Director: Ben Gregor
The final episode of this enjoyable (if never side-splitting) sitcom is even more downbeat than usual, owing to the unexpected death of ineffectual Fortress bouncer Thundermonkey...Norse Dave (Steve Spiers) blames a villain called Doomball and asks for Timebomb's (James Lance) help to interrogating him for information in the pub cellar. I'm actually uncomfortable with recent revelations that Don's such an unsavoury character, although the Spaniard's ad hoc torture method (piercing Doomball's face with cheesy nibbles and forcing peanuts under his fingernails) was grimly funny and a very memorable visual.
Jenny/She-Force (Rebekah Staton) is lumbered with a rather bland storyline, where she takes to enforcing Thundermonkey's rules in his absence, and narrows her sights on a few drinkers breaking the cardinal "no smoking" rule. It's always good to see Adam Buxton as a guest-star, but this was pretty much filler material with an unsurprising direction.
More interesting was Alex/The Hotness (Nicholas Burns), who tries to impress an American agent keen to assemble a new superhero group in the US. Alex's new beard fails to impress, but the agent begins to suspect he'd be perfect as a British sidekick to be ridiculed. Tragically, the money and perks are strong enough for Alex to swallow his pride and agree to the job offer -- until he realizes he'd have to make a permanent move Stateside and leave ex-girlfriend Sarah/Electroclash (Claire Keelan) behind… and probably lose her forever to Devlin/Excelsor (Patrick Baladi).
Considering Alex and Sarah were two of the least interesting characters when No Heroics began, it's been nice to watch them develop into semi-rounded people -- simply by giving them a romantic history together. Burns is still slightly too broad compared to everyone else (an obvious "comedy character", if you like), but Keelan shows depth and subtlety in her reactions to Devlin's sledgehammer flirting and the prospect of losing Alex.
Simply for the Alex/Sarah storyline, this is one of the better episodes, although it's not quite as climactic as I'd have liked for a finale. The death of Thundermonkey wasn't really a big deal, because he was never more than mild comic-relief -- although I'm saddened we never got to see his simian-summoning power in action. The Alex/Sarah/Devlin love-triangle hasn't been as involving as it should have been, mainly because you just can't believe Sarah would ever sleep with such an egotistical bully. Baladi's been great fun and has given some rich performances, but Devlin's so unlikeable it's never been a worry he'd seriously come between Alex and Sarah -- unless the script forces the matter, as it did here.
Overall, this was a decent end to an unremarkable but sporadically amusing sitcom. No Heroics never really had the budget or writing quality to evolve beyond what it resembles (a sketch with the joke stretched to a total of 3 hours), but the committed performances and its commendable refusal to pander only to the geek crowd helped sustain my interest. If it comes back for another series, hopefully ITV2 will bless it with more production cash and wider publicity. More importantly, let's hope the number of laugh-out-loud gags gets a super-boost.
23 October 2008
ITV2, 10.35pm
Cast: Alex/The Hotness (Nicholas Burns), Sarah/Electroclash (Claire Keelan), Don/Timebomb (James Lance), Jenny/She-Force (Rebekah Staton), Devlin/Excelsor (Patrick Baladi) & Steve Spiers (Norse Dave)
