It's hard to say why Sky Atlantic's Mr. Sloane ( with an E like Sloane Square ) missed the mark, but it did. Set right at the fag end of the sixties, Mr. Sloane ( the first rate Nick Frost ) is a put upon, out of work, everyman living in Watford. We meet him as he is about to hang himself just after he has lost his job and his wife Janet ( the ubiquitous Olivia Colman ) has left him. But it all goes wrong and the ceiling falls in. Here comes the first problem, we all saw that gag coming and throughout the series there wasn't one set piece joke we weren't all well ahead of. This comes as quite a surprise because the show is created by Robert B. Weide, who worked on Curb Your Enthusiasm, where you never see the jokes coming and, unlike Mr. Sloane, when they hit they hit hard. Sloane also has a bunch of boozy, kind of cliched, loser pals who help drag him down. He gets a job as a maths teacher, cue more see them coming a mile off gags. He also fall for young, attractive American girl Robin ( played by the gloriously named Ophelia Lovibond ) But you never quite get why Robin would even be remotely interested in the buffoonish Sloane. The show also had some anachronistic moments. For instance the word poo was used a few times, to describe toilet functions. I can't really remember that word being used, in those terms, much outside the last ten years, let alone in the sixties. Everything really added up to the show being just about, or just below, adequate, like a lot of Sky's home grown comedy out put. All in all this wasn't an entertaining Mr. Sloane.
Over
No comments:
Post a Comment