite popular though and the DVDs featuring the older seasons are well-sold around the world and that is the true legacy left behind by J.D., Turk, Janitor, and all the other marvellous cast from Scrubs.

Comedy Series Review: Monty Python

Monty Python in 1969

This legendary English group are experts in surreal comedy. They started a revolution in comedy and inspired countless other comedians and humorous acts in Europe and the Americas alike. There is much too much to say about these legends, so we'll keep this to a short introduction and go in to specific parts in later posts.

Monty Python were formed my John Cleese, Eric Idle, Graham Chapman, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones. Perhaps their most famous work is the television series Monty Python's Flying Circus which first aired in 1969. Now, over 40 year later, the series has been rerun on different stations countless times translated or subtitled in many different languages, the troupe has won numerous awards and have been quoted by hundreds if not thousands of artists and comedians as major inspiration. Their influence on comedy has been compared to the Beatles' influence on popular music and pythonesque is now an officialy recognized word in British English.

Pythonesque (ˌpaɪθəˈnɛsk)

adj

1.                        denoting a kind of humour that is absurd and unpredictable; zany; surreal

Nobody ever does...

Besides Monty Python's Flying Circus Monty Python is known for their films. Some films they have made as a troube include Monty Python's The Meaning of Life; Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Monty Python's Life of Brian. Notably two of these films ridicule Christianity. Life of Brian is a parody of the story of Jesus Christ, and The Holy Grail is a parody of the classic legend of King Arthur going on his holy quest to search for the Holy Grail.

Recurring factors in both the Flying Circus and the films is the fact that nearly all female roles are played by the (male) members of Monty Python. Generally this results in a badly-disguised man in a dress with little to no make-up and an exaggerated high-pitch female voice. This is used to comic effect as well as to eliminate the need to hire female actresses for minor roles.

Besides their on-stage work and their films and television series, Monty Python have also recorded several albums with humorous songs. Some of these songs were derived from, or later used in, their sketches or films.

Monty Python are among the most legendary comedians in history, along with the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Laurel&Hardy. Why this is completely justified will be looked at in later posts. Don't go away!

Comedy Series Review: Little Britain

Daffyd - The only gay in the village

Little Britain, the guide to Britain for the non-British is an award-winning comedy sketch show produced for the BBC by Matt Lucas and David Walliams and voiced by Doctor Who-star Tom Baker. The show focuses on “Great British institutions” which are mainly extreme parodies of normal
people and groups such as FatFighters (a WeighWatchers parody), libraries, (mental) health care, and the elderly. As with most British humour there is an awful lot of self-deprecation to the point where it became controversial with, mainly older, members of the public taking offense and the series was re-edited for release on BBC 1, after the original cuts had aired on BBC 3, which is aimed at a younger audience.

Although the series received some criticism for supposedly suppressing minorities in both the British and American version of the show, it has also received great critical acclaim and a following among the public.

'Lou' and 'Andy' two main characters

Something the show's creators get too little recognition for is the good they have accomplished with their show. Ever since its inception they have worked with Comic Relief to collect money for charity work around the world. They have created dedicated sketches, often together with celebrities, to raise awareness or to urge people to donate to Comic Relief.

Another charity effort, which has gained somewhat more recognition, is David Walliams' work for Sport Relief, another charity. His efforts include swimming the river Thames, swimming the Channel, swimming the Street of Gibraltar and (co-)hosting several Sport Relief telethons. He has raised millions of pound for Sport Relief with his activities.

Also both creators are advocates for gay rights, even though they often ridicule gay people in their show. Also David Walliams isn't gay and he is married to a Dutch female supermodel (Lara Stone). He has however stated that it shouldn't matter whether one is gay, straight, bisexual or whatever else, since he figures people fall in love with a person's character, rather than genitalia.

Nowadays both actors, although no longer working on Little Britain, have successful careers, with Lucas living in West-Hollywood and both actors working on different projects. 

Comedy Series Review: How I met your Mother

Ted and Barney, the show's best character

A father telling his children the story about how he met their mother. How exactly does this turn into a 9 season show with over 200 episodes? By being bloody brilliant, that's how.

This series follows Ted Mosby, an architect who tells the story to his two children in the year 2030. Because he is telling the story in the future, the episodes showing the story are set in the year of airing. This is an interesting choice, since major real-life events will have to be incorporated into the series in some way and can not simply be omitted.

Ted lives with his best friend Marshall Eriksen and later also with Marshall's fiancée Lily Aldrin. Ted's self-proclaimed 'best friend and bro' Barney Stinson constantly tries to hook him up with girls. Barney himself is a real ladies man, having slept with over 200 women and authoring a 'Playbook' with trics and stories to get girls to sleep with him. These can be anything from pretending to be a famous and/or rich person, or working a girl's daddy issues. He has a near-obsessive love for his suits, on one occasion grieving over the loss of one of his suits as if it were a family member.

