Six TV Comedies You Need to Watch
I don’t think there’s any reason to waste your time on OK television when you could be watching great television. Spend a little time searching out some of this amazing non-US English-language comedy, and you can reward yourself with laughs beyond your wildest dreams. All of these shows are hobby-horses of mine, so apologies if you’ve heard this one before. (By the way: a good place to find torrents of UK tv that isn’t available in the States: the Box. Google it.)
The Day Today
These days, this show is remembered by comedy fans, if at all, as the show that launched the career of Steve Coogan, and birthed his most famous character, Alan Partridge. It’s so much more than that. It’s a brilliant deconstruction of the inanity of television news which takes the form of a television news show. Amazing character work, spectacular writing and almost no topical humor. An amazing show. If you live in the US, you’ll have to download this one.
Brass Eye
This was a sequel of sorts to The Day Today. What The Day Today did for TV news, Brass Eye did for TV newsmagazines, only moreso. Maybe the most elegantly (and somehow most brutally) written television show I’ve ever watched. Sound and fury signifying nothing, taken to the 9th degree. Anchored, as in The Day Today, by the sneering, fearless Chris Morris, doing a spectacularly harsh and hilarious take down of the TV news anchor. Some amazing put-ons, as well. In one episode, they manage to convince a real Minister of Parliament to introduce a bill condemning the fictional drug they’ve created for purposes of satire. This one’s available for about $10 from Amazon.co.uk, and the DVD is region-free, so you don’t have to worry about whether it’ll play in your DVD player.
The Thick of It
If you saw my favorite movie of last year, In the Loop, you have some idea of the hapless world of government bureaucracy created for The Thick of It. The show was conceived by Armando Iannucci, who directed the film based on his previous work. It takes place in a made-up government agency, but the tone is all about verisimilitude: shaky cameras and overlapping dialogue. The show’s about how the shaky relationship between rhetoric, policy and the media. Peter Capaldi plays a super-feared uber-spinmeister for the New Labour government, who rips into some of the most insanely profane tirades I’ve ever seen on any screen. Another show that is, in my opinion, about as well-written as television gets. Insightful and hilarious.
The Newsroom
This small Canadian show was a brilliant precedent to The Office and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Ken Finkleman, whose second-best credit is writing and directing Airplane 2 (to say nothing of Grease 2 and Who’s That Girl?), created and starred in this show, another news satire. This one’s a lot quieter – a dry sitcom in the mold of Larry Sanders, set in a local CBC television news operation. All the characters are fantastic, but Finkleman’s selfish, arrogant, foolish lead is one of the best TV characters I’ve ever seen. The show gets crazy in the later episodes (though still enjoyable), but the earlier shows are some of the funniest TV around. Seasons of the show are available on DVD in the US.
The Trailer Park Boys
I’ve already done two Sound of Young America interviews about this show – one with its creator and director, Mike Clattenburg, and one with the stars, Ricky, Julian and Bubbles. It’s a very low-budget Canadian faux-documentary series about the titular boys. The comedy is simple: they get into trouble, they spout malapropisms, they drink heavily, they scheme. The characters are so finely drawn, sweet and compelling, though, that it transcends anything you might imagine from hearing that description. The show’s available on DVD in the US of A, and airs on Direct TV, as well.
Peep Show
You may remember David Mitchell’s appearance on The Sound of Young America a year or so ago. He’s half of the comedy team Mitchell & Webb, who also created several very funny sketch series for UK TV. Their best work, though, is as actors on the sitcom Peep Show. The conceit of the show is that it’s all shot in POV – which quickly gets old, but then fades into the background. Really, it’s an odd-couple comedy with an extra dose of awkward situations. The characters are finely rendered and lovable, and the writing is fantastic. You can watch the series on Hulu, free.