Entertainment For Lively Minds
Just stay where you are
Posted by Simon Ford on 6 May 2009 - 11:02pm.
A lot of my favourite things have been below par recently by being taken out of their natural setting. Mad Men goes to California, why? Adam and Joe go to Camden, please don't. This American Life in a theatre, disaster.
I've tried to think of any instances where people go "somewhere" and it's improved the programme. But from Tony taking Meadow to college to Eastenders getting lost in Weymouth, they always seem to fail.
Has there ever been a "special" that has been anything but?
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gone fishin'
you're absolutely right. I've always had this little alert for when a sitcom runs out of ideas - just before they jump the shark. It's when all the characters go on a fishing trip... With hilarious consequences.
Not watched the last episode yet,
but I thought the Mad Men/California eps were just as good as any other. The 'why' is pretty obvious.
Come on
The Jolly boys day out in OFAH was pretty good stuff!
I'd go fo rthat
but the Florida one was pants
Mad Men
I agree about Mad Men - there were two dodgy episodes with Don in California but thankfully it was all forgiven with the amazing last show - can't wait for the next series now!
The American Office
The episode when they all go to the beach for a training day was hilarious.
I thought Mad Men in California was great
There was clearly a reason why they did those eps so it all makes sense. I thought it was an interesting and colourful interlude.
NB Possible Sopranos Spoiler alert
I thought that the Don in California episodes carried an echo of the "Kevin Finnerty" sequences in Sopranos.
Continuing Sopranos related - I think the Tony/Paulie Florida roadtrip, Christopher in Hollywood (Sir Kingsley) and the visit to Naples episodes worked brilliantly. As did the one with Carmela in Paris
Seinfeld
Where they are at a condo in the Hamptons for the weekend is also one of the best episodes
not to mention all those Seinfelds
set in Florida at his parents' condo.
Shrinkage!
There was shrinkage!
IT Crowd
Not a special, but the IT Crowd episode at the theatre was excellent.
Del and Rodney in Miami...
The Mighty Boosh change locations quite effectively too.
Frasier*
The one where he takes the woman of his dreams to the cabin by the lake, realising only at the moment of truth (whereas Niles and Martin have known it all along) that she's the spitting image of his late mother, is glorious.
*No, not Fraser ;-)
Early Doors
At the end of the first series they go for a "Big Boys Beano". The first time I watched it I feared they were actually going to leave the pub. It cuts to a few hours later and their return with stories of their day at York Races. Equilibrium restored (thankfully).
Early Doors
Wonderful programme
This American Life
I didn't mind the theatre broadcast. These shows have always been part of TAL (it's been around for a lot longer than it's been a podcast), and on the latest one only the Joss Whedon sequence really suffered because of the environment in which it was recorded.
And besides, it's live shows like this that help pay for the other episodes, and the enormous cost NPR incurs actually deliving the free podcast to the listeners. A little drop in quality once a year is a worthwhile price to pay.
I can understand
why they do it, but I found it very hard to listen to. The audience laughter didn't help generally but also didn't seem to be totally in synch with the taped elements which was very distracting.
Associated theme: films of TV series
Both Likely Lads and Rising Damp were excellent films, not necessarily better than the TV series but certainly as worthwhile watching.
However I appreciate they're in a very small minority ...