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The Fast Show Season 2
British comedy series are thankfully aired very often on our free to air
and pay TV in Australia, and we've seen some absolute gems of the genre
over the years. I've a fondness for a lot of UK comedy and am always
surprised at how unerringly the country produces pure comedy classics
year in and out. UK comedy is a genre all its own however and as I've
experienced with friends, it's not for everyone. The Fast Show isn't
going to change your opinion of it, but for fans, its a classic skit
series than deserves a place alongside the best the UK's produced.
If you had to some up The Fast Show in as few words in possible it would
be "running joke". This kind of comedy either works for you or it
doesn't, I find it hilarious, and the situations and characterisations
in The Fast Show provide some very, very funny skits that will become
familiar by the third episode, but they'll always be funny. The cast of
the series is where all its strength comes from. Many familiar faces
were members of the Fast Show cast before they went on to more widely
acclaimed roles, such as John Thomson who went on the Cold Feet series,
and Caroline Aherne who went on to write and star in The Royle Family.
The main star in the Fast Show is Paul Whitehouse, a performer with a
comedic talent that's perfectly matched to quick fire sketch comedy. He
masters a very wide range characters and delivers incredibly humourous
performances, mainly due to his writing and creative talent that is the
real backbone of the series.
Series 2 of The Fast Show is where the show really hit its stride. The
recurring skits get more developed and the subtlety of some of the less
obvious sketches really start to shine. The tortured relationship
between lord of the manor Ralph, and his groundskeeper Ted creates some
of the most uncomfortably funny series of sketches I've ever seen. Many
new characters are introduced and the timing and delivery of the cast is
synchronised perfectly with the writing. The latter series of the Fast
Show continued this, but offered little genuinely new ideas. They are
still very funny works, but I do believe series 2 is the most solid
offering of The Fast Show, and for fans of this genre, this DVD
deserves to be in your collection.
In a most unfortunate trend that the BBC have been perpetuating of late,
The Fast Show Series 2 gets a very, very average DVD treatment. There is
nothing more heartbreaking to a fan of a TV show who has waited years
for their favourite programmes to be transferred to the DVD format, with
all its available features and extras, and then getting the episodes and
nothing but the episodes in their purchase. The BBC have been guilty of
this on far too many occasions, with little to zero extras being offered
for TV shows that, frankly, deserve much better. Buying The Fast Show
series 2 nets you the episodes of the series and nothing else; no
commentaries, no deleted scenes, no bloopers and no attempt at all to
use the DVD format for anything but the most basic menus for episode
selection.
Four or five years ago this was forgivable, but in this day and age when
all manner of classic TV shows are being released with never before seen
footage and commentaries from the creative and cast talent, it makes
these BBC release seem like a quick cash in, more than any kind of
archival record of the fans beloved show.
The DVD presentation makes for a very basic set of sterile menus to
navigate around the episodes, if anything, at least it makes the process
to finding your favourite episodes very streamlined. The visual
presentation is on par with your average modern TV transfer. The 4:3
picture is generally free of any distracting artefacts and is very
watchable, if unspectacular, as one would expect. The audio is present
in two channel stereo which provides clear dialogue (the most important
aspect) adequately. You aren't watching the Fast Show to demonstrate
your new home theatre set up, so what's on offer here is good for the
material and provides a good experience without any distractions
inherent to the video and audio transfers. The presentation lets you get
down to enjoying the comedy, which is what its all about.
TV shows when presented on DVD need to offer more than "just" the
episodes. From a consumer point of view, you are getting very little
value for money. Aside from a little bit of extra quality in the audio
and video, you are really no better off than you would be with your old
VHS recordings. The quality of the content in the show demands a much
more thorough DVD and adding this to your collection really gets down to
how much you love the show, and how worn out those old VHS tapes are
getting. Fans of the Fast Show looking for a replacement for them will
get sufficient value, but DVD fans looking for more will be
disappointed. |
