Sunday 19 July 2009

THAT MITCHELL & WEBB LOOK 3.6

Sunday 19 July 2009

The final episode of this third series was quite average, really. Last episodes of sketch shows tend to give the running gags an amusing twist, but only the "Get Me Hennimore" sketch provided a tweak to its formula, while the excellent "Remain Indoors" quiz unwisely vanished back in episode 4. A real missed opportunity. Sadly, even this week's best sketches tended to drag their ideas out too long, or else had unfunny punchlines, giving the whole episode a disappointing feel.

Great: A mediavel scientist who keeps inventing useless products too advanced for their time, like a wireless computer mouse and car windscreen wiper; cosily British TV promotion (although the punchline that this was being watched in a post-apocalyptic wasteland was terrible); Mitchell is persuaded to be given a massage by Webb, who proceeds to act sexually when he rubs his friend's shoulders; brother's execution (funny idea that two brothers would have nothing to say to each other on the eve of one of them dying, but stretched out far too long).

Good: Drunken hotel; David Mitchell addresses the live studio audience over budget cuts (they should do more of this stuff because the "live" feel was fun and reminded me of A Bit Of Fry & Laurie, but this "sketch" was let down by a dud punchline); garrulous idiot TV exec demanding something identical to Numberwang; and the Marmit glove.

Bad: Text-for-sex (spoof of phone chatlines that are already beyond spoof); the Old Testament God sees how far he can push Abraham into doing terrible things; "Get Me Hennimore", where the hapless office worker imagines various likely catastrophes as his boss talks, manages to avoid them all, only for a nuclear bomb to inexplicably go off outside (a poor end to a sketch series of mixed success); Wagner's Ring Cycle on mobile phone text; and text-a-blog (yes, this episode's recurring mobile phone gags were terrible.)