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Phoo Action

Poke it with a stick

22:05 / 07.02.08

Yes, this could be truly, truly awful, but it could also be the best thing since sliced bread and butter pudding with Carl Weathers on top. Just as soon as they invent it and make me Lord of All Creation.

I remember reading Get the Freebies in the late, lamented Face many moons ago and wishing I'd bought a comic and not the coke-fuelled inanity that surrounded the strip. Any thoughts on the Biff! Bang! Crunch! Vroom! trailer?

Eloi Tsabaoth

22:23 / 07.02.08

I've seen another, less wham bang trailer that's basically just a chunk from it, and it could be very bad indeed. Tank Girl bad. Or it could be Kill Boosh. Did you reference Spaced because Jessica Hynes is one of the script-writers? That strikes a note of extremely cautious optimism.

Poke it with a stick

22:28 / 07.02.08

...and it always helps to post the link to the story where I saw it, doesn't it?

Includes BBC3 Youtube clip

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

23:41 / 07.02.08

That actually looks cute and fun, but I really hope it doesn't descend from restrained camp to try-hard camp. Terry Phoo's outfit reminds me of the Bride from Kill Bill, making me wonder if it was one of lesser-known inspirations for Tarantino.

Hmm. Redhead daughter of a Police bigwig. At least she's not calling herself Phoogirl.

CameronStewart

01:53 / 08.02.08

Terry Phoo's outfit reminds me of the Bride from Kill Bill,

Both are cribs of Bruce Lee's outfit in Game of Death.

H3ct0r L1m4

10:28 / 08.02.08

mixed feelings about it. i'm of the mind it could work much better as an animated cartoon.

Rich Johnston once posted a full GET THE FREEBIES strip from THE FACE.

Punji Steak

13:33 / 08.02.08

Am I right in think this starts on Tuesday 12 Feb?

Mysterious Transfer Student

19:51 / 08.02.08

Starts and ends, in fact. This is just a pilot.

I didn't know that the spawn of the Daddy was involved... I'm idly wondering if they'll retain two of the major elements from the strip, Terry being a dull, censorious gay man and Whitey being unknowingly dosed with hormones to prevent her entering puberty and losing the duo's family-friendly image. Nor, so far, is there any sign of basketball head.

Hey, it's BBC3 - it'll be a bit ropey but probably fun.

CameronStewart

20:52 / 08.02.08

Nor, so far, is there any sign of basketball head.

Oh ho ho, yes there is.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

09:55 / 11.02.08

It appears to have Scarlet O’Gasmeter in it...

Eloi Tsabaoth

10:05 / 11.02.08

Indeed. Can a Hewligan's Haircut adaptation be far behind?

Answer: Yes. Yes it can.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

14:42 / 11.02.08

One day, Hewligan's Haircut will be mine.

I'm actually looking forward to PHOO ACTION now, though Granny only knows if it'll ever come to fruition. That sample strip was a lot of fun to read.

Haus of Mystery

20:32 / 11.02.08

Get the Freebies was a great comic in 1996 (or whenever)

This, I fear, will be try hard turd.

Should so totally be a cartoon. Hewlett was pure channeling Hanna Barbera cartoons at the time.

Baroness von Lenska

01:58 / 12.02.08

Yes. It would make a wonderful cartoon. Yet I hold out hope that it can at least work as Batman/Banana Splits/Get Smart (yeah, I went there) camp.

I rather like the look of it, so far. Sort of Jim Henson revamps Batman on a Sockbaby budget kind of thing. Looks fun.

Poke it with a stick

20:52 / 12.02.08

Hmm...

Not as bad as it could have been, but still more like an Ant and Dec sketch than Tank Girl. There were a couple of nice touches, but I think it says something that I can't remember any of them right now.

And it didn't help that my digibox from Argos has screwed up the sound on BBC3 so the whole thing was vibrato.

Baroness von Lenska

03:49 / 13.02.08

So... Was it a good can't remember, a bad can't remember, or so bland and vaguely remembered you honestly couldn't say?

Did anyone else catch this? I'm waiting for its inevitable appearance on the intertubes.

DavidXBrunt

06:32 / 13.02.08

If it all just rtelaxed a bit it would be a lot more fun, but I enjoyed that. I took a while to win me over but I was laughing by the end. Nice cast, Apollo Creed in particular being spot on.

It was shit.

Soylent, I'm thinking it wasn't in a good way - some lines made me smile, but not laugh out loud and, frankly, that isn't really enough to keep me watching something.
Even Torchwood's intentionally funnier.

iamus

14:04 / 13.02.08

Sweet Jimmy Christ on a bike, that was atrocious. Nobody really looked as if they could be particularly arsed at any point, or that they had any idea at all how to play it.

I mean, you can see when they were desperately straining at their budget, but it also looked like they were tragically wasting money making things look much shitter than they need have been.

The characters looked Hewlett enough but were completely undersold and under-exaggerated by the acting and direction. A bit more slinky oomph from the actors, maybe a wee bit o smoke to deepen the sets and make everything a bit less camcorder, and a bit more of an ultra-cheap, prisoner-esque 60's psychedelic skew to the camerawork and it might have come out alright. As it is, it feels like it might have put british comic/TV relations back a couple of years.

Shame.

iamus

14:08 / 13.02.08

Oh, and as a Point A to Point B story, it was shite, which is something I find much harder to forgive. You don't need a budget for one of them. You only need a pencil and a piece of paper.

iamus

14:18 / 13.02.08

Also!......Right!....... Taking an ultra-stylised comiclook and filming it with an NYPDish shakeycam that keeps robbing the thing of any sort of suspension of disbelief you're trying to cultivate?

Whit?

Haus of Mystery

15:35 / 13.02.08

The 60's Batman show was a million times more daring and stylish (and fun) than this.
Since they had a relatively small budget they should have gone that extra mile in the presentation. Some form of decent editing wouldn't have hurt.

iamus

15:53 / 13.02.08

Agreed times a million.

DavidXBrunt

11:18 / 14.02.08

Ah well, I liked it. I liked it more when I caught a few minutes of the repeat, now I knew what to expect of it.

It was directed by Joe Aherne, wasn't it? He of Ultraviolet creation fame, and Who director par exellence?

A 6 part series has been commisioned, so perhaps a few tweaks might improve peoples opinions of it.

DavidXBrunt

11:21 / 14.02.08

Ah, I see my mistake. It was Euros Lynn who directed it. I didn't realise that Jessica Hynes had a hand in the sctipt though.

Alex's Grandma

16:04 / 14.02.08

A 6 part series has been commisioned

That seems like a brave decision. In a way, kudos to BBC3, but I wonder who they think'll be watching, apart from thirty-odd people on websites like this, and Damon Albarn. (Damon so he can take Jamie Hewlett aside at parties, and tell him what's wrong with it.)

It would have worked better as a cartoon, but I suppose at the level Hewlett's now used to working at, after the Gorillaz videos, that might have been ruinously expensive.

Although a decent script wouldn't have been. And Peter Milligan has written for telly before, after all.

Unless that's just an urban myth. If it is though, I'd rather not be told.

uncle retrospective

14:34 / 23.02.08

Crossroads dude, Crossroads.

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