You Should Be Watching: That Mitchell & Webb Look

You Should be Watching 'That Mitchell and Web Look'.

E.g. - a few sample clips found on YouTube

The Bad Vicar



Jump Off a Cliff - 2 Quid



The Snooker Commentators
(the riffs on 'Chris Lester' remind me of listening to Chip Caray waxing on about how strappingly handsome various Cubs players were)

You Should Be Watching Googlecurrent

The Google Current segments are consistently solid, but recently I saw one that was extra brilliant. Subjects of their satire this time: national advertising campaigns and promotional efforts of Georgia and Israel.

A couple of quotes that will come off much better if you watch the full video at Current.tv [annoying that their embeddable videos aren't full clip]:

"Coming to Israel based upon a few pictures I saw in Maxim was the best decision of my life."

"The women are so hot here things just blow up when they walk by. Which is all the time. I'm going to retire here as soon as my Georgia investment money pays off."

But clip below gives you good sense of the primary comedy value.

You Should Check Out Current TV

I've grazed a bit of Current TV in the past and been intrigued, but recently have been watching blocks of it at a time and am deeming it worthy of my viewing effort. However, I primarily watch it 'time shifted' via TiVo. I find it can be frustrating trying to watch live, b/c it is truly random and you can get caught with the occasional crap pod or a re-airing of something you've already seen.
If you haven't heard anything about it, I'd describe it as an amalgamation of MTV News, NPR/BBC, and Punk'd/The Tom Green Show - and it shifts deftly between these poles from pod to pod. Some of the content might be a bit earnest for many people's liking [if so, by all means flip the channel back to your According to Jim rerun]. And I'll grant that a few feel like the self-indulgent senior project of affluent-but-serious Sally the communications major. But the variety of topics they cover and the on-the-ground-level style in which they cover them are a refreshing break from the absolute garbage you find on many other channels. The range of clips moves from the National Italian Greyhound dog show to an Egyptian-American's take on Wuhan, China [sidenote stat: China has more than 150+ cities with pop. >1MM; US has 8], to the art of Kehinde Wiley [another sidenote: his art is kind of gimmicky, but it's an interesting gimmick, so give him credit for that]. So, if you've had enough of crap like this, this or this, look for Current on your cable lineup. Better yet, TiVo a couple hours at a clip and see what you think. Learn something. Think.

Originally posted 12/16/06

You should be watching Saxondale

BBC America continues to deliver the goods.






The folks who put the original The Office on the air, as well as Coupling,
The Kumars at No. 42, Ed vs Spencer and, my personal favorite, Peep Show are now airing Saxondale.


It's genius. The Mustang. The Tull-like [possibly actuall Tull, I can't say I'm fluent enough to confirm or deny] intro music. The jean jacket with faux lamb's wool collar. Brilliant, all of it.

Originally posted 11/28/06.