Had enough yet?

Afternoon Mugs,

Blimey, it now seems never ending doesn't it? I said at the beginning of the lockdown that if there was no real end in sight then civil/social disobedience would start to kick in, and sure enough it has. This has of course been accelerated by the confused 'easing' of restrictions by the failing and flailing government who seem to be making stuff up on the hoof.

I would have preferred a single unequivocal statement of 'another 4 weeks' until mid-June of complete lockdown. That way, as tough as staying in and watching TV or doing DIY or whatever seems you would have had clarity and a few weeks to prepare a proper caveated road map of restriction easing. You know, like France, Ireland, Spain and Germany amongst others have done.

Oh, but they're all the EU aren't they and the good old UK can't be seen to be doing the same thing as them now can we? Even if what we're doing is wrong, like some out of control village idiot we will plough our own furrow and the gormless and gullible will follow. On the one hand you have cold hard facts, based in science and an opposition leader quietly exposing the foolhardiness of this government and it's 'out of depth' minister, whilst the great British public would prefer a bumbling oaf who sees himslf as a Winston Churchill character because he uses the phrase 'Great British public' and 'hard working British families'. Its bluff, bluster and bullshit beating down the truth again.

And of course we also have the continuing unhealthy corporate greed of billionaires desperate to keep making billions whilst risking their emplotyees lives, and sport putting its business ahead of the health of participants and staff...you know,,,because the nation needs cheering up. Today the Scottish Premier League have (sensibly) called time on the season awarding positions as they stand. But the English Premier League are desperate to finish the campaign to avoid paying the TV companies millions back...sorry...I mean to lift the nations spirits. And then today they announce the likelihood that the womens super league will be stopped but not the mens .....no sexism or corporate greed on display there then!

I did think at the beginning of this that things might change. We'd be greener as we have the chance to gaze at pure blue skies unsullied by pollution haze...but no, it's all about getting people to work, even to the point of encouraging car use over public transport. Because working with colleagues is so much safer than sitting on a train or bus. Give me strength.

My message is shit or get off the pot. Remove lockdown and be damned and take the consequeneces, or lockdown good and hard and save lives. This government will do neither and we'll be stuck in Vagueness City and Indecision Town for the foreseeable future.

Grim.

Later Mugs, GJ

Funny not funny

Afternoon Mugs

As I sit here recovering from wine lag (replacing beer lag due to the fact I have rediscovered a taste for red wine)  on a quiet work afternoon, I'm watching one of the new breed  of sitcoms. No not the risible Mrs Browns Boys, or the equally dreadful Citizen Khan, but clever, darker ones. Sitcoms that have no laughter track and therefore force you to find the comedy and laugh moments. This all sounds a bit like middle class, liberal elite wankerie  I suppose. However for me the days of laughing when prompted have long gone and it's probably all the work of Ricky Gervais and the ground-breaking series The Office. It was cringe inducing of course, but so beautifully scripted and set up, and followed up by the equally brilliant Extras, Derek and his latest, After Life. I think it's perfectly fair to say he changed the comedy of the sit-com forever, and for the better.

So, on the list of honourable recent sit-coms I've watched and enjoyed are....

Back to Life: Dark, yet gentle humour in this series written by and starring the immensely impressive Daisy Haggard. The sad and yet uplifitng story of a woman imprisoned for murder, and relased 18 years later as she approches her forties.  On iPlayer.

Fleabag: Fourth wall breaking sit-com with outrageous situations, a free speaking star in Phoebe Waller-Bridge, deliciously dark and funny. Not as touching as Back to Life, but in the same vein of centering the series around a strong female character. On iPlayer.

After Life: Ricky Gervais in a stunning comedy/drama about a recently widowed man who's life is in tatters after his wife's death. Doesn't sound funny does it? And yet like the previous two it is laugh out loud funny at times and Gervais loads up the pathos to smack you in the face and drag you to tears both after and before the laughter. Netflix only. 

Breeders: One from the blue for me......recommended by a work colleague for the lockdown. Think Outnumbered with far worse language, less cute and verbose kids, concentrating on fraught parenting and the bparadox of being willing to die for your children whilst simultaneously want to kill them. Martin Freeman, Michael Mckean, the constantly underrated Patrick Baladi  and the lovely Daisy Haggard form the cast.  Cognitive dissonance at its best. Sky One (yes Sky seem to be a bit of a leader in the adult sit-com market!)

Code 404: Not watched this yet, it's on the lockdown list though and starts Stephen Graham and Daniel Mays and I can't imagine for one moment that two such fantastic actors would star in something shitty. Sky One (yep...Sky again huh...who knew...)

Avenue 5: Set in outer space on a fictional equivalent inter-planetary cruise liner. Starring Hugh Laurie, Rebecca Front band Leona Critchley and written by Armando Ianucci (of The Thick Of It fame...one of the finest sitcoms ever) - this was a grower but is a very funny and maybe a currently apt view of human behaviour in the face of a crisis! Sky One.

Curb Your Enthusiasm: I was never a huge fan of Seinfeld, always more of  a Frazier man myself. But this is a gem from one of th riters of Seinfeld, Larry David who plays a parody version of himself. He's probably acting out the stuff that's deep inside all of us, but this series is as strong no as it was from day one. Superb stuff. Sky One 

Thats all folks as they used to say, 

Later Mugs , GJ