Creator
Ash Atalla
Cast
Nick Frost
Amanda Abbington
Ben Crompton
Daisy Haggard
Meredith MacNeil
Nicholas Burns
DVD Release Date: August 7, 2007
Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 175 Minutes on 1 disc
The Show
Sketch comedy is usually graded on a pass/fail scale. If it is funny, then it is going to be hilarious and you’ll want to watch it again. An example of this would be The Kids In The Hall. If it isn’t funny, then nothing is funny whatsoever and you are likely never to even turn it on again accidentally. An example of an unfunny show would be 97% of the sketches on MAD TV. I say 97% because that one recurring sketch with the overgrown child Stewart is hilarious. But Man Stroke Woman falls into the latter category.
What we have here are six episodes of British sketch comedy that features recurring characters in different situations. Each sketch lasts maybe a minute or two and then moves on to the next one after the punchline. And that is something I noticed right off the bat which was quite a change to me from other sketch shows I had seen before. Each segment had humor (attempted) throughout, but always ended with a sort of a punchline. Instead of just being a series of funny events, it’s more so a collection of long jokes.
There is the occasional funny sketch like the recurring one with a little boy named Josh who keeps getting left behind by his father. The little boy ends up in one unimaginable situation after another, and then his mother always comes in with the kicker to top it all off. Another funny one is from the first episode with Nick Frost waking up in bed with this hideous beast of a woman. He slowly slips out realizing what he must have done last night and makes it to the front door before seeing a picture. The picture shows the woman is his wife and then his kid walks by and says, “Morning daddy.” That got a good giggle out of me.
It’s just a shame that everything else is so incredibly dull or over the top that it makes the sketches almost unbearable to watch. A sketch involving a couple arguing over whether their dog should stick to his diet or not, ends with the pet exploding and blood splattering everywhere. Another sketch has a couple wanting to buy some flowers to celebrate their engagement. The florist tries charging them four times as much for the same arrangement of flowers they wanted, but now calls them “wedding flowers.” Clocking in at maybe a minute a piece, I just still couldn’t even muster a smile at it and that usually lasts throughout all six episodes.
The sketches are boring, the humor is unfunny, and at times you’ll even begin wondering at times what the point of the segments is. Unlike other sketch shows, it is not filmed before a live studio audience so the segments just jump from one to another with even so much as a pause to get ready for the next one. No set-up leads right into the heart of the “jokes” with so much as an introduction to the characters. Come to think of it, I can’t even recall a name being uttered for a single character. If only everyone had the same vision of humor, things would be a lot funnier.
The Video
The episodes are shown in 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen and look pretty good. There aren’t many bright colors at all, but those that do appear are bright and sharp. Each episode seems to be filmed mostly in shadow, but nothing to really complain about.
The Audio
The episodes are heard in Dolby Stereo sound and come through perfectly fine. Besides the opening theme song, there is virtually nothing else but dialogue and a few sound effects. Not much to hear means not much work needed to be put into the audio, and the stereo sound gets the job done.
Special Features
Making Of Man Stroke Woman – Close to fifteen minutes, this featurette actually has more humor in it then all six episodes combined. Seeing the cast members together and just being themselves cracking jokes and being silly for the camera is one hundred times more interesting. The featurette includes a lot of “how to” segments explaining how particular sketches were done throughout the series.
Music Of Man Stroke Woman – A couple paragraphs about the band, The Sanderson Pitch who sing the theme song to the show. There is also an option to listen to the entire theme called “Dive.”Â
Audio Commentaries – The entire cast of six sit down together and talk about the episodes. Considering the episodes are not funny as it is, sitting through them again is a bit of a chore. This is especially true since the commentary isn’t that interesting either and makes things duller.
Cast Biographies – Each cast member gets a small biography written about their life and past work. The biographies also include the cast member’s favorite sketches from the show.
Credits – Exactly what it says it is. You can scroll through the credits for those who worked on the show and the DVD. Alrighty then.
The Inside Pulse
A combination of boring sketches and unfunny humor makes for a disastrous DVD. Throw on top of that some special features that are absolutely worthless, except for the making-of featurette, and it makes things even worse. Nick Frost needs to head back to doing films with Simon Pegg (Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz) and avoid making more episodes of this if for some reason it ever gets picked up again. As for the rest of the cast, just find something else to do period. Don’t bother with this DVD as you’ll end up paying 15- or 20-dollars for a small Frisbee if anything.
Man Stroke Woman: The Complete First Series |
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