There are quite a few running gags in the series, including Barney's occupation. When he's asked what he does for a living he invariably answers “Ah, please...”. In the last season (SPOILER ALERT) he reveals his job is to P.L.E.A.S.E. (Provide Legal Exculpation And Sign Everything) and as such being a fall guy for the company's wrongdoings. He has however been conspiring with the government in a long-term scheme to take revenge on his boss for stealing his girlfriend prior to the series (/spoiler).

In the first few episodes Ted meets Robin Scherbatsky, a local news anchor, whom he sometimes refers to as 'aunt Robin'. She's a news anchor and Ted dates her for a while. They even plan on moving in together but this doesn't work as Ted isn't willing to part with his belongings (which were mostly given to him by his ex-girlfriends). Ted continues to tell his children exactly who he has dated previously to their mother and goes into inappropriate detail in regards to his premarital sex-life.

The series as a whole has some traits in common with Friends and has been compared to it as well. The main difference is there is no Ross-and-Rachel-like relationship in this series. Also the setting and comedy have been updated and include more modern technology. Over the years the season has gathered a solid following and remains popular. Reruns are currently aired by different stations and the series can be found on services like Netflix and on many websites.

The shows final episode led to explosive backlash

There is however one massive flaw in this series. It's been talked about hundreds of times, and will probably be talked about again, but the final episode is horrendous. In the last 30 or so minutes a decade of television was ruined. Let me explain why. The show is called How I met your Mother however, in the last 30 minutes, the mother is killed off by a disease she was never before mentioned of having, and replaced by the 'aunt' who the main character (Ted) had been chasing for years prior to meeting the mother. The rest of the series had shown Ted and Robin together before, and had always tried to explain why they shouldn't be together. To throw all this away in the last thirty minutes of the last episode is disrespectful to the mother's character, to Ted and the mother's relationship and to the fans. 

A great show, which died a messy and bloody death. I would still wholeheartedly recommend the series to anyone, but stop the last episode halfway and imagine your own ending.

Comedy Series Review: Futurama

Created by the Simpson's Matt Groening and David X. Cohen, this series about life in the 31st century was one of FOX's many successful animated sitcoms, although production was in later seasons carried out for Comedy Central. The series follows Philip J. Fry, a pizza delivery-boy from the late 20th century who accidentally fell into a cryogenic tank on new year's eve 1999 which freezes him for 1000 years, thus he ends up in the year 3000 on January the first, mere minutes after midnight. The series follows his new life in the 31st century, trying to adapt to all the changes and deal with the loss of his old world. The series is wildly popular, won 6 primetime emmys and several other award and has found its way to the Internet in the form of several popular memes.

Alongside Fry the main characters include Turanga Leela, Professor Farnsworth, Bender, Amy Wong, Hermes Conrad and Dr. Zoidberg. They are also the crew of Planet Express, the delivery company owned by Professor Farnsworth. Professor Farnsworth is said to be extremely old, with his age most recently being mentioned to be 170 years old, and he ages along with the series. He used to be the oldest member of his family, until Fry came out of cryogenic preservation. Fry, being a distant uncle of the professor, is currently the oldest member of his family.

Fry and Leela

Fry's love interest is Leela. She's the captain of the Planet Express ship, although the used to be a career placement officer at the cryogenics lab, where she implanted a chip into the hand of fresh defrostees to identify which jobs they were best suited for. When Fry refuses to have his hand chipped, he flees and Leela follows him. After meeting Bender, a humanoid bending robot who just deserted his job, they are all hired as the new crew at Planet Express, since the old crew just died on a dangerous mission. The matter of former Planet Express crews dying becomes sort of a running joke in the series, with Professor Farnsworth sometimes assigning jobs to them which have cost the previous crews their lives. At one point the crew meet a previous crew, which was believed to be dead, stuck inside a giant four-dimensional space whale in the Bermuda Tetrahedron, which Leela manages to pilot back to Earth by the power of sheer obsession.

Leela is first believed to be an alien, although no-one knew where she came from. She was raised in the Cookieville Minimum Security Orphanarium where her parents abandoned her with a note covered in mysterious symbols to give the impression she was an alien. Eventually Leela finds out she is in fact a mutant, but as mutants are not allowed on the surface, her parents decided to give her up to the orphanarium in hopes she'd have a better life as an alien orphan.

