We all have shows we just don't get. I don't get Flight of the Conchords, whizzes right past me. And then there is The Mighty Boosh which nobody gets, or likes, outside of a Student Union bar. Now I can add to that list Sky's new 'comedy drama' (their words not mine) Mount Pleasant.
Set in a Northern suburb and purporting to be a tale of day to day life, I just didn't get it. What it most resembled was those Daz adverts with all the old soap stars in, only not as good. Everything seemed day-glo, over the top and stuck in a time-warp, a bit like The Archers on acid. And just when you thought it couldn't get much worse, or more time-warpy, Bobby Ball appeared as, well, Bobby Ball really. The facial expressions and movements were all there, only missing was a 'rock on Tommy' to drag us all back to dull Saturday nights of the late 70's and early 80's.
I kept waiting for Mount Pleasant to kick into action. Will it turn weird like Twin Peaks, or get a little dark like Desperate Housewives? Neither was the answer. In fact, comparing this to Desperate Housewives is like comparing Bobby Ball to Bobby De Nero. The show lurched on for an hour with nothing much happening, just cardboard characters spouting the F word in place of anything remotely resembling witty, or humorous, dialogue. Safe to say I won't be tuning in again.
Sky's 'homegrown' programming is really floundering. We can now add Mount Pleasant to Thorne and Mad Dogs as lemons of the highest order.
Over
