Me? I didn't like Green Wing, but I wouldn't stretch to hatred. I just found its schitzophrenic camera style and crazed, disjointed writing constantly got in the way of feeling any real empathy towards anyone. Each episode is a pot pourri of loosely-connected sketches and ideas, from a hive mind of a half-dozen writers, and then the performances are half-improvised on top of that. It gives everything quite a wacky, anything-goes feel that's part of the charm for many people, but I just find it annoyingly unfocused and reckless. Anarchic spirit is fine, but I like to see a bit of control at times.
Campus exists in Green Wing's universe (i.e. I like to think the East Hampton Hospital Trust is just up the road from Kirke University), so it shares many of the problems I have with its predecessor. That said, I do prefer the uni locale, as I think more people have first-hand experience of university/college than they do hospitals. For that reason, it was actually amusing to imagine lecturers and tutors behaving like schoolchildren, whereas in Green Wing I just felt a vague horror those characters had life-or-death control over hundreds of people.
Ostensibily, English professor Matt Beer (Joseph Millson) is our hero; a laidback, underachieving womanizer who swans around the campus causing mischief. There's also ferocious Vice Chancellor Jonty De Wolfe (Andy Nyman), a vulgar monster with a haircut like a meteor crater, who cuts quite a tyrannical figure (imagine a sociopathic David Brent and you're not far off); Imogen Moffat (Lisa Jackson), a demure maths lecturer who's just written a bestselling book "The True Story Of Zero"; mechanical engineering lecturer Lydia Tennant (Dolly Wells); vapid accommodations officer Nicole Huggins (Sara Pascoe), who causes an accounting error; and Jason Armitage (Will Adamsdale*) as the accountant who has to fix the fact Nicole's paid everyone their wages twice this month.
That latter subplot was the best of a mixed bag, but Campus primarily felt like a means to deliver 40-minutes of insanity, insults, oddness and quips. It was perhaps too extreme or bizarre for its own good at times, and none of the characters came across as particularly likeable, but it definitely felt like there was potential. If the writing can become more cohesive between scenes and the characters strengthened, Campus could become a satisfying show if it makes it to series. There were some hilarious moments, and the almost supernatural spectre of Jonty De Wolfe was a joy to behold. Nyman's particularly adept at spitting vitriol and chewing on obscenities, and this pilot even made use of his background as an illusionist for one memorable scene when he just vanished mid-speech.
Overall, it feels like a no-brainer that Campus will be picked up by Channel 4, as it's a perfect replacement for the popular Green Wing. I found its style to be quite distancing and too abrasive for my taste, but I'd be lying if I claimed it didn't have a lot of chutzpah and showed enough promise to warrant a full semester.
6 November 2009
Channel 4, 10pm
written by: Robert Harley, James Henry, Oriane Messina, Gary Parker, Victoria Pile, Richard Preddy, Fay Rusling & Christian Sandino-Taylor directed by: Victoria Pile starring: Andy Nyman (Jonty De Wolfe), Joseph Millson (Matt Beer), Sarah Pascoe (Nicole Huggins), Will Adamsdale (Jason Armitage), Dolly Wells (Lydia Tennant), Lisa Jackson (Imogen Moffat) & Alison Lintott (Grace)
* Yes, "Wiiiiiil" from TFI Friday!
