Screenwipe

Jiggs'Hamstring said:
I was a little bit disappointed last night. Couple of really good moments though, I'm sure the series will be great
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Haven't watched it yet but was looking forward to seeing him discuss the Brand/Ross incident. Was that any good?

Can be a wee bit hit and miss though, that's always been the case. But when he gets it right (see first youtube clip above - on Jeremy Kyle) he's fecking hilarious...

"Cry on it, bitch, cry on it..."

Interestingly enough, he co-wrote Nathan Barley with Chris Morris and wrote the recent zombie Big Brother mini-series on E4, called Dead something (can't remember it's name but it was actually quite good)
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Haven't watched it yet but was looking forward to seeing him discuss the Brand/Ross incident. Was that any good?

Can be a wee bit hit and miss though, that's always been the case. But when he gets it right (see first youtube clip above - on Jeremy Kyle) he's fecking hilarious...

"Cry on it, bitch, cry on it..."

Interestingly enough, he co-wrote Nathan Barley with Chris Morris and wrote the recent zombie Big Brother mini-series on E4, called Dead something (can't remember it's name but it was actually quite good)
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Yeah, I absolutely love Nathan Barley, I can't believe it wasn't more successful. I really enjoyed Dead Set too, although I didn't really sense anything particularly Charlie Brooker-ish in the script. It was just really a really good Zombie film.
 
Jiggs'Hamstring said:
Yeah, I absolutely love Nathan Barley, I can't believe it wasn't more successful. I really enjoyed Dead Set too, although I didn't really sense anything particularly Charlie Brooker-ish in the script. It was just really a really good Zombie film.
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Dead Set, that's the one.

You're right about the script being not very Charlie Brookerish, although it did have the occasional brilliant metaphor (his specialty) "picking splinters of her skull out of my jumper, like cat's teeth"

If you haven't read his entire back catalogue of blogs on the Grauniad website, get onto it right away. Hours and hours of scabrous, misanthropic hilarity :D
 
For anyone interested, you can get the entire series' of The Day Today, Brass Eye, and Nathan Barley for £20 quid delivered on play.com. Great deal, just ordered them myself, since I've only dipped in an out of those series'.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Dead Set, that's the one.

You're right about the script being not very Charlie Brookerish, although it did have the occasional brilliant metaphor (his specialty) "picking splinters of her skull out of my jumper, like cat's teeth"

If you haven't read his entire back catalogue of blogs on the Grauniad website, get onto it right away. Hours and hours of scabrous, misanthropic hilarity :D
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I thought the script was good and was nicely subtle in it's Brookerisms, it must be really easy for writers like him to fall into the trap of giving at least one (if not more) of their characters their own voice - just look at every Kevin Smith film for a writer doing that. Nathan Barley was an example as well I thought, the character of Dan had Brooker's cynicism and wit bubbling away under the surface all the time - I am a huge Barley fan by the way.

Dead Set had well defined characters, but all the time there was a general poking at the Big Brother world, the talent free retards that actually want to be on it and the feck-sticks who care about the program and consume it.

There was a great moment during one of the episodes when a few of the characters are looking out of the house at all the zombies outside and one of them asks,

"so does this mean we're not on TV anymore?"

great little line straight from the columns Brooker writes.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Dead Set, that's the one.

You're right about the script being not very Charlie Brookerish, although it did have the occasional brilliant metaphor (his specialty) "picking splinters of her skull out of my jumper, like cat's teeth"

If you haven't read his entire back catalogue of blogs on the Grauniad website, get onto it right away. Hours and hours of scabrous, misanthropic hilarity :D
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I have read some - where can I get hold of the back catalogue?
 
Jiggs'Hamstring said:
I have read some - where can I get hold of the back catalogue?
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Ere yar.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/charliebrooker

352 finely crafted gems, knock yourself out :D

Here's one of them copied and pasted at random, for those just passing through...

Is Obama really president or am I just watching a fantasy?

Charlie Brooker
Monday November 10

President Barack Obama. President Barack Obama. Nope, still can't get used to it. It's literally too good to be true. I must've died in my sleep and am now having an insane fantasy pumped into my head by the Matrix. Any minute now Salma Hayek is going to float through the door with a tray of biscuits and I'll know the game's up.

Or perhaps I've just come round from a coma. The election took place 10 years ago, and what I've just sat through was actually a Hollywood movie loosely based on real events. And in a bid to appeal to the multiplex crowd, they decided to jettison all semblance of subtlety.

On the one hand, you had Obama (Will Smith in admittedly impressive makeup, although the ears never really convinced). He was practically walking on water. No one's that nice. And pitched against him, the Republican campaign, which was so nakedly horrible it could only have been orchestrated by Skeletor. Nudge-wink comments about "the real America", underhand attempts to link Obama with terrorism, automated robo-calls whispering desperate fibs into the ears of voters ... if Obama's grandmother had died while he was at her bedside in Hawaii, they'd have erected billboards claiming he couldn't be trusted around white women. Jesus, guys, why not just change your name to the Bastard Party and march around in long black capes? Vote for us, we're openly despicable.

The scriptwriters clearly decided to balance the nastiness by introducing some satirical comic relief in the form of Sarah Palin, but she was scarcely plausible either. And they never really nailed her story arc, instead being content to have her wandering through every scene she was in, screeching inept banalities like a rightwing version of Phoebe from Friends. And what was with the whole Joe the Plumber sub-plot? I mean, c'mon, they invited him on tour and everything. As if. In the real world, no one would've bought that for a second. That's precisely the sort of thing that breaks the all-important suspension of disbelief. It didn't help that the guy they cast to play him, Michael Chiklis, is instantly recognisable from his leading role as the corrupt, brutal cop Vic Mackey in the hit TV series The Shield.

And the ending was far too saccharine. Dancing in the streets? Tears of joy around the globe? Oh please. I give it four out of 10. A rental at best.
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I do a bit of work on a Channel 4 magazine (4Talent - I design some of the layouts) and it has got an interview with Charlie Brooker in it this issue, worth a read and it's online so you don't even need the magazine! My favourite bit I hear you ask? His idea for a game show:

“I wanted to do a game show in which contestants are shown the faces of young children, and have to guess whether they are being shown hardcore pornography or uncensored war footage,” he chuckles.



http://www.4talentmagazine.com/2008/11/21/charlie-brooker-dead-set
 
Just watching some of the Screenwipe episodes I hadn't seen. Great show, but I very rarely find those bits where they get a comedian to talk about a subject for a while funny at all. Usually it's just some B rate comedian 'riffing' in the most unfunny way imaginable (yes, Tim Key, I'm talking about you).
 
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