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Dreadful Nonsense

"I've read your blog. it's really funny. you should write a column." - Jon Ronson


Watched the fabulous pilot for the fabulous Boosh on BBC3 on Tuesday night at my friend's house. I am assuming that this will be repeated on terrestrial telly before long, and will be urging everyone I meet to go watch it, as it is really wonderful – a great piece of television, and a great realisation of what I would have thought to be quite a challenging programme to bring to the small screen.

I was quite disappointed therefore to read this rubbish, lazy review from Victor Lewis Smith in the Evening Standard, so I’ve started a pointless debate on the This Is London website. I fired this off this morning –

I am really disappointed, but not particularly surprised, that VLS wasn’t able to enjoy The Boosh. But apparently he had decided he wouldn’t like it before he’d seen the show. Four paragraphs in to his review and he hasn’t mentioned the show yet. Which means, unless I’m making a terrible assumption, he's written that bit before he saw the show because he heard the word "arctic" in the description.

But that’s not really the point, is it? In the part of the review where he bothered mentioning the show, he didn't give lee-way to the fact that, although it's not his type of humour, it doesn't mean other people will like it. Obviously, the studio audience enjoyed it very much. His review is very reactionary, looking at the surface and when he didn't like what he saw, his mind was made up immediately. The fact that he didn't realise there was a point to them finding the Egg of Mantumbi – an important plot point, in fact – makes it totally obvious that he wasn't paying proper attention to the story, which is disgraceful when he's supposed to be reviewing it. Watching a programme in a half-arsed manner is always going to make the programme appear half-arsed.

The obvious comparisons to Python and Reeves & Mortimer are just lazy. I'm surprised Izzard didn't get dragged in to it too. It's so sad when someone can't watch something for what it is, without having to force it in to a pigeon hole for a simpler understanding.

I thought The Boosh was fantastic, highly original, and very well realized. I am looking forward to seeing it again when it makes its inevitable transition to full series.

Looking forward to reading some replies. If you saw it, do join in!

This entry was posted on 22 May 2003 at 10:43 am. 0 comments

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