The latest part of
e4’s continued assault on the perceived ‘alternative comedy’ demographic is
‘The Midnight Beast’ - in which a trio of layabouts do a bit of trying to make
their name in South-West London’s music scene, a bit of trying to get off with
women and a bit of being wacky and weird. I may as well say now that I didn’t
like this programme; I didn’t like any of the characters because they were all
morons, I didn’t like any of the jokes because they weren’t particularly funny
and I shan’t be watching any more of it.
Its not that I’m
against what e4 do; by their nature they will have their hits and their misses and,
for the most part, the former are worth the latter. However, the difference
between the fortunes of this and its Monday-night predecessor ‘Cardinal Burns’ is their origins: ‘Cardinal Burns’ – brilliantly strange sketches executed to
perfection by their creators, ‘The Midnight Beasts’ – a half-baked comedy written seemingly only so as to include the musical source material which gained a popular following on Youtube.
These might have been aimed
broadly at the same audience, but in this case the writers have crossed the
very real line between the amusingly bizarre and the downright annoying. They
crammed three of their comedy pop songs into one programme, and where ‘Flight
of the Conchords’ was elevated by its genuinely catchy musical interludes this
had me wincing at the lyrics ‘I kicked a shark in the face.’ That’s about its
level.
Take a bit of that and
piece it together with some plot about trying to get their songs on a
playstation game, a manager doing a decent Liam Gallagher/Super Hans impression
and an over-egged Withnail-like desperation for any sustenance (two characters
fight over a cherry lip balm) and there you have it – a properly rubbish first
episode of what will more than likely be a properly rubbish programme. Get
back, The Midnight Beast! Back to the internet from whence you came!