Dr. Zoidberg is an old army friend of the professor. Also he is the only surviving member of the first crew of the Planet Express, having escaped from the whale by escape-pod. Zoidberg as a character is modelled after Jewish stereotypes, although most of his characteristics are not distinctly Jewish. He is an atrocious doctor with poor understanding of basic human anatomy, although he believes himself to be an expert. He is otherwise poor, unsuccessful with females (even of his own species), smelly and altogether disgusting. Also his manners – especially his table manners – are non-existent. He is not mean-spirited or of bad heart, just helplessly incompetent in just about everything. He often lies about his wealth and status and tries to appear of higher standing than he really is. This is something more people in his family do, so it's uncertain if its a Zoidberg thing, or a family or species characteristic.

Bender Bending Rodriguez

Bender is a bending unit robot fuelled by alcohol. He is generally an inconsiderate, selfish robot, although he does develop a close friendship with Fry. A humorous characteristic he has, is his dependence on alcohol. If he goes without alcohol for too long he grows weak and starts rusting around his mouth and chin, giving the impression of a beard. He more or less looks like a human would after drinking too much alcohol for a prolonged period of time often would look in a sitcom.

Futurama has aired 140 episodes. In 2013 the series had it's finale, but the producers have indicated they would like to continue or to make a film to conclude the series. Futurama has a huge fan base around the world and the episodes are still broadcast around the world by Comedy Central. The series has survived a cancellation before and many fans are hoping for a return of the series. Fingers crossed!

Comedy Series Review: Fawlty towers

The Cast of Fawlty Towers

Who doesn’t know this landmark of British comedy? Still regarded as one of the best televised comedies ever made, this sitcom still captivates and entertains viewers all over the globe. In the 1970s, the series won 3 BAFTAs; in 2000, a good 20 years after the final episode aired, it was named “Best British television series of all time” by the British Film institute; in 2006 the series came second only to Frasier in The Ultimate Sitcom Poll of Comedy Writers and in the same year Basil Fawlty (one of the main characters) ended first on Five’s Britain's Funniest Comedy Character Poll. All this is truly remarkable for a series consisting of only 12 episodes. So what makes this such a hit?

The establishment

During the 1970s there was a class struggle in the UK where the lower-paid working class started to rebel against the wealthy upper-class establishment. This sometimes led to clashes such as the miner’s strikes of 1972 and 1974 which derailed society to the point the government introduced the 3-day week to conserve power. The miner’s strikes are sometimes mentioned in Fawlty Towers, mainly by Major Gowen, who’s always looking for his newspapers to read up on the outside world.

This general discontent felt by many British people made them susceptible to the ridicule of the establishment throughout Fawlty Towers. Mainly Basil Fawlty’s attempts to attract upper-class rich people and the resulting chaos played in to the animosity many people felt towards the real-life upper-class.

Racism

Racism, mainly in a fairly innocent form, is recurrent throughout British humour. In Fawlty Towers a running joke is Manuel’s lack of skill in being a waiter and the English language. The usual excuse for this is “He’s from Barcelona”. Basil Fawlty’s racism towards the Spanish waiter usually bounces back to hit Fawlty - often literally. This kind of mildy racist humour is popular not only in the UK, but around the world. Even in Spain, where in the translated version Manuel is Italian.

Slapstick

Slapstick is one of the oldest forms of comedy and is as popular as ever. There is no lack of slapstick in Fawlty Towers, mainly on the expense of either Basil Fawlty or Manuel, the Spanish waiter. Generally there are no real consequences to the violence and slapstick, although Basil does end up in hospital once and Manuel is at one point locked in a burning kitchen.

Recognizablity

Many people who have stayed at hotels or been to restaurants are familiar with bad service and incompetent management. The series was based on the real-life Gleneagles Hotel, run by the Sinclair family. John Cleese (Basil Fawlty) described the Gleneagles’ manager Donald Sinclair as “the rudest man I've ever come across in my life.” And modelled the Basil character after him. The over-the-top ridiculous acting and drama in the series is laughable because it is so close to the truth and to existing stereotypes.

To sum up, Fawlty Towers is a timeless mix of many of the famous aspects of British humour executed brilliantly by a formidable cast. It is still loved by many and will continue to be popular for years to come. 

Comedy Series Review: Family Guy

Five time Emmy Award-winning show Family Guy is an international hit. With over 200 episodes already aired and the twelfth season currently airing, the show is going strong. Focusing on the Griffin family this series follows the antics of Peter, Lois, Meg, Chris, Brian and Stewie, with several recurring characters such as Glenn Quagmire, Joe Swanson and Cleveland Brown. Cleveland moved away from the neighbourhood and got his own spin-off show in 2009. When The Cleveland Show was axed by Fox in 2013 Cleveland moved back to Quahog, Rhode Island and resumed his old spot in the show.

Much of the humour is derived from pop-cultural references. Some films such as the Star Wars series and the Ghostbusters films are often referenced. Also there are a lot of cutaway gags, often caused by a character reminding a scene from their past and the episode then cutting to that memory. These cutaways are often absurd and portray unlikely situations. These sometimes include celebrities or mythological and religious characters. The parodying and referencing of other material has led to lawsuits, although in most cases the court ruled the use of copyrighted material justified as fair use, and/or protected by the First Amendment. One case was however settled out of court with undisclosed terms.

In early seasons a recurring joke came in the form of the family's baby (Stewie) having super-villain aspirations, often devising plans and weapons of mass destruction with the goal to get rid of things he doesn't like and in particular to kill Lois (his mother). His plans fail without exception but he does manage to build an entire room and fill it with weapons and evil machinery without his parents noticing. Over the course of the series Stewie's character developed and lost much of it's evil side. Although it is sometimes still referenced, he is now a more stable character, with strong sexual (sometimes gay) tendencies and he has formed a strong bond with Brian, sometimes showing a romantic or sexual interest in him.

Brian is the family dog. He is able to talk, walks on his rear paws, drives a hybrid and is an often pretentious left-wing wannabe intellectual. He has been 'working on his book' for years without result, drinks humongous amounts of booze and is a real ladies man. Besides alcohol he has used cocaine and marijuana and he smokes. He is also an Iraq veteran. Despite these definite human characteristics Brian still has clear dog perks as well: He sometimes barks at people or dogs, wags his tail when he's happy or aroused, he likes to ride up against people's legs and his parents were normal dogs. Brian has a human son called Dylan although it is questionable if this is really his son, given the fact that Dylan is older than Brian. Brian has accepted Dylan as a son though and managed to change him from a marijuana smoking, violent teenager into a well-mannered young adult.

Another recurring form of humour used is self-reference. Often these jokes are about FOX, the company the series is made for, or break the fourth wall. An example of a joke about FOX is Peter telling the family FOX has cancelled them to make room for a list of other shows. Lois asks if there is any hope, to which Peter replies they might stand a chance if all these shows were cancelled. The joke works even better because all the shows named, were actually cancelled by FOX during Family Guy's hiatus. Other recurring jokes include the ridicule of FOX News and the use of catchphrases such as Quagmire's “Giggity giggity goo” and Peter's “Freakin' sweet!”

Family Guy manages to keep a consistently high level of funny and it survives because it isn't afraid to adapt and evolve to keep it fresh and interesting. If you haven't seen it, go check it out!

Comedy Series Review: Bottom

Eddie Hitler and Richard Richard

Bottom is a British sitcom in alternative comedy created by and starring Rick Mayal and Adrian Edmondson, famous from the London stand-up scene from the late 70s and the BBC hit-series The Young Ones. Similarly to The Young Ones, this series had the two actors portraying two house-mates, although no longer students. Richard Richard (Mayall) has many similarities to the Rick characters from The Young Ones whereas Eddie Hitler (Edmondson) shares many traits with the Vyvyan character. The main difference is in that the Bottom characters are much, much more violent toward each other than in The Young Ones.

Since Richard (Rich) and Eddie are two bachelors living together, they have few interests. Cleaning is not one of those, which results in their apartment being consistently disgusting. The interests they do have include women, sex with women, booze and smashing each other's brains in.

The comedy in this series is generally relatively simple; there is a lot of slapstick, a lot of violence, quite a bit of blood and gore, not nearly as much sex as the characters would like, although it can't be said they aren't trying. A lot of the humour is derived from the contrast in personalities and the absurd situations they get themselves involved in. An example is the episode when they have found a sex tape starring the prime minister. When they subsequently try to blackmail said prime minister their flat is shot at by (presumably) armed police. Of course our anti-heroes survive but they loose the tape.

There is some semi-clever word play here, an example of which is the episode where the guys think there's a burglar in the house. Rich tells Eddie the burglar is in the drawing room, to which Eddie responds “we have a room just for drawing?!”. There's none of the really witty stuff found The Young Ones though.

Bottom ran for 3 seasons, consisting of 6 episodes each and also 5 live shows and 1 film were made. It's an entertaining series, but it's nothing ground breaking nor is it a work of genius. This is just simple, harmless slapstick being simply amusing.

Comedy Series Review: Blackadder

Blackadder's Christmas Carol

"The eyes are open, the mouth moves, but Mr. Brain has long since departed, hasn't he, Percy?"

Where did this gem come from you ask? Why, it was Blackadder II of course. This ever-popular British sitcom aired between 1983 and 1989 and dealt with the Blackadder dynasty. The series consists of four seasons, each focusing on a different (sometimes fictitious) era in British history. It is one of the most popular British television series of all time, being listed as one of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes by the British Film Institute, placing second on the BBC's Britain's Best Sitcom poll and being ranked as the 20th Best TV show of all time by Empire magazine. What was it that made Blackadder so great?

The Black Adder

Prince Edmund Blackadder

The first season, titled The Black Adder introduced the main characters Prince Edmund, The Duke of
Edinburgh, (who decides to call himself The Black Adder), Lord Percy Percy, Duke of Northumberland and Baldrick, Son of Robin the Dung Gatherer. Edmund and Baldrick are consistent throughout the series, Lord Percy only appears in the first and second seasons.

In this season the characters are still being developed and especially Edmund is quite different from the  later seasons. Here he is mainly slimy and not as smart as his descendants. Although he has a very creative vocabulary, he usually isn't brave enough to insult someone to their face. Lord Percy and Baldrick are more slow-witted than he is, although Baldrick did come up with the name The Black Adder, as a more impressive alternative to Edmund's own idea: The Black Vegetable. Edmund then ignores Baldrick and presents the name as if it were his own idea, being then praised for his cleverness by Lord Percy.

This season had the a high budget and a lot of the recording was done on-site, contrary to later seasons where most of the recording was done on-set. This is also the only season where Edmund is a prince. Furthermore Edmund is considerably less smart and witty than he is in later seasons and he doesn't seem as bitter either.

Edmund, Lord Blackadder

Blackadder II

The second season of Blackadder features Lord Edmund Blackadder, the first in the series to actually be called Blackadder. Although he has some standing at the royal court and remains a nobleman. He is described as the great-grandson of Prince Edmund, The Black Adder. This Blackadder is once again accompanied by Baldrick and Lord Percy. Edmund's main antagonist in this series is Lord Melchett, one of the queens favourites. This rivalry, coupled with Edmund's attempts to keep up his appearance of a wealthy man, often lead to hilarious showdowns. This is also the season the quote above this post is taken from.

Edmund, Lord Blackadder sets his archetype in this series. Nearly every Blackadder in later series and specials is modelled after this version of him. He is much more handsome, smart, witty and sharp than his predecessor. Also he is shown to have little remorse, at one point shooting at some kids with a bow and arrow only to then shout at them they should be in school. Whereas Prince Edmund 'The Black Adder' was often remorseful or regretful about his actions, Lord Edmund Blackadder is not bothered by the result of his actions as long as he isn't adversely affected.

Blackadder the Third

Edmund Blackadder, Esq.

In the third season of Blackadder, the dynasty has fallen even further. Edmund Blackadder Esq. is now the servant to Prince George, the dim-witted Prince of Wales. Baldrick is again a loyal companion to Mr. Edmund Blackadder although his companionship is not always appreciated by Edmund. Lord Percy does not make an appearance in this season, the role of “the goofy one” is mainly filled by Prince George.

This version of Edmund is, although no-where near as rich or influential as his predecessors, still generally well respected. He is a lot smarter and wittier than most of his peers and is often found stealing from the Prince and Baldrick. He is mostly bitter and ruthless and is often violent to Baldrick and, when given the chance, to Prince George. This is also the only Blackadder who is not killed on screen.

Captain Edmund Blackadder

Blackadder goes forth

The fourth and final season of Blackadder features Captain Edmund Blackadder and is set in the trenches of the Great War. He is again accompanied by Baldrick, his Batman, and Lieutenant George. He often has to deal with the simpleton General Melchett and his assistant Captain Darling.

This Edmund is mainly occupied with not getting killed. He joined the British Army when the worst enemies to be expected were armed with sharp slices of pineapple. Now he has ended up in the trenches, facing the most deadly enemy the world had ever seen. His constant attempts to get out of the trenches sometimes get him in trouble, even to the point where he was court-marshalled for shooting and eating General Melchett's favourite carrier pigeon, Speckled Jim. This series ends with Blackadder and his companions going 'over the top' in 1917. He technically doesn't die on screen but the general assumption is he did not survive the battle.

Blackadder's focus on British history, although sometimes fictitious, is often recognisable to people with a basic understanding of British history. Even to those who are unaware of the historical context will find this an excellent sitcom with brilliantly written characters and a marvellous cast portraying every character in a believable way. The series still holds up today, over 20 years after the last episode was aired. Several specials have been made since which were all well-received and some cast-members have hinted towards the possibility of a 5th season or a film being made in the near future. If you haven't seen Blackadder yet, go see it, it's worth it. 

Comedy Series Review: American Dad!

