The Pitch

The worst talk show host in England ruins Christmas and gets fired.

The Humans

Steve Coogan and others

The Nutshell

The Alan Partridge trilogy is pretty genius in hindsight. When you’re first introduced to Partridge, it’s easy to write him off as the start of another Coogan loser character. Then, you get to see the mental underpinnings of this failing television star. He’s an attention whore that’s one bad day away from killing someone one live on the air. When he eventually does that and other acts of violence, he’s thrust into what should be the lowest point of his life. Where does a loser go when they’re in the gutter? They sink further and Coogan invites us all to watch.

The Lowdown

Knowing Me, Knowing Yule with Alan Partridge was a one-off special that serves as the critical second leg of the Alan Partridge Trilogy. Essentially, it’s all setup for the later Partridge series. As long as we see Partridge getting fired from the BBC and making a bigger ass of himself, that’s all it needs to do. What’s more amazing is how Coogan and Iannucci walk us through Partridge’s collapse. American Television has rarely if ever offered up a comedic figure this depressing. So, I hope that my British compatriots can forgive me for wallowing in it.

I’m Alan Partridge sets up the hopefully final days of Alan Partridge. He’s been kicked out of the BBC high-life in London and back to his old hometown. Partridge works on a rather crappy talk radio show. He lives out of a hotel, where he seems to have a habit of ordering ladyboy porn. If that wasn’t enough, he keeps having these awkward dreams of giving his former boss a lapdance.

When the second series starts, Partridge has dishonored the dead and committed a few minor crimes. He’s getting his celebrity status back and the world is starting to make sense. Well, that is until Partridge gets a reality check that he promptly ignores. What I don’t get is why Coogan and Iannucci view it as the lesser Partridge offering. Watching Partridge take his early advances to build a mansion leads to so many funny moments. He’s a nouveau-riche prick that’s living on borrowed time and money.

Steve Coogan has perfected the role of his lifetime with Partridge. From the Ukranian girlfriend, from the sad life at the hotel, to the daydreams and to the ego of this pompous ass…we have seen the fully realized asshole. It’s hard to explain why this is so entertaining, but there’s an entertainment factor to this creation. Alan Partridge exists as this mirror to a kind of personality that only seems to thrive in the Western World. The self-important asshole that latches onto power to anchor a piss-poor personality to a world that really wants nothing to do with it.

The final montage of Partridge’s book getting pulped says so much about the man. If the Alan Partridge film never happens, I’ll be thrilled. That image of Partridge’s last hope getting dashed against the rocks says so much. No matter what he can still or cheat his way to obtaining, Partridge’s best efforts will always be rejected. While watching the pulping, I kept having flashbacks to the shooting in the first Partridge series. The break from protocol, as Partridge freaks out is how I want to remember this character and ultimately Coogan himself. It takes major stones to be an asshole.

The Package

The
DVD
package comes with commentaries, outtakes and related material. Again, the commentaries don’t really paint that broad of a picture. When the creators actually talk about the show, it’s more in personal relations. No one tries to show how Partridge developed or help to explain the importance of the Christmas Special. Also, the A/V Quality seems to be really off on a lot of the early I’m Alan Partridge episodes. I’m not sure if it’s a PAL to NTSC issue, but it sticks out like a sore thumb.

The Pitch

Steve Coogan as a roadie.

The Humans

Steve Coogan, Morweena Banks, Darren Boyd and others

The Nutshell

Steve Coogan’s last major television series was pretty amazing. Time spent in North America coupled with age has allowed for Coogan’s humor to mature. When Tommy Saxondale appears onscreen for the first time, it’s pretty easy to write the character off. But, Coogan does fall into his loveable loser traps. Saxondale’s glory days have long since left him. But, he’s got a degree of pride still left in his bones.

The Lowdown

When we first meet Saxondale, we get the rundown of his current life. A former roadie who just got divorced, Tommy runs a pest control business. His new girlfriend Mags runs a t-shirt shop at the mall. Most of the momentos from his past are kept in the garage, save for the kickass Mustang that he drives everywhere. Paired with a young assistant, Saxondale tries to show the world that he’s still relevant. But, it’s not like it’s his goal in life.

Saxondale is so laid-back that most longtime Coogan fans don’t really dig it. Honestly, I don’t understand. Over the course of the two seasons, you see Coogan take what he’s learned from various media venues and combined it into one personality. A gentler show about an older man trying his best to remain cool can offer up just as much awkward comedy as an Alan Partridge. But, you don’t always have to play the guy as a prick. Sometimes, nice people can be giant morons as well.

What’s so charming about Saxondale is how he takes umbrage with the nanny state that the United Kingdom has become. Whether he’s in anger management or dealing with trade disputes involving the t-shirt business, Tommy knows where he stands. Confident but not stable personalities offer up a view of Coogan that we’ve never seen. Bordering on the dramedy level, Coogan actually gets to act and bridge his work over the years. We’re seeing the start of something new and I love it.

Saxondale won’t be remembered as one of Coogan’s fan favorites. But, you get to see those important lessons being learned and incorporated into an artist’s technique. A comedian has to age and change, even if it means that the audience rejects him/her. What Coogan develops here is a sense of control. The easy jokes are nailed and everyone gets their moment. But, we’re seeing a comedian literally try to hand-create a new era for himself. 

The Package

The
DVD
package comes with an interview, photo gallery, commentaries, featurette and deleted scenes. Saxondale actually has commentaries that explain what Coogan was doing with this series. After several hours of this material, we finally get to hear the creator talk about the craft and show the audience what he was thinking. The deleted scenes don’t really add a lot of material to the show. But, it doesn’t matter. This series stands out as the strongest since the Alan Partridge trilogy.

The Pitch

Bad British Horror and a foreign Alan Partridge clone.

The Humans

Steve Coogan and others.

The Nutshell

The Portuguese, Amicus Horror and idolization come together with these two lesser Coogan offerings. More miss than hit, we watch as Coogan tries on these one-off series that try to find the humor in traveled material. Whether we’re looking at the weird conceits of British pop cult cinema or the oblivious Tony Ferrino, it’s all the same. We’ve seen Coogan do it before and better. I blame Coogan’s rising stardom in international cinema for the decline of this 1999-2001 material. 

The Lowdown

I had heard about Dr. Terrible’s House of Horrible before I first saw this set. What blew my mind was the level of detail that Coogan and company went through to create these callbacks to old Hammer horror and Dr. Who episodes. Hell, I even picked up a throwback or two to the Shaw Brothers and some Mario Bava action. Yet, the forced attempts at awkward Brit humor didn’t really blend into the genre staples. Much like the bald guffawing Dr. Terrible, it just sat there looking out of place.

The Tony Ferrino Phenomenon became tired and trite about ten minutes into the show. Whether it was the song about raping an Au Pair or the musical tribute to The Silence of the Lambs, nothing really gelled. What we did have was Coogan bouncing around the stage and mugging like a speed freak. Naturally, critics ripped it a new asshole upon its initial airing. Steve Coogