Yes Minister / Yes Prime Minister is one of my favourite BBC classic comedies.Tonight was incredibly disappointing.I love this show, along with The Thick of It, People Just Do Nothing, The Office, and Peep Show (Channel 4). They’re shows I watch on loop.I also saw the West End stage comedy written in 2013 by co-writer/director Jonathan Lynn. So when I heard about the idea of a new episode in the form of a show from one of my favourite writers, based on one of my favourite shows, I... Read more
Yes Minister / Yes Prime Minister is one of my favourite BBC classic comedies.
Tonight was incredibly disappointing.
I love this show, along with The Thick of It, People Just Do Nothing, The Office, and Peep Show (Channel 4). They’re shows I watch on loop.
I also saw the West End stage comedy written in 2013 by co-writer/director Jonathan Lynn. So when I heard about the idea of a new episode in the form of a show from one of my favourite writers, based on one of my favourite shows, I jumped at the chance.
The idea of comedy great Griff Rhys Jones playing Jim Hacker only sweetened the deal.
I couldn’t wait to see Jim Hacker, Sir Humphrey, and Bernard together for one final episode.
We even had front-row seats, right in the middle.
Then the show started.
One trope of modern cinema is showing the hero being berated by someone who dismisses the very character traits the audience loves … because they’re supposedly “outdated”.
Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened here.
The entire show wasn’t really about comedy. There were very few laughs… virtually none. The sharp one liners that defined the original series had disappeared.
Instead, we were presented with an aged Jim Hacker, with no wife or children around, about to be thrown out of his home, spending half an hour talking with a care worker who mostly lectured him.
The care worker’s role seemed to be little more than undermining the main character the audience had come to see and doing so in a surprisingly cold way.
Bernard was killed off (presumably to make room for this new character).
When Sir Humphrey finally appeared, it was as a rather sad figure in need of a job. It was far from the lively, clever dynamic that made the original characters so enjoyable.
This might have worked if the aim had been to give them a meaningful or satisfying ending.
Spoiler: it wasn’t.
The show largely consisted of the care worker repeatedly lecturing Jim Hacker(and Humphrey) … sometimes for several minutes at a time about how old fashioned and racist they supposedly were.
It’s also worth mentioning that Jim Hacker’s care worker was written as a lesbian woman of colour. The story ultimately led to the two original leads losing everything, while she ended up receiving a great job because of her diversity.
I paid a lot of money to watch what was supposed to be a final episode of one of my favourite shows.
Instead, it felt like the characters were dismantled.
It was a real shame.
A few years ago I saw the Fawlty Towers revival in the same theatre, and it was absolutely brilliant.
This, sadly, felt like a slap in the face to fans.
Not funny — and a very sad ending from one of the original writers.
A shame.
Tonight was incredibly disappointing.
I love this show, along with The Thick of It, People Just Do Nothing, The Office, and Peep Show (Channel 4). They’re shows I watch on loop.
I also saw the West End stage comedy written in 2013 by co-writer/director Jonathan Lynn. So when I heard about the idea of a new episode in the form of a show from one of my favourite writers, based on one of my favourite shows, I jumped at the chance.
The idea of comedy great Griff Rhys Jones playing Jim Hacker only sweetened the deal.
I couldn’t wait to see Jim Hacker, Sir Humphrey, and Bernard together for one final episode.
We even had front-row seats, right in the middle.
Then the show started.
One trope of modern cinema is showing the hero being berated by someone who dismisses the very character traits the audience loves … because they’re supposedly “outdated”.
Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened here.
The entire show wasn’t really about comedy. There were very few laughs… virtually none. The sharp one liners that defined the original series had disappeared.
Instead, we were presented with an aged Jim Hacker, with no wife or children around, about to be thrown out of his home, spending half an hour talking with a care worker who mostly lectured him.
The care worker’s role seemed to be little more than undermining the main character the audience had come to see and doing so in a surprisingly cold way.
Bernard was killed off (presumably to make room for this new character).
When Sir Humphrey finally appeared, it was as a rather sad figure in need of a job. It was far from the lively, clever dynamic that made the original characters so enjoyable.
This might have worked if the aim had been to give them a meaningful or satisfying ending.
Spoiler: it wasn’t.
The show largely consisted of the care worker repeatedly lecturing Jim Hacker(and Humphrey) … sometimes for several minutes at a time about how old fashioned and racist they supposedly were.
It’s also worth mentioning that Jim Hacker’s care worker was written as a lesbian woman of colour. The story ultimately led to the two original leads losing everything, while she ended up receiving a great job because of her diversity.
I paid a lot of money to watch what was supposed to be a final episode of one of my favourite shows.
Instead, it felt like the characters were dismantled.
It was a real shame.
A few years ago I saw the Fawlty Towers revival in the same theatre, and it was absolutely brilliant.
This, sadly, felt like a slap in the face to fans.
Not funny — and a very sad ending from one of the original writers.
A shame.
