LAB RATS 1.6 - "A Diary"

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), Margaret Cabourn-Smith (Secretary) & John Quayle (Dr. Benjamin Beenyman)

The final episode marks another half hour of mildly engaging nonsense that doesn't hang together terribly well, but manages to throw up a few decent sight gags -- like a clichéd glowing container revealed to be a portable fridge storing cheese. The frustrating thing about Lab Rats is how its laboratory setting is perfect for science-related flights of fancy, but all the characterisations are two-dimensional, the plots only hit full-speed in the dying minutes, and the majority of jokes are rather feeble...

"A Diary" heralds the arrival of Alex's zany father, historian Dr. Benjamin Beenyman (Monarch Of The Glen's John Quayle), clutching a diary belonging to Scott of the Antarctic. Alex (Chris Addison) is asked to prove the authenticity of the book supposedly belonging to his childhood hero, while Brian (Daniel Tetsell) grapples with the university's malfunctioning temperature control system and Professor Mycroft (Geoffrey McGivern) turns pigeon-fancier...

Again, the series wears its '80s influences on its sleeve: the temperature system is nicknamed "Metal Vicky", which I took as a nod to early-80s TV hit Metal Mickey -- a little joke that consequently only works if you're watching 25 years ago! If it wasn't for a later mention of e-mail, you'd sometimes swear Lab Rats was from that era, though. Ironically, setting Lab Rats in the '80s might actually improve things and give it another layer of comedy.

Guest star Quayle does a good job as Alex's grinning, bow-tie wearing dad, but because every character suffers from various states of dementia, he gets lost in the mix of just-as-crazy regulars. I'd actually like to see more from the (relative) sane characters on the show -- harassed Secretary (Margaret Cabourn-Smith) and cynical Minty (Helen Moon). The latter is particularly good at dropping into scenes and giving the audience a rest from the insane prattle of dullard Cara (Jo Enright), Brian and Mycroft. At the moment, Addison's the only straight man.

Anyway, you only really stick with Lab Rats for the handful of moments that land a funny punch: a basement covered in bloody feathers after a kamikaze attack by randy pigeons, Alex quoting Oates' fateful "I may be sometime" speech before walking into a snow flurry, and the aforementioned cheese fridge gag. But the hits never outweigh the misses, and despite the passion of the cast to milk laughs as best they can, the scripts aren't rich enough to keep you involved.

The horrendous scheduling is partly to blame, I feel. After the edgy political comedy of Mock The Week, who wants to watch a sitcom that opens with animated credits and a chirpy theme tune? If Lab Rats was shown at 7pm on a weekend, or 8pm during the week (i.e., it was more accessible to kids), it might find a natural home for its silly, breezy style.


14 August 2008
BBC2, 9.30 pm

LAB RATS 1.5 – "A Seven Nighter"

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) & Margaret Cabourn-Smith (Secretary)

Lab Rats has failed to really burn into life, despite a few sparks in every episode. Last week's "A Bee" was rather tedious, so it's disappointing to find this week's penultimate episode continue that trend. "A Seven Nighter" finds the quartet of dim-witted scientists working in a secret government bunker for the titular seven nights, as part of a hazily explained science experiment. Of course, placing characters into a confined space is one of the best ways to focus comedy, although the cast of Lab Rats were already restricted in their university workplace, so it all seems a bit pointless...

The set of the underground bunker looks to have been transported from 1982, further evidence of writer/star Chris Addison's celebration of the '80s studio-based sitcom that Lab Rats aspires to be. Trouble is, the characters are still incredibly half-baked and the jokes practically shout their arrival. The moment a computer system called "SPARTACUS" is mentioned, I think we can all guess the ensuing gag. Funnily enough, it actually went over the heads of the live studio audience!