Steve Smith and Roger the alien

An alien in the attic, a talking goldfish with the brain of a German guy, a GOP-loving father, left-wing activist daughter, cocky 14 year-old son and a clueless mother. That is the Smith family, the main characters in American Dad!. This award-winning American Sitcom first aired on FOX but is now aired around the world on many stations. So far over 160 episodes have aired and a new season is announced for the summer of 2014.

What makes this series so successful is its hilarious combination of classic American sitcom humour and absurd comedy. Especially Stan (the father) and Roger (the extraterrestrial) provide plenty of opportunity for absurd situations. Stan is a secret agent with the CIA and always carries his gun to protect his family and American values. Roger is an alien whose gender is never specified and whose sexual preferences are virtually limitless. He is also a master of disguise, being able to disguise himself to the point where the Smith family don't even recognise him anymore.

The Smith family

Steve is the family's 14-year old son. He is the second child and the youngest. Stan often considers Steve to not be “a real man” and every now and then attempts to make Steve more masculine by taking him hunting and do other 'manly' things. Steve is generally friendly with Roger but his best friend is Snot, another 14-year old who's in school with Steve. They often devise plans together, generally with the goal to get (older) girls, which invariably result in hilarious payoffs and failures. Roger also often comes up with devious schemes, usually to make money or achieve some of his other personal goals. These are sometimes much more ruthless, since Roger generally has no problems sacrificing others to achieve his own goals.

A great point of strength in this series is its continuity. True, there are several series out there with better continuity, but for an animated sitcom, American Dad! does exceptionally well. Some examples or this are Roger, who in the first two seasons wasn't allowed to go outside the house. An adventure during one episode made Stan realise Roger's talent in disguising himself. Ever since Roger has been building a considerable collection of clothes, shoes and wigs to allow him to go outside more often. He has grown much happier since he's allowed to go out and uses his freedom for a variety of purposes. Other comparable sitcoms, such as Family Guy – Seth McFarlane's other hit show – don't even come near the level of continuity in American Dad!.

Another source of hilarity is the relationship between Hayley and Stan. Hayley is Stan and Francine's daughter and oldest child. She is a hippie-like left-wing activist. She protests pretty much everything Stan stands for: capitalism, free gun ownership, the meat industry and the CIA's policies and practises. Over the course of several seasons Hayley was in a relationship with Jeff, a 'proper' hippie, who Stan believes to be a deadbeat. Jeff disappears from the series after Rogers has his people take Jeff back to their home planet, instead of Roger.

Stan Smith during the intro

As mentioned, Stan is often a source of absurd hilarity. Being an emotional and irrational, insensitive, inconsiderate conservative and self-proclaimed American patriot, he often takes to extreme measures to achieve his goal. At one point he framed his wife so as not to hear her say “I told you so” and in another episode he tries to get an atheist friend by spreading bird flu at his restaurant, taking away his children, brainwashing his wife to think she's a lesbian and blowing up his home. It is also revealed he takes Francine to a hypnotist every year to make her forget about bad things he's done over the previous year. The hypnotist reverses the effects after Stan goes to get a sandwich and doesn't offer him one for the umpteenth consecutive year.

Francine is Stan's wife and the mother of the family. She is often considered to be a moralistic nagging wife, who constantly scolds her family (Stan in particular) over their wrongdoings. She has a very paradoxical personality, often making remarks or performing actions that are completely inappropriate and sometimes unwholesome.

This motley crew all result in a generally hilarious American sitcom, which can be enjoyed by people from all over the world, even the ones without knowledge of American culture. The new season is definitely something to look forward to! 

Comedy Series Review: 30 Rock

30 Rock, short for 30 Rockefeller Plaza, is an office in New York, home to the GE group and NBC's offices. Here a crew of writers, producers, stars and the network executive Jack Donaghy work to produce TGS with Tracy Jordan. This is the setting of 30 Rock, a sitcom centering around Liz Lemon, the head-writer for TGS with Tracy Jordan who tries to run the show whilst dealing with the crazy star Tracy Jordan and diva Jenna Maroney.

The show received much critical acclaim and over it's 139 episode run it won over 70 awards and was nominated over 200 times. Based on Tina Fey's (Liz Lemon) experience as a head writer with Saturday Night Live, it has been described as "weirdly appropriate and hilarious symbol of our times".

Main protagonist Liz Lemon is the head writer for popular sketch-show TGS with Tracy Jordan. The series follows her in both her personal and professional life, showing her endless attempts to find “the one” and her ongoing efforts to make Tracy Jordan and Jenna Maroney drop their diva-acts. She is mentored by Jack Donaghy, the new network executive who is mainly in the game to make money, although he quickly develops a soft spot for Liz.

