Customer Reviews

Man Stroke Woman - The Complete First Series

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've seen both seasons so far and it is, with out a doubt, my favorite comedy TV series ever. Smart writing, perfect comic timing combined with skits that end, long before they get old and tired. (Like you'll find on SNL.)

Nick Frost (from Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and the BBC TV-series Spaced -- which happens to be my OTHER favorite comedy) was the initial reason I started watching this series, but the entire cast is brilliantly hilarious.

The only downfall to this series: the short BBC seasons. They very thing that keeps the show's writing sharp, only having six episodes a season, means that you only have 3 hours of laughter in this set. But they're the funniest three hours you'll spend your $20 on.

There is no middle ground in this series. Some of the sketches are brilliant (usually the ones featuring Nick Frost) and some are Saturday Night Live-like in their idiocy and those are usually the ones that, also in SNL fashion, are repeated so often you want to scream (if I hear that guy cry one more time...). It feels like the writers were rushing to meet a deadline or something. They are clearly talented and the actors and actresses themselves are generally very good but about half of it falls short in my opinion. Yes, it's worth the money. Yes, if you are a fan of British comedy check it out. Yes, if you love the Simon Pegg-Nick Frost projects check it out. But there are far better things out there.

As a fan of British comedy, I was looking forward to watching this series. Having done so, I come away disappointed. The engaging young performers here are hamstrung with some mediocre material. You'll find scene after scene of comic actors not playing the top of their intelligence, and consequently reacting the way no person would ever react. This is comedy writing which would believe that contradiction is the ultimate comedic feat. It is not, and Man Stroke Woman suffers from a dearth of truly funny sketches. Sometimes the situation is nominally funny, but we're asked to watch the characters dealing with it and each other with minimal amounts of insight. Not particularly funny. I would recommend Mr. Show over this. Too bad, because the performers themselves are quite likeable.

I like Nick Frost but wasn't expecting it to be this good. If you like things like Big Train, The State and Monty Python's Flying Circus; you will want to give this a try

Not quite as good as the UK version of Little Britain but this is a talented cast and some of the material makes me laugh very hard.

There are some side splitting moments on this DVD for sure, but there are also sketches that occur on each episode that quickly wore thin. For the most part it's very amusing. I'd look it up on youtube first, it's probably not for every one in the USA, the humor is distinctly British after all.