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Nighty Night

Ganesh

18:26 / 24.03.04

Didn't see the first episode of this, but caught the second. It's currently getting a fair amount of hype as 'the darkest sitcom ever', but I'm not sure. Okay, so Jill's a compelling grotesque - her all-consuming selfishness makes Patsy Stone look like she does a lodda work for charidee - but I guess I didn't find a lot of it all that dark. One of the central conceits is that Jill's already told everyone her terminally-ill husband is dead; in fact, 'fictitious bereavement' is the most common presentation of fictitious 'illness' (presumably because it elicits instant sympathy, and no-one's gonna challenge someone who says they've just lost a spouse). It's not sufficiently 'dark' to shock me into laughter (in the way Jam did) and it's not inherently amusing enough to make me laugh out loud for any other reason.

Thoughts?

Warewullf

18:37 / 24.03.04

I watched the first three or so episodes on BBC Three but it just didn't hold my interest. It does get progressively darker as Jill becomes a truly, unredemable horrible person, but it happens in a clever way as normally characters in this vein are just annoying but there is something strangely complelling about her. The dinner party is a truly awful affair, but the sight of Jill jogging in high-heels and lingerie is excellent.

In the end, it just didn't have enough to old my interest and it's not laugh-out-loud funny, but it is worth a look, if only because it's so different.

Goodness Gracious Meme

22:25 / 05.04.04

Glad someone mentioned this.
Hadn't heard anything about it, and am I'm loving it. Where's the hype been? I've thought of it more as in the mode of Marion and Geoff, and of course Human Remains, which seemed to pass under the radar hugely...

And I think it's the genreclashiness of it, the way the kind of stuff we're used to from these people is here playing out in a terry-and-june-esque cosy sitcom-style environment.

I's not really comedy, or sitcom, it's more something else, but I'm really enjoying it.

Ganesh

22:39 / 05.04.04

Mmmm. Tonight's episode definitely seemed to be entering T&J territory, with a different slant on old sitcom cliches (rolling over to find someone unexpected in bed with you, the role-reversed yawn-stretch-arm-around-shoulder, etc.) and a host of shivery little details - like Jill's weird breathing when she stood at the foot of the bed, in darkness. Favourite, in this episode, was the toothbrush/gingivitis scene...

The 'party' episode was reminiscent, in parts, of Abigail's Party. Perhaps it's intentionally exhuming dead TV sitcom-suburbia cliches, and parading their corpses, zombie-style?

Goodness Gracious Meme

00:12 / 08.04.04

yeah, I think it is. The set design/costuming is *so* crap sitcom.

Which is where casthing Deayton is a stroke of genuis, as I can't see him without thinking of a)all the media hoohah, and b)One Foot In The Grave

and it is the little details, like the breathing, that make this great. Or like Davis' character's awful dancing when she's falling all over the son... Fave moment was probably she and Cathy, sitting on the bed. C realises it's her clothes that are being thrown away:

'Cause you could get by with a dressing gown and pair of slippers, really...'

Talking about it with friends, one suggested it was rather like being sick. Unpleasant during, deeply satisfying after...

DavidXBrunt

21:40 / 08.04.04

Yeah it is dark and all sorts of unpleasant. But I've not actually laughed yet. Does anyone actually find it funny?

Cumiskey

11:41 / 20.04.04

Darkness is in the eye of the beholder. But, I find Nighty Night utterly laugh-out-loud funny. It's the little details such as Glenn's twitches and a superb cast. The writing is tight and there's a belter around the corner to counteract any weak patch. Like any comedy it'll hit some and it won't hit others. I'm enjoying a good smacking. 'Hi Kath'.

bjacques

12:35 / 20.04.04

I caught it by accident because the gf and I are (were) hooked on "Coupling," which this follows, and we've seen lmost every episode.

I loved the ending (at the very end of the credits). My girlfriend said it reminded her of The Life and Loves of a She-Devil (original BBC version).

Well, darkest sitcom *I've* seen, anyway.

ghadis

15:09 / 20.04.04

Only caught the first couple of episodes but i thought it was brilliant. Both the writing and the performances are superb. Favourite bit so far is with the Welsh Hairdressing assistant doing a pedicure/foot scrub on a customer.

(In that really great strong Welsh accent)

'I'm gonna go all quiet now cos i love this........urgh........No...I REALLY love this.......urgh.......God it's coming off in chunks'

Jack The Bodiless

11:29 / 22.04.04

*runs into room*

thelastepisodeusedtwomarillionsongsinanironicmanneritwasreallycool

*runs out of room*

astrojax69

03:54 / 31.03.05

australia just got this.

can u take it back please?

found it neither dark enough nor at all even in the slightest not a bit not once not even close to being in any way funny a bit not at all nada. whole family found it entirely and wholly unamusing in extremis. oz got 'little britain' recently and this was much much better. bitty.

sleazenation

07:17 / 31.03.05

nighty night is a completely different animal to little britain - if you are expecting laughs you've comee to the wrong place. - this show's liniage is more clearly tracable from jam - another show that could vaguely be described as a comedy but doesn't provoke laughter.

DaveBCooper

07:52 / 31.03.05

I gather Nighty Night’s been recommissioned, which bewilders me, as – to quote a better programme – the main problem was that they forgot to bring the funny. Too much emphasis on the dark, the cancer, the unlikable characters, and too few laughs, and I bailed out after a couple of episodes.

Thought Julia Davis was very good in Human Remains and Jam, but I think this show was a mis-step. Mind you, it didn’t seem to stop the BBC proclaiming it a triumph, despite only so-so viewing figures.

Ganesh

12:07 / 31.03.05

Too much emphasis on the dark, the cancer, the unlikable characters

For some of us, this was "the funny"...

ghadis

14:55 / 31.03.05

'I gather Nighty Night?s been recommissioned'

I'd say that was great news. Like i said a bit up the thread i thought it was hilarious. Now when is it out on DVD cos i missed a couple of episodes.

'oz got 'little britain''

Can you keep it please because i think that lazy, derivative programme is the worst thing to happen to tv comedy in years.

Ganesh

19:43 / 05.09.05

New series about to start on BBC 3 onnn... Thursday?

I see me shiver in antici...

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... pation.

Ganesh

20:05 / 05.09.05

Tuesday. Tomorrow. BBC3. 10.30.

Goodness Gracious Meme

12:49 / 07.09.05

grr. damn you freeviewers.

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