The cast try their best, but Alex (Addison) has quickly devolved to become the "feed man" for everyone else's quips – often seen shepherding characters around to their next comedy set-piece. Geoffrey McGivern gives everything he's got (bravely stripping down to a thong in one instance), but there just isn't the strength of material and characterisation to justify his determination. Here, his character's stuck recycling a clichéd joke about chapter titles in his book echoing exactly the current situation. You can just about get away with doing that gag once, maybe twice, but it was returned to continuously...

Another problem was the situation itself, which contained no sense of peril or difficulty. It just seemed to be a boring chore the characters were stuck doing for 7 days. Why not have them "imprisoned" 24/7, instead of going home to sleep in the daytime? And what was the experiment about, anyway? It was all too vague and uninteresting to provide a strong throughline for the comedy.

As such, "A Seven Nighter" became stuck in a rut very quickly and, for every enjoyable gag that appeared almost by accident (a chair being whipped away, but the sitter's bodily stiffness prevents them from falling to the floor) there were jokes that 10-year-olds might think up (the instructions for a complicated machine resembled easy-to-remember nursery rhymes and songs).

Most episodes tend to escalate into a final tableau of surrealism, and "A Seven Nighter" was no different. By the end of the episode, events had imaginatively conspired to have every character resemble a circus act (Mycroft in his "strongman" thong, Cara dangling from the ceiling like an acrobat, Alex in a "clown" costume, Brian fending a "lion" off with a wooden chair, and the Dean's "ringmaster"-style jodhpurs.) While I applaud the ingenuity in arriving at that visual climax (forgiving how strained it was), I was left with one underlying thought: WHY?? Circuses hadn't even been mentioned throughout the whole episode, so it wasn't clever to arrive at that tableau.

Overall, Lab Rats' few moments of dim promise are being extinguished in recent weeks. The characters are still very lazily written, the jokes mostly uninspired, the overall aesthetic and tone incredibly dated, and the glimmers of hope (a well-written line here, a bizarrely amusing visual there) are few and far between.


7 August 2008
BBC2, 9.30 pm

LAB RATS 1.4 - "A Bee"

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), Margaret Cabourn-Smith (Secretary) & Mike McShane (Dr. Vaabit)

Definitely the worst episode so far, "A Bee" contains a few delightfully nutty moments (like an intercom buzzer fortuitously censoring swear words), but the story's throughline wasn't handled very well. Lab Rats has also started splitting its characters into pairs to tackle the A and B plots -- but, while Alex (Chris Addison) and Cara (Jo Enright) can bank on a Father Ted/Father Dougal-style repartee, Mycroft (Geoffrey McGivern) and Brian (Dan Tetsell) are just a bit tiresome together...

"A Bee" concerns Mycroft's rivalry with Dr. Vaabit (Mike McShane), who he believes has sabotaged his avocado plants. As Mycroft plots revenge with the help of Brian and a huge magnet, Alex and Cara discover Vaabit's precious bee collection and decide to create a hive in a filing cabinet. All they need is a bee costume and a book explaining how to "dance" to talk with the insects...

As ever, it's written with that "broad reach" style (where every turn of phrase and line of dialogue is potentially the jumping-off point for a strained joke). Sometimes it works, usually it doesn't. It's very difficult to believe the characters are scientists, too -- particularly Cara and Alex, who in this episode think dressing as a bee to talk to them isn't ridiculous. Super-idiot Cara might think this, but Alex? I thought he was the quiet voice of sanity?

Of course, likeminded shows like Father Ted and The IT Crowd get away with sticking idiotic characters in serious professions (the clergy, IT support) because we know both can be the domain of dimwits and social pariah's. The same is broadly true of science, but not to the same degree. I need a bit of belief that the lab rats aren't total retards. Or, failing that, a good reason for why a university would employ idiots.

Anyway, the performances remain on the same level. Addison's still the likeable backbone of the whole thing, Enright's amusing enough, Tetsell stands around waiting for a decent joke, McGivern's character isn't funny, and Selena Cadell scene-steals as the Dean (even if, admittedly, it's 90% down to her comedy Dutch accent). Guest star Mike McShane was almost unrecognisable, having lost half his body-weight since his Whose Line Is It Anyway? days, but his raucous voice was the giveaway. He should have been better utilized as Dr. Vaabit, though.

