Tuesday 29 June 2010

This and That with Mike Fitzgerald 29/06/2010 - Lee Nelson is QUALITeeeeeeeeeeeee

“Lee Nelsons - Well Good Show” is currently half way through it’s first series on BBC 3 and thus far has provided a mixture of witty humour, good natured banter and also some mean spirited attacks on helpless audience members. Overall, I’ve been enjoying it.

Written and performed by Simon Brodkin, the format for “Well Good Show” flips between an in-studio setting where Brodkin, under the guise of Genteel Chav “Lee Nelson”, berates the audience and his fat mate omelette. There are also cut away sketches featuring Brodkin’s other characters such as idiot footballer Jason Bent, clumsy physician Dr. Bob and a bizarre panel show where students act like berks.

Of them all the Lee Nelson parts in the studio are by far the funniest as Nelson walks around the audience insulting them and getting them to do embarrassing things, ala Graham Norton. Nelson’s character is that of your typical chav except that he is actually quite friendly. His shtick usually involves him walking around the audience and picking on those who look a little bit funny. That all sounds rather uncomfortable but actually it isn’t. Nelson’s attacks are usually always good natured and usually always involve him hugging the intended victim at the end declaring that they are a “ledgend” and encouraging the rest of the audience to give them a warm round of applause. It’s all quite pleasant actually.

Overall the show has genuine warmth to it which I really wasn’t expecting when I first tuned in. In addition to chopping his audience down with insults, Nelson will occasionally force them to play a ridiculous game for an equally ridiculous prize. In the second episode he deliberately tries to find “the oldest looking geezer” in the crowd to play a guessing game. The guessing game involves looking at a certain person in a bed and guessing how many people they’ve slept with. For guessing correctly the gentlemen’s prizes involve a brand new walker and a new pair of slippers. What, in the hands of others, would be mean spirited TV death is actually quite funny here, again mostly due to Nelson and is excellent delivery. Despite the silly subject matter, everyone seems to have a good time and no ones feelings are too badly hurt, to which I say hurrah!

The cut away sketches are a little weak though, especially Dr. Bob which is basically Borat if he was a crappy doctor. It does have it’s moments but really feels like it lacks originality. The Jason Bent sketches are okay and actually have some funny lines but it doesn’t really compare to the hilarity of the Nelson sections. And the student panel show, named “Buzz Box” just feels lazy. People hate students, we get it. Every comedian and comic writer has spent the last 50 years beating that punch line into the ground and Brodkin does nothing new. It basically all boils down to Brodkin hosting a chat show about Africa, which he describes as “truly stunning, especially if you ignore the shitty bits” and then a bunch of supposed students talking about “how much I LOVE Africa, yeah?” while a genuine African sits around looking embarrassed. Maybe it’s just me but I honestly think the whole sketch lacks imagination. That being said, it shouldn’t discourage you from giving the show a go.

“Lee Nelson’s – Well Good Show” is definitely worth a look. It’s not only funny but surprisingly good natured. If you want to give it a try then click the link http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00swg83/Lee_Nelsons_Well_Good_Show_Episode_3/

In other news, Big Brother is back and it’s actually not too bad. I really liked the first three BB’s but kind of stopped caring around the time the transvestite won. Nothing against him/her, the show had just lost its appeal for me around that time. I would tune in now and then on recent series but my interest would usually fade after a couple of weeks. I decided to give this one a go mainly because other people had told me it was pretty good. After watching a few episodes I like it enough that I’m going to stick with it for now.

Despite some slight changes to the presentation the show is pretty much the same as it’s always been. Mundane and stupid things always blow out of proportion and eventually everyone joins a clique of some kind leading to even more stupid blow ups. The most recent episode I watched involved house mates ganging up on “Sunshine” (This years token hippie) because she’d got some crisps and hadn’t shared them yet. Her argument was that she wanted to save them for a crisp sandwich. Their argument was that they were “starving” because they’d hate to eat rice and lentils for two days. TWO DAYS!!! How DARE the hippie chick let them starve! Rather than pick a side I chose to be annoyed by everyone involved, especially the sickly looking Chievaagjjahjhjsahjhjah (I can’t spell it, she’s Irish anyway). She is certainly my least favourite at this point. She’s rude, bitchy and generally just unlikeable. I’m sure everyone else likes her.

Which housemates do I like? Steve, the man with no legs, is probably my favourite at the moment due to the fact he’s just happy to be there and wants to get on with everyone. Go him say I. incredibly posh Ben is another one of my favourites, mostly because I find him so preposterous. I bet he says preposterous a lot. It’s a good wooden word. It gives him confidence. Shabbi is another one of my favourites mainly because she’s always mouthing off and keeping things interesting. Go her. Everyone else I’m mostly indifferent to. I’m not sure whether to like or dislike good looking Aussie, John James. He doesn’t seem that bad of a person but he’s clearly coasting on the fact that he’s both good looking and Australian. When it came to him washing clothes he was completely clueless. He just stood there saying “what do I do?” while looking rather shy, just completely melting the girls hearts in the process. If I did that I’d be sneered out of the room. He does it and suddenly all the girls think he’s adorable. The swine.

HELLO!!!

Hi guys. I'm Mikey Fitzgerald and this is my blog!

I'm going to seperate the blog into 2 different parts. "This and That" will be my main column whereby every Tuesday I'll post a review of a TV show/book/just give my general ramblings. Every other Friday I'll post a game review called "(Dominik) Diamonds are Forever)

There may be extra columns if I get the urge.

Enjoy!