Dreadful Nonsense

Continuing my sporadic series of television reviews, last night’s episode of 20 Things To Do Before You’re 30

The most lucrative market for Channel 4, we all know, are those in their late teens, early 20s, bordering into the 30s – those with disposable cash and a hankering for the expensive things in life. It’s important to The Powers That Be that their channel attract this market, due to having to eek out a living by helping the people who make cars sell cars. Channel 4 has been doing quite well in these stakes, having produced dramatic comedies / comedy dramas / dram coms / com drams / fluffy nonsense like The Book Group and Teachers. Thanks to their success, they seem to have hastily cobbled together another formulaic sitcom from the same stable as Teachers, which for some reason kept the Teachers trademark of adults standing around smoking outside like they’re school kids.

I have to confess something of a vested interest in this programme, as our friend Mat appears as a gay man whose name, for some Channel 4 reason, is Conrad. The press previews of the show didn’t sound that promising, as all the telly critics seemed to think that this was fluffy nonsense by numbers – one gay man, one straight man, one blonde girl, one not-so-blonde girl, and so on. Actually, it has a neat little appeal for me, because I enjoy heavily set up and obviously plotted comedies. I don’t know why, but formula appeals to me. I see nothing wrong in seeing a joke coming – Father Ted, for example, was a programme that, most of the time, signaled jokes for scenes in advance, setting things up in the opening credits that quite often didn’t happen until just before the end.

I can’t quite put my finger on what didn’t sit quite well with this show, but something wasn’t working. The pretty people were all there. The quipped jokes were all correct and present. The fluffy plot line (this week – the challenge is to “turn” someone, meaning to seduce someone contrary to their normal sexual leanings) was leaping up and down with joy for all to see. They were even all smoking in a glamorous manner, for goodness sake. And yet… eh.

There didn’t seem to be much chemistry between any of the characters, particularly between the two main characters – Conrad and Shona (the Will and Grace of the foursome). A lot of great lines were stepped upon and lost through bad delivery or direction, and over all it was just a great big disappointment. There is certainly potential there for it to develop in to a better thing – and with seven more episodes to get, I would certainly hope so – but on first impressions, this generational milestone is one that, frankly, I could do without being reminded of.

This entry was posted on 07 February 2003 at 4:54 pm. 0 comments

Dreadful Nonsense

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