Overall, the story was very weak and most of the jokes fell a bit flat. I quite enjoyed the episode's obsession with cartoons (Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner mentioned, Vaabit described as a Looney Tune, an ACME-style giant magnet featured, and in one scene Vaabit's literally blended into a background like a 'toon). Mind you, it once again begged the question: what is a sitcom that heavily-references cartoons doing on at half-nine at night? Everything about Lab Rats smells of a children's show, and the poor scheduling is partly to blame for its noble failure: as audiences approach it looking for a post-watershed bit of adult surrealism, only to find its humour's aimed at kids.


31 July 2008
BBC2, 9.30 pm

LAB RATS 1.3 - "A Protest"

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)

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

LAB RATS 1.2 - "A Donor"

Writers: Chris Addison & Carl Cooper
Director: Adam Tandy

Cast: Chris Addison (Dr Alex Beenyman), Selina Cadell (Dean Mieke Miedema), Jo Enright (Cara), Geoff McGivern (Professor John Mycroft), Dan Tetsell (Brian), Helen Moon (Minty), Margaret Cabourn-Smith (Secretary), Robin Ince (Sir Andrew Chother) & Kim Wall (Les Goodman)

The lab rats must conceal the defrosting of a cryogenically-frozen benefactor from a visiting university inspector...

Lab Rats resembles something you missed back in 1992, now being repeated. It's comfortable and predictable in its larger-than-life nature, and best enjoyed if you forget the advances made in the sitcom format. Its style of comedy isn't something you see a lot of these days (outside of The IT Crowd, really), but it's a shame Lab Rats' own surreal sensibilities can't hold a candle to Graham Linehan's fellow geek-com.

There are moments of zany humour that stick out (an inspector easily distracted by tilted picture frames), and a few clever asides (the reasoning for disabled toilets being unisex), but not enough to last the distance. For the most part, it's gently amusing thanks to the performances of Chris Addison (likeable lead nerd), Geoff McGivern (bearded academic bighead) and Selina Cadell (doing a Dutch accents, yesh?) Dan Tetsell still looks like a hanger-on to the better characters, while Jo Enright's unassuming nuttiness is a bit too obvious for modern tastes.

"A Donor" concerns an inspector, Les Goodman (the excellent Kim Wall), arriving to carry out his duties, as Dr. Beenyman (Addison) tries to conceal the defrosting of the cryogenically-frozen university benefactor Sir Andrew Chother (Robin Ince) -- a freakishly talkative and irritating oddball apparently frozen to spare everyone their sanity. Needless to say, comedian Ince was the obvious choice for this role. There's also a bit of business with Professor Mycroft (McGivern) trying to get a satellite feed piped through to his lab, with the help of Brian (Tetsell), so he can watch himself on a Germany broadcast of the top Nobel prize-winners.

The engaging performances of Addison and McGivern save the show at times, and the premise certainly lends itself to "mad science"-style craziness, but the tone and characterisations have yet to gel. It trundles along spouting signposted jokes, hitting about three highs in the half-hour, while the cumulative nonsense didn't build to anything as gleefully bizarre as last week's giant snail ending. A projection power-cut caused by overloaded plug sockets? How disappointing.

Ince's verbal diarrhoea wasn't as hilarious as it was intended to be, and the whole idea of unfreezing someone who's spent god-knows-how-many years on ice should have been much more interesting and amusing.

Overall, Lab Rats' potential for creating something inspired isn't being reached, so you'll just have to settle for its few highlights (like the inspector's infuriating written test) to see you through. Maybe once the characters have embedded themselves in your mind, and the scripts begin to weave the sub-plots together in interesting, unpredictable, clever ways... this sitcom might hit its stride. But for now, colour me unimpressed.


