Writers: Sam Bain & Jesse Armstrong
Director: Becky MartinCast: David Mitchell (Mark), Robert Webb (Jez), Matt King (Super Hans), Niky Wardley (Cally), Eve Webster (Christian Girl) & Phil Gilbert (Ronnie)
Jez and Super Hans get themselves a sexy manager, who books them a gig at a Christian Rock festival...It's the penultimate episode and, as a side-note, why is practically every episode's title revolving around Jez? We've had Jeremy's Broke, Jeremy's Mummy, and now Jeremy's Manager. While obviously a very minor issue (the titles aren't even shown on-screen), it's become a bugbear with me now...
Anyway, after last week's disappointment, Peep Show fires on all cylinders here. Jez (Robert Webb) and Super Hans (Matt King) try to get themselves represented by Universal, but instead find themselves taken under the wing of Universal employee Cally (Niky Wardley), who is cultivating her own talent. Why Cally believes Jez and Super Hans are worth managing (as their musical ineptitude is regularly made clear) requires suspension of disbelief, though...
Cally plans for them to play at the Wolverhampton Festivus, and has a drunken fumble with Jez before rudely putting an end to their bedroom antics just as he gets started. A spurned, humiliated Jez takes solace in the fact his career at least seems to be benefiting from Cally's arrival, if not his sex life. Then, the Festivus gig falls through, so Cally arranges for them to play at a Christian Rock festival. She also becomes impressed by Mark's (David Mitchell) business acumen, so cosies up to him as Mark offers to be Jez and Super Hans' roadie, purely so he can continue his pursuit of Cally.
At the Christian Rock festival, Mark's relationship with Cally requires him to abandon common-sense and agree with her that a tent's crystal skulls are indeed divine, health-giving creations from Atlantis. He also decides he rather likes her domineering, condescending attitude in bed – which is worth his male emasculation as she talks him through every step of the sex act.
Cally eventually comes between Mark and Jez, when she decides Super Hans is more marketable as a solo act ("he's fuckable; it's an industry term -- it means someone might want to fuck him.) Cowardly Cally thinks it would be better if Mark broke the news to Jez that he's no longer in the band, and the news enrages Jez into vandalizing Cally's trailer. This later causes a problem for Jez, when Super Hans' drug habit incapacitates him from performing, so Cally is forced to rehire Jez – who has to blame Mark for the state of her trailer...
While the storyline once again focused on well-trodden themes (another gig for Jez and Super Hans, Mark's belief he's found "the one" in a clearly unsuitable person), it was great to see the show outdoors at a real location. Too much of season 5 has been circling the flat and Mark's office, so I was relieved to see an episode with more scope to it – particularly as a Christian Rock festival is ripe for comedy....
Jez got baptized in a child's inflatable pool (because there's a 1% chance Christians are right about the afterlife), Cally revealed a bizarre belief in crystal skull mumbo-jumbo (how timely with Indiana Jones 4, eh?), and Super Hans and Jez had to improvise hedonism – by chugging down litres of supermarket-brand cola and giving themselves "head rushes"! Brilliant.
Cally, played by the lovely Niky Wardley (supporting player on The Catherine Tate Show), was just another of Peep Show's crackpot women, really – but she made for a very memorable control freak. I loved how she impolitely stopped having sex with Jez – mainly because it has long confused me how Jez manages to sleep with so many hot women on the show! You can kind of understand Mark getting lucky (as he's sympathetic, unthreatening, and usually lands girls in his league), but Jez's atrraction has long been a mystery. So it was fun to see him get turned down. The amusing way Mark had to lower himself sexually, and pretend he believed in New Age mysticism just to please Cally, was also neatly written.
As usual, writers Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong's script was crammed with witty and amusing dialogue. Together with the humorous setting and delightfully weird Cally character, this episode really clicked and provided a swift 30-minutes of embarrassing and intriguing comedy. It's the last episode next week, and while season 5 has generally been much weaker than season 4 (thanks to the lack of a decent recurring idea, like last year's impending marriage), it's still head and shoulders above any other sitcom on TV right now.
30 May 2008
Channel 4, 10.35 pm