Kenneth Parcell is the ever-cheerful and obedient NBC page. He's always willing to help everybody and he loves his job. He is somewhat of a mysterious character, as his age is never mentioned and, although he looks to be in his twenties, he has memories of events that happened long ago. There is also a flashback to the 1950's showing him dancing. He is a very religious character and a member of the “Eighth Day Resurrected Covenant of the Holy Trinity” -  a religious sect who follow a bible in German that states the year 2014 is actually 1999.

Jack Donaghy is a businessman and a capitalist through and through. He is constantly interfering with the course of business in the studio and is often a source of frustration to Liz, as well as a good friend and mentor. He has an unexpected past, having trained in the martial arts under Chuck Norris, driving a rental car into the Hudson to practice escaping, bow-hunting Polar Bears and overcoming a peanut allergy through sheer willpower. In the penultimate episode of the series he steps down as network chief and promotes Kenneth to President of NBC.

Tracy Jordan and Jenna Maroney are the stars of the show. They sometimes have falling-outs, but can sometimes work together to meet a common goal. Jenna used to be the star of the show by herself (TGS is an acronym for The Girly Show) but Jack brought in Tracy when he became the network president. Jenna and Liz are best friends, although Jenna often bothers Liz with petty problems for which she demands an immediate solution.

This amazing set of characters, complimented by some brilliant others make this series the hit that it is. As aforementioned it has received many awards and countless award nominations and it is still broadcast around the globe. This truly is one of the gems of American sitcoms.

Comedy Film Review: Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind

(Warning: If you haven't seen it yet, there are spoilers in here.)

With Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet in leading roles, Elijah Wood (famous for his portrayal of Frodo) in a major supporting role, also starring Mark Ruffalo and Kirsten Dunst, and having received over a hundred awards and nominations, including an Oscar and a Movie of the Decade Award, it's safe to say this film was a success. On Wikipedia it's listed as a dramedy (a form of comedy) and Netflix outright categorises it as Comedy. Therefore we can now talk about this distinctly unfunny film.

This film follows Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) who tries to erase his past relationship with Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet). The film starts with the two meeting on a train, and immediately being drawn to each other, despite Joel being a withdrawn, egocentric, and Clementine being whimsical free spirit. At this point they don't remember having been together for two years. After a huge fight, Clementine had the entire relationship erased from her memory to be able to move on. When Joel received a note from the memory erasing company, he was devastated and had the same procedure done. The film then goes on to show the process of erasing his memories. In the last few scenes we see Joel and Clementine finding out they erased each other, and they were miserable together. At first Clementine refuses to get back with Joel because they'll just be miserable again, but when Joel accepts the misery, she gives in and they go on to live miserably ever after.

The first issue we run into with this film, is the usage of a blue filter over the camera. This gives the film a depressed tone. Blue filters like these can work very well to create a setting and a certain emotion to a scene. A prime example of this done right, is Disney's UP! where the colour use becomes more cheerful as the main character becomes happier. In this film however, the blue filter is used on virtually every scene. This makes the entire film depressing, which immediately removes all comedic value. Even a joke which could have been funny is made depressing by this blue filter.

The second issue is with the characters in this film. The characters are not developed in any way. For instance when Clementine is introduced we need to feel she is a whimsical free spirit. Therefore her hair is blue. Now she's whimsical. Done. Joel is introduced as an emotionally withdrawn person. Therefore he wears all black and has a bit of a beard, not too much, and he acts like a jerk to others. Done. Here's how deep our characters go, there are only superficial character traits with no depth and no multi-dimensional character development. As a result, there is no chemistry between the characters. Even in memories which are intended to show deep emotions such as love, happiness, anger, sorrow and even hate, there is no real chemistry between the actors. This makes it hard to become really involved with the characters and the story as a whole. Also there is a lot of cursing in this film. Although this in itself doesn't have to be a problem, but in this film it is. Why? The cussing doesn't feel 'real'. It is obviously scripted and feels incredibly forced. The cussing seems to be provoking just to be provoking. This is not 'deep' or 'art', it is just bad writing.

I just wish I could erase this horrible waste of time

The bad writing both in character development and the obviously scripted cussing prevents the characters to develop a proper personality. This is a shame, as the actors in this film are all good actors. Although Jim Carrey is generally more of a comedy actor, he has shown to be able to deal with heavier subject matter as well, such as in The Truman Show, which is a brilliant film. In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind however, none of the actor's talent is really put to use. As a result, the acting isn't particularly memorable or intriguing. Also much of the dialogue between characters seems incredibly forced, mainly due to the lack of chemistry. If the viewer doesn't believe the conversation would happen in real life, the dialogue is pointless.

