Red Dwarf was a hugely successful SF sitcom, airing on the BBC in six seasons from 1988 to 1993 and returning for two more seasons in 1997 and 1999. After a lengthy period trying to get a feature film version commissioned, co-creator Doug Naylor wrote a three-episode mini-series (which has now effectively been retconned as the ninth season) in 2009 for the British cable channel Dave. Although critically panned, the mini-series got very high ratings, smashing all previous records for the channel. Dave subsequently commissioned a six-episode full season, shot in December-January 2011-12 and due for airing in the autumn.
Will it be any good? The omens are not great. Red Dwarf was dealt a serious blow when co-creator and co-writer Rob Grant left the series following the filming of the sixth season. It never really recovered from it. The seventh and eighth season had a few decent moments, but overall were pale shadows of their former selves (despite relatively big budgets and use of CGI, which some fans suggested may have contributed to the problems). The Back to Earth mini-series was even worse still.
However, for this new season there are some signs of hope. Limited funds mean that they have to make more use of the classic format of the four guys hanging out on the ship and getting into weird scrapes. They are also acknowledging the ageing of the characters rather than ignoring it, which is good, and the actors seem to have retained their old chemistry.
1 comment:
Please, please, please, NO.
I imagine this is how it feels like to see the shambling zombie corpse of a loved one staggering toward you with outstretched arms. Despair, terror, hope, disgust, a small shameful scintilla of unspeakable sexual excitement, morbid curiosity, and a desire to break out in something that may be tears, may be laughter, or may be both.
What's horrible is that Red Dwarf with everybody older and more depressed could actually make a great sitcom - particularly if they went back to something more like the trapped-in-a-box black comedy of the first two, maybe three seasons, rather than the zany hijinks they favoured later (not that I didn't love series 4-6, but I think the age works better with the darker, more sitting-around-oriented style).
6 classic seasons. How frightfully depressing to realise that, for example, something like "Will and Grace" managed to rack up nearly FIVE AND A HALF TIMES as many episodes (substitute for your own hated major US comedy series, if your tastes differ from mine). There's no justice in comedy.
Post a Comment