Nathan Barley: UK ressies

[tim partridge]

What do the UKers think of this new Chris Morris six parter on Channel 4, about to do it's third episode?

I for one found it compelling and deeply compelling, like all Morris' other stuff- at times, I didn't know what to think, other than remind myself of all the fickle media studies airheads I went to university with.

Some have called this show dated and nolonger relevent, or satire too media specific to be enjoyed by a mass audience- what are your thoughts? Is it up there with The Day Today and Jam, is it misunderstood or did it fall asleep during it's three years of development?

I think Chris Morris is about the contemporary filmmaker we can geuinely be proud of in the UK (Lynne Ramsey and Michael Winterbottom are a close second).

http://www.trashbat.co.ck/

[ray_bog]

Bit of a disappointment really.

The main problem with the show is that Nathan Barley isn't that much like the bloke described in Cunt. If the source material was anything to go by, I expected him to be a vitriolic bastard of a cunt... yet he clearly isn't. Barley needed to be a much darker, hateful character. He's just a silly buffoon, not that far removed from Colin Hunt. That's not clever - or particularly funny. He's just stupid and that kinda misses the point.

But saying that, NB shows Chris Morris has grown up a bit. Instead of the vitriol and anger of the Cunt texts, we get a far more mature feeling - despair. Basically, Ashcroft is very much like Brooker, I imagine. He gets himself all pent up and writes Cunt, but I doubt he then goes out on the street and wallops the first person he sees with an iPod. He probably puts up with them.

I imagine that Nathan Barley is a far more accurate depiction of living with media types than Cunt is.

Um, if you have no idea who Brooker or Cunt is - google is thi friend.

I think Chris Morris is about the contemporary filmmaker we can geuinely be proud of in the UK (Lynne Ramsey and Michael Winterbottom are a close second).

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Pft, what about Shane Meadows and Paul Greengrass?

[miker]

I'm a big Morris fan but still have managed to miss all of NB so far [img]redface.gif[/img]

To me it just looks like Ab Fab applied to filmmakers. I had no idea it was based off TVGoHome or whatever it was that Cunt appeared in.

[Chance1234]

i think if it had came out two years earlier it would of been funny, now watching it, is just like going to any pub in hoxton, and the advantage with that is they serve beer.

[kriegslust]

There's nothing better on television at the moment. Chris Morris is an utter genius. The characters have great depth; it would have been so easy to vilify Nathan Barley, but instead his persona has several parts to it, humanising him and thus lending more complexities to our identification with Dan and our hatred of 'the idiots.' (see last night's episode for an example, Nathan Borders on the verge of being likable before drifting back into his normal self). Likewise, the sense of despair the audience shares with Dan Ashcroft wouldn't be anywhere near as powerful if it weren't for his occasional lapses into 'idiocy' himself. If he was a stronger character, more intelligent than his editor, or was capable of simply knowing that it's all bullshit and taking the money instead of caring (like the editor), then the show would be dead on it's arse.

As it is, this programme is far, far ahead of its time, in television terms at least.

[Chance1234]

well eat my hat with raddish sauce,

I;ve just taken on a new contract with a design / new media company in shoreditch, there offices equiped with giant purple sofas, 72 inch plasma screens and a pool table.

I am wearing a hat so i dont end up with a hoxton quiff

[tim partridge]

Harold,

Couldn't agree with you more. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Paul Greengrass? Once the brave crusader of Sunday, now someone directing Hollywood sequels. How integrity comes to an abrupt, brick-wall finish.

Shane Meadows? I liked 24/7- best check out his other stuff!

Chance, for shame! [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]wink.gif[/img]