18 July 2008
BBC2, 9.30 pm

LAB RATS 1.1 - "A Snail"

Writers: Chris Addison & Carl Cooper
Director: Adam Tandy

Cast: Chris Addison (Dr. Alex Beenyman), Geoffrey McGivern (Prof. John Mycroft), Jo Enright (Cara McIlvenny), Dan Tetsell (Brian Lalumaca) & Selena Cadell (Dean Mieke Miedema)

The traditional, studio-based sitcom has fallen out of favour in the '00s; overtaken by a trend for grittier realism (The Office/Peep Show), its tendency for exaggerated stereotypes spoofed by Extras' "When The Whistle Blows", and now relegated to toothless fluff like My Family. But, lest we forget, this style of sitcom has formed the backbone of British comedy for decades: Steptoe & Son, Porridge, Fawlty Towers, The Young Ones, Blackadder, Men Behaving Badly, et al...

Lab Rats is a throwback to early-90s sitcom (with a faintly-'70s aesthetic), written by Chris Addison (The Thick Of It) and Carl Cooper, the former of whom also stars as Dr. Alex Beenyman -- an eccentric scientist working in the Arnolfini research lab of St. Dunstan's University. His colleagues are: faded scientist Prof. John Mycroft (Geoffrey McGivern), bearded ubernerd Brian Lalumaca (Dan Tetsell), and diminutive halfwit Cara McIlvenny (Jo Enright). They all work for the Dean of the University, a Dutch lady with an obsession with Toblerone's called Mieke Miedema (Selena Cadell).

To say Lab Rats is broad and outdated would be an understatement. The jokes are so painfully obvious and laboriously constructed, that it's almost a pastiche of the sitcom formula. You can see most of the gags coming a mile off, while the characters are strictly of the cartoon variety: personalities summed up in one sentence, and unlikely to develop beyond that.

Taken individually, its perceived failings might not be failings -- Blackadder's Baldrick was hardly a fully-rounded character, likewise Father Ted's Dougal, etc. And there's still an audience for easygoing comedy full of predictable, toothless jokes. But I'm just not sure the demographic drawn to a science-based sitcom belong to those crowds. Chances are Lab Rats attracted some curious IT Crowd fans (who were rewarded with a few moments of that sitcom's surrealism, I guess), but everything was just too clichéd and uninspired.

The cast did what was expected of them; hitting their marks, saying their lines, putting on the appropriate accent or bluster. Only likeable Addison showed promise as the startled-looking scientist whose lab coat had been accidentally dyed pink. Enright was the most obvious "comedy character", though -- a short, pigtailed, Brummie scientist who thinks a solar-powered calculator would have an 8-second delay. Think about it...

Tetsell looked visually promising, but didn't get anything interesting to do here. A recurring gag (that he fancies the Dean, but she can't even remember his name) didn't work because his unrequited love was hammered home, instead of allowing the audience to realize what's going on. Geoffrey McGivern was also given little to do, but Selena Cadell showed some spark as Dean Mieke Miedema -- even if her Dutch background was probably added just for silly-accent giggles. And, like all Dutch women, she displays a clog in her office?

This opener sometimes wobbled into zaniness (a "Russian Doll" clone of a scientist's grandmother, Alex's attractiveness to snails, a light bulb anomaly, etc.), and the comedy definitely picked up when Lab Rats played the mad science card -- even if it was never inspired nuttiness. However, total failure was salvaged by a strong climax -- involving a massive snail (FX courtesy of The Goodies), a giant lemon-powered fan, a booby-trapped chair, and an overgrown leg. Solid, goofy laughs. Shame they were all crammed into the dying minutes of the show.

Overall, I won't condemn Lab Rats for taking inspiration from the rich history of British studio-based sitcom, but the quality of written jokes was way below the standard of Porridge, Fawlty Towers, Only Fools & Horses... and, heck, The Brittas Empire. It had a surprisingly strong and silly climax; but that was too little, too late. Hand on heart, I can't see this improving -- but the lunacy of the last few minutes gave me mild hope it'll find its feet.


10 July 2008
BBC2, 9.30 pm