Thursday, January 11, 2018

Chewin' the Fat (1999) TV series


Composer: Dave Murricane

Starring: Ford Kiernan, Greg Hemphill, Karen Dunbar, Paul Riley, Mark Cox, Julie Wilson Nimmo, Tom Urie, Gordon McCorkell

More info: IMDb

Plot: Scottish sketch show which first appeared on radio. Featuring such characters as dodgy decorators Bish and Bosh, Ballistic Bob, The Lonely Shopkeeper, The Foulmouthed Fishermen and The Man From Kilmacolm. Mostly filmed in Glasgow.



My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

I dig sketch comedy shows to a point.  Like any genre of entertainment there are good ones and bad ones.  The only requirement I have for this type is that it makes me laugh.  This one barely did that.  I wanted to like it.  Part of the trouble is the often thick Scottish accents that I sometimes had trouble understanding.  I didn't have the options of subtitles so I was screwed on that.  It's possible that had I understood entirely that I would've enjoyed it more.  Even though I grew up in America's Deep South, I've spent nearly forty years watching TV from Europe (mostly British) where the accents have a wide range as most any place would I suppose and I've acclimated to them.  I do have to put the subs on whenever Vicki Pollard shows up on LITTLE BRITAIN but that's a rarity.  Naturally, having not grown up in Scotland, a lot of the references lose their meaning but that's universal.  The actors did a very fine job and it's a well produced show.  I just barely laughed and that can only last for so long.  After watching 8 episodes (all of season 1 and the first 2 of season 2) I'd had enough.  

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