Eagerly anticipating this month ... (6-25)

Eagerly anticipating this month ... (6-25)
Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value (2025)
Showing posts with label Hugh Laurie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hugh Laurie. Show all posts

1/28/2014

Blackadder Goes Forth - season 4 (1989) - A low-point WWI-trenches adieu

♥♥♥

From the left: Tim McInnerny, Rowan Atkinson, Stephen Fry, Tony Robinson and Hugh Laurie in costume for BBC's Blackadder season 4

QUICK REVIEW:

Despite its gathering of all the Blackadder regular actors for the first time in the same season; Rowan Atkinson, Miranda Richardson, Hugh Laurie, Tim McInnerny, Stephen Fry and Tony Robinson, - this is the laxest season in the (a)historical sitcom's four runs.
Metal fatigue and endless repetitions in the argument-routine have now become staples in Blackadder, which has recommenced in a WWI-trench in Goes Forth.
The style is unchanged; vulgar and yet sophisticated British satire, and the show still has quite a few laughs to its credit, e.g. in episode 2, Corporal Punishment, wherein George (Laurie) defends Blackadder in a capital punishment trial. In episode 4, Private Plane, an actual flight scene is included, along with funny Rik Mayall (Guest House Paradiso (1999)) as the womanizer Lord Flash-heart.
In the sixth and last episode, Goodbyeee, SPOILER everyone perishes in a rain of bullets, rather befitting the show.
This fourth season has reminisces of the American war-sitcom M*A*S*H* (1972-83), but the problem here is that Atkinson, - the title character and jet engine of the comedy, - walks in circles here and isn't terribly enthusiastic or energetic, unfortunately.

Related reviews:

Blackadder the Third - season 3 (1987) - The royal silliness reaches its peak in fun and wits
Black-Adder II (1986) season 2 - More historic, English tomfooleries from BBC
The Black Adder - season 1 (1983) - Historic fooleries with Rowan Atkinson and co.
Rowan Atkinson: Bean/Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie/Bean: The Movie (1997) or, A Bean in America

Rowan Atkinson may look amusing here, but his level is not up to snuff overall in Blackadder Goes Forth

This is a recently made mock-trailer that presents the fourth season as a 'poignant war epic' and does so pretty well

Do you agree that the fourth season is the series' weakest?
Why/why not?

1/17/2014

Blackadder the Third - season 3 (1987) - The royal sillines reaches its peak in fun and wits

♥♥♥♥♥

Rowan Atkinson, once again, as Blackadder

QUICK REVIEW:

At this the third season in the historical, - although hoax-historical as well, - BBC sitcom, we have moved forward to 1760, where, once again, another Blackadder descendant, Edmund, is serving a British ruler; the uncannily inane prince of Wales, who is played to hysterical amusement by the then very facially vivacious Hugh Laurie (House M.D. (2004-12)).
Besides him and Blackadder, who is again played by the masterful Rowan Atkinson (Bean (1997)), season 3 only has two other regular characters; butler Edmund's helper Baldrick (Tony Robinson (Big Top (2009)) also does splendidly) and Mrs. Miggins, a coffee-shopkeeper.
It does the show well that it has rid itself of the unfunny ladies of the second season. The episodes also seem less vulgar and with greater focus on the lingual ingenuities, which sometimes threaten to totally run away with the show, but the fun during these creativities is constant.
The plots often drone over monetary problems and the incompetence of Baldrick and the prince of Wales. In Ink and Incapability, (all the titles are concocted as amusing word-plays that comment on the plots), Edmund is forced to try to write a dictionary. In the season's last episode, Duel and Duality, both Frenchmen, actors and Scots (again) are duly ridiculed, as Atkinson plays a double-role as Blackadder's cousin McAdder from the highlands. - Magnificent!
SPOILER At the very end, the prince dies in a duel, and Edmund dabbles himself to the much-coveted title.
This is the most down-toned and best season in the series.

Related reviews:

Rowan Atkinson: Bean/Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie/Bean: The Movie (1997) or, A Bean in America
Black-Adder II (1986) season 2 - More historic, English tomfooleries from BBC
The Black Adder - season 1 (1983) - Historic fooleries with Rowan Atkinson and co.

Watch a funny, 3-minute sample from the 3rd series here

Do you agree that this is the best season of Blackadder?
Any other British sitcoms that are a barrel of laugh?

Eagerly anticipating this month ... (5-25)

Eagerly anticipating this month ... (5-25)
Kleber Mendonca Filho's The Secret Agent (2025)