Writers: Chris Addison & Carl Cooper
Director: Adam Tandy
Cast: Chris Addison (Dr. Alex Beenyman), Geoffrey McGivern (Professor John Mycroft), Jo Enright (Cara McIlvenny), Daniel Tetsell (Brian Lalumaca), Selina Cadell (Dean Mieke Miedema), Helen Moon (Minty Clapper), Margaret Cabourn-Smith (Secretary), Andrew Brooke (Protestor) & Sue Vincent (Protestor)
Director: Adam Tandy
Cast: Chris Addison (Dr. Alex Beenyman), Geoffrey McGivern (Professor John Mycroft), Jo Enright (Cara McIlvenny), Daniel Tetsell (Brian Lalumaca), Selina Cadell (Dean Mieke Miedema), Helen Moon (Minty Clapper), Margaret Cabourn-Smith (Secretary), Andrew Brooke (Protestor) & Sue Vincent (Protestor)
Lab Rats is the greatest children's comedy since Maid Marian & Her Merry Men; so it's a shame it's on at 9.30 pm when its audience are in bed. Seriously, record an episode and watch it after Newsround on a Friday -- it's ten times funnier in scheduling context. If you imagine the "lab rats" are overgrown kids left alone in a science class, with the Dean (Selina Cadell) actually their dotty headmistress, it all starts to make sense...As I've chosen to treat Lab Rats as a kid's comedy, I find it vastly more enjoyable as a result. There's something to be said for targeting a TV show at the right demographic, so you'd have thought the cartoon opening credits would have helped BBC2's schedulers realize they should palm this off to CBBC pronto.
"A Protest" involves people outside the university protesting about experimentation on animals, while the Dean starts baking Dutch cakes using the eggs being thrown at the building. As befits a studio-based comedy, all of the goings-on outside are heard and not seen -- save for one scene of two protesters breaking into the lab, only to be scared away by the sight of enormous, glowing eyeballs attached to peoples' heads. Don't ask.
This episode actually contained quite a few funny lines, and the actors are clearly settling into their roles. Chris Addison has been the linchpin since episode 1 (as co-writer, he clearly understands what he wants to achieve), but it was nice to see co-stars Dan Tetsell and especially Jo Enright make more of their roles. However, it was Helen Moon as Minty who made the best impression -- dropping into a handful of scenes to spit out a cynical remark, before vanishing. Moon's been stuck in the background in a thankless, unnoticed role for a few episodes, but writers Addison and Carl Cooper have suddenly realized how to use her.
There are still quite a few times where Lab Rats' tireless quest for a surreal detour is taken too far (Brian dressing as the Tin Man to cheat motion-detectors, for example), but generally there were some amusing diversions here. I particularly liked the madness of the retina scan, and how events conspired for Alex to accidentally offend protesters all the time. The show works best when there's a clear sense of direction and jokes are returned to for pay-off later. The creative writing required to achieve such a tapestry of comedy (a staple of David Renwick's One Foot In The Grave) isn't quite being achieved yet -- but Lab Rats is giving it a good go.
Overall, I'm warming to this sitcom. The characters are beginning to find their comic voices, the script had more hits than misses, and if you view it from the perspective of a child after a zany half-hour of easy laughs and mischief, "A Protest" is perfectly acceptable stuff. So, how about it, BBC? Put Lab Rats on before 6pm and you might find an untapped audience of children who would lap up jokes about liquorice-cheese cakes and exploding microwaves that leave your face blacked-up like a Tex Avery cartoon...
24 July 2008
BBC2, 9.30 pm
