Matters of taste

When was the last time a movie, a book, or a television show left you cold despite all your friends (and/or all the critics) raving about it? What was it that made you go against the critical consensus?


Normally I'm for things that are raved against, so an answer doesn't immediately spring to mind.  I always consider my options when it comes to books and television, and normally take recommendations under extreme consideration.  I tend to research my potential cinema choices quite carefully so as to avoid disappointment - I may never have walked out of a film yet but it remains my ambition to do so, but not deliberately, if that makes sense?  One stand out occasion was the film adaption of Michael Morpurgo's War Horse, where the only review I took any notice of was The Doctor's Facebook status about having to walk out.  I reasoned if a man of such discerning taste was so disconnected from what was happening on screen, and that he had read it and seen it on stage (although perhaps that informed his decision to leave), and still wanted to leave, then I needn't even bother.  I'm just looking forward to having a sense of outrage, the sheer indignation in paying good money for something I didn't want to see through.  Anyway.

I guess really the last thing (or should I say things) that left me pretty cold were the Simon Bird comedy vehicles The Inbetweeners and Friday Night Dinner.  I tried with the latter but found it boring in the end, and only found limited joy in the eternal rewatching of the Scholary (class of '13) of the former.  I basically lost interest in Friday Night Dinner, finding that out of all the opportunity I had to watch it, I'd rather pass, so there isn't really anything left to say.  I should have been at least interested in based on the concept but... Feh.

Me in 10 years, obviously.

The Inbetweeners  is somewhat of a special case though, I suppose.  I wonder if there's just something wrong with me, that I found the majority of the show just so ponderous, except for Greg Davies' sadistic headmaster, whom I found vitally hilarious.  There's something... Juvenile about Inbetweeners that just doesn't speak to me.  The gags are too obvious, too crude or just plain crap.  Lord knows this childishness speaks to plenty of others, and I really am a kind of odd man out for not liking it, it seems.  I lived with a house full of them for God's sake!  Mother always says she can see me and my circle of friends in the Inbetweeners cast, which none of us lads can see at all really.  Maybe we were just too cool.  Oh, who am I kidding?  That's probably why I don't find it very funny though: I identify more with the bitterly cruel Mr. Gilbert than I do with any of the supposed 'heroes' of the piece, which probably says a lot about me

It must be a kind of comedy generational gap, rather than an actual difference in years, having grown up on years of BBC Radio 2 comedy that used to be on a Thursday night after Mark Lamarr's series on early Rock and Roll one year, and the original wave of Ska music the next.  Eight Weeks of Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis, the lightning fast one-liners of The News Huddlines, or even that musical comedy show when I heard Flight of the Conchords for the first time ever years before they became cool or famous and it became unfashionable not to be a fan.  

I'll see you in your nightmares, Dave.

I really got into comedy when it was a little harder, illicitly watching the League of Gentlemen late at night on BBC2, or soaking up the acid put downs of Angus Deyton on Have I Got News For You, before he became the punchline, and the never-ending list of guest presenters - although my favourite still has to be when they got Bill Shatner in and everybody took the piss out of everything.  I remember watching The Day Today, with Alan Partridge doing the sports reports, and not being sure whether I should laugh or if it was real (I was only a kid when I first saw it).  Brass Eye, with its infamous Pedophile special (eternally available on 4OD), and Chris Morris's ultimate journey to madness and back, Jam.  I also got into Spaced properly while I was at Uni, with dim recollection of maybe having seen the odd episode when it was actually on air.  I bloody love Spaced, and will happily sit and howl with laughter at the whole run, which I periodically rewatch (normally while ironing to help it fly by).

Like I said to begin with though, I'm normally found loving things that get panned, and that almost universally.  This is no more apparent than in my film tastes, actually.  I used to go out with a girl who had an immense interest in foreign films, and we were lucky enough to have an Arthouse Cinema (just the one screen) nearby, that got a number of really good and often very touching films that we went to see.  We also saw Quantum of Solace  there, but that's neither here nor there.  Yes, I was into foreign films, and still am.  We saw La Vie en Rose, Bienvenue la Ch'ti (which I still need to track down), Mrs. Radcliffe's Revolution, Das Leben Der Anderen... I think that's it for The Ritz.  Goodbye Lenin and Lola rennt got watched at School, and I now have Låt den Rätte Komma In at home.  I hope this has established how much I like films that are actually good, because if there's one thing I enjoy more than watching some 2 hours of subtitles it's watching two hours of special effects kicking ten bells out of itself in the form of anything by destruction auteur Michael Bay.  But that's another story.

Optimus, We hardly knew ye.