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Global Telly Talk
Classic UK TV
The Great British Sitcom
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<blockquote data-quote="Crimson" data-source="post: 439286" data-attributes="member: 5079"><p>Onto episode six, "The Germans". I gather this is a controversial one and understandably so. I'll admit up front that this is my least favorite episode thus far and not for the obvious reasons.</p><p></p><p>Again, I found myself with a feeling of <em>deja vu</em>. "This show does a curious number of fire drills" leading to "Did I watch this episode already?" And then I realized this was another episode ransacked by the American pilot SNAVELY MANOR. It's again obvious that these FAWLTY TOWER episodes cannot be chopped up and reassembled. Within limited scope, I think SNAVELY at least handled the fire drill bit better than the other borrowed plots.</p><p></p><p>I accept that works of entertainment from past eras can feel out of sync to modern sensibilities. I'm never offended by such things, and I wasn't here. I think I'm too American for this British nonchalance about touchy matters. It was a blessing in to the casual handling of the chef's sexuality, but the show's handling of racism feels foreign to me. In an American show, I could see Archie Bunker saying something similar to the Major's comments -- albeit softened -- but it would have been a commentary on the idiocy of such bigotry. Here, I felt no such context. It just seemed like it was there for the audience to recognize and laugh along with.</p><p></p><p>And yet, not even what I disliked about the episode. In short, this was the loudest episode so far; almost nonstop shouty. If every episode played at this fevered, continuous pitch, I wouldn't have enjoyed the earlier episodes as much.</p><p></p><p>None of which is to say I disliked the episode; it's just my least favorite so far. "Yes you did, you invaded Poland!" elicited an uncommon genuine laugh-out-loud from me -- only the second episode so far to earn that distinction.</p><p></p><p>A knock on the head leading to amnesia is a common, and implausible, trope in classic American sitcoms (often followed by the even more implausible "cure" being a second knock on the head). This episode did an interesting, and slightly less implausible, variation of that trope, with Basil's knock on the head leading to muddled, uninhibited hysteria. I don't know if that's really a symptom of a concussion , but it at least plays more comedically believable than "Who am I?"</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Crimson, post: 439286, member: 5079"] Onto episode six, "The Germans". I gather this is a controversial one and understandably so. I'll admit up front that this is my least favorite episode thus far and not for the obvious reasons. Again, I found myself with a feeling of [I]deja vu[/I]. "This show does a curious number of fire drills" leading to "Did I watch this episode already?" And then I realized this was another episode ransacked by the American pilot SNAVELY MANOR. It's again obvious that these FAWLTY TOWER episodes cannot be chopped up and reassembled. Within limited scope, I think SNAVELY at least handled the fire drill bit better than the other borrowed plots. I accept that works of entertainment from past eras can feel out of sync to modern sensibilities. I'm never offended by such things, and I wasn't here. I think I'm too American for this British nonchalance about touchy matters. It was a blessing in to the casual handling of the chef's sexuality, but the show's handling of racism feels foreign to me. In an American show, I could see Archie Bunker saying something similar to the Major's comments -- albeit softened -- but it would have been a commentary on the idiocy of such bigotry. Here, I felt no such context. It just seemed like it was there for the audience to recognize and laugh along with. And yet, not even what I disliked about the episode. In short, this was the loudest episode so far; almost nonstop shouty. If every episode played at this fevered, continuous pitch, I wouldn't have enjoyed the earlier episodes as much. None of which is to say I disliked the episode; it's just my least favorite so far. "Yes you did, you invaded Poland!" elicited an uncommon genuine laugh-out-loud from me -- only the second episode so far to earn that distinction. A knock on the head leading to amnesia is a common, and implausible, trope in classic American sitcoms (often followed by the even more implausible "cure" being a second knock on the head). This episode did an interesting, and slightly less implausible, variation of that trope, with Basil's knock on the head leading to muddled, uninhibited hysteria. I don't know if that's really a symptom of a concussion , but it at least plays more comedically believable than "Who am I?" [/QUOTE]
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Global Telly Talk
Classic UK TV
The Great British Sitcom
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