1 It was novel then
2 Groundbreaking satire for television
3 We were a lot younger
(, Tue 1 Dec 2020, 15:56, Reply)
UK Gold viewers maybe. It’s just that Spitting Image started to feel out of date in the early nineties. I’m fairly sure ITV already did an unsuccessful reboot. The source material may be contemporary, but the old template creaks, a lot. It seems an odd flagship for a new platform, but as I understand it their essential offering is archive BBC and ITV stuff, so maybe it’s apposite. Do they have any other new stuff?
(, Tue 1 Dec 2020, 16:16, Reply)
Other than that, no idea, I watch YT mostly.
(, Tue 1 Dec 2020, 16:39, Reply)
A few years ago I binged all the Spitting Image shows, at the time they were all free on YT.
My assessment: in retrospect they were always 90% shite with the odd funny sketch, or the odd recurring joke that actually worked. Towards the end the shite was 90% in-jokes and self referencing (infinite callbacks to 'and the vegetables'). They deliberately made the theme music increasingly unbearable with distortion and obnoxious music concrete techniques, as if they were daring viewers to switch off and daring executives to cancel them.
I think FeralCatMan is right. Hislop, Grant & Naylor were funny to me at the time, and they still have their funny moments, but satirical jokes and cultural references are prone to ageing badly, the majority are forgotten. E.g. how many TWTWTW sketches do you know?
(, Tue 1 Dec 2020, 17:11, Reply)
Which is a pretty impressive feat for that knackered old sketch since it was first broadcast long before my birth and I’m unaware of TW3 ever being repeated in toto in my lifetime.
EDIT. That wasn’t from TW3 anyway, so none in fact.
(, Tue 1 Dec 2020, 17:38, Reply)
That somewhat explains why it's similar to Red Dwarf, in that it seemed exceptionally funny at the time, but now isn't even remotely amusing.
(, Tue 1 Dec 2020, 18:37, Reply)
Red Dwarf was a good concept and 'Son Of Cliché' is still an objectively funny name.
(, Tue 1 Dec 2020, 20:04, Reply)
do not re-watch any of the amazing shows you used to watch when you were younger.
I am watching 'the comic strip presents' again, and some of them are pretty dire.
Obviously, Bad News, Mr Jolly, 5 go mad and some others are still fantastic but they are pretty thin slices of bread surrounding a fat shit sandwich.
(, Tue 1 Dec 2020, 19:58, Reply)
and it is very hit-and-miss, although I did enjoy this episode which I'd not seen before.
(, Tue 1 Dec 2020, 23:53, Reply)