At times, the main characters (both Joel and Clementine) are shown to have a wire loose somewhere. Joel attempts to attack a young boy who used to bully him as a child. He looses, which is an attempt at comedy, but the joke falls flat as I was busy feeling horrified by the thought of a grown man deliberately attacking a child. Clementine shows her crotch to a fiveish-year-old Joel. She sees him as the adult Joel, but his behaviour is that of a small child. Therefore I found it incredibly inappropriate to show him her crotch. To sum up, one of them attacks a child, the other shows her genitals to one. Also Clementine, being a whimsical free spirit and all, convinces Joel to break into someone's house and drink their wine. What's wrong with these people?

In addition to the superficial characters, there are several proper attempts at comedy. Unfortunately, most – if not all – of these fall flat. Not because there's anything wrong with the joke itself, but because it just feels out of place in this film. For instance someone falling over and getting up saying 'ouch my ass' may work in an Adam Sandler film, but not in a dramedy, let alone in a heavy drama such as this.

As is demonstrated by many comedies in different genres, drugs, alcohol and marijuana use can lead to comedic situations. In this film however, the abundant use of narcotics seems yet another feeble attempt at creating a persona for the character. Something which the writers seem to have missed, is that a weird outfit and the fondness of drugs do not a character make. In this film it falls into the same category as the cussing, as a pointless, at times frustrating, trait.

Another issue with this film, which easily could have been avoided, is the sound editing. In many scenes the music and sound effects overpower the dialogue. Maybe this is an attempt to hide the poor writing, but in any case it takes away from the intensity of the film. This may be due to Gerry Robert Byrne's involvement, as his other big project Brokeback Mountain suffers from the same problem.

As mentioned, this film doesn't feel 'real' in many places. This includes the main plot point: the erasing of one's memory. The techniques used in the film would not work in real life to erase people's memories. The film uses science fiction-logic to explain the process, which just doesn't work if the equipment used is 20 years old. This film was made in 2004, yet the computers used are from the 1980s or maybe the early 90s. This just doesn't work. The process of erasing memories from the brain would be a futuristic technology, so the equipment used should at the very least be contemporary, preferably futuristic.

Possibly one of the most obvious and recurring problems with this film is it's randomness. Frodo wears glasses with eyes on springs, Joel fakes a suicide as a joke, there's a random underwear dance on Joel's bed (while he's sleeping on it, which is both disrespectful and inappropriate), there are random emotional or violent outbursts with no build-up to justify them, and the list goes on. Legendary film critic Roger Ebert even said the film “[jumps] through the deliberately disorienting hoops of its story”. 'Deliberately disorienting'. That's exactly the feeling I had while watching this film. Disorienting can be good, fooling your audience can lead to hilarity (think Monty Python or Tommy Cooper), but deliberately disorienting and confusing your audience does not automatically make your film good, funny or deep. This film completely misses the mark and is just confusing for no reason, which isn't funny.

That's not to say the stylistic choices in this film are all bad though; the relationship between Joel and Clementine is shown in reverse, which makes sense. After all, a recent memory would be easier to access than a first memory. With the science as it is explained in the film, it makes sense to remove memories in a reverse order. This choice is actually pretty clever and works really well in the film.

Unfortunately that doesn't make up for the huge number of stylistic mishaps in this film. For instance having Clementine slide away into darkness may seem a clever way to symbolise loss, but it is too obvious. In addition, she is suddenly back around 2 seconds later, which takes away all mystery and symbolism the film almost had. Also, I felt happy during those two seconds after she vanished, because I though the torture of the film was nearly over. Sadly, I was wrong and the film went on for quite some time after that.

The story behind this film isn't bad at all. In fact, I can see why this film got an Oscar for best screen play, and I think it would make a brilliant book. However, to list it as a comedy is an insult to any comedian. Besides that this film is full of holes and it is a prime example of the fact that, even though a film can make you think, that doesn't necessarily make it good. In addition, the message this film sends is clear, but disturbing: If you've made mistakes and felt horrible, just erase your memory, remove all lessons learnt and start over, ready to make all the same mistakes again!

As mentioned, the film has a solid idea, with great potential behind it. Also we can see actual effort was made, this wasn't a project anyone took lightly. However, the film misses the mark and as such is mainly a waste of 108 minutes you're not going to get back. The question the film poses is good, but can be summed up less than 30 words:

It is a good idea to erase your memory of a relationship, and should you get back with someone of whom you erased all memories?

Think about those questions, but don't watch this train wreck of a  film.

As always, this review portrays the author's personal opinion only. There is no intend to hurt anyone and everybody is entitled to their personal opinion. If you like this film, that's great, you just have a different taste than I do and it won't make me think any less of you. All feedback is welcome, but please respond in a civil manner to this review, and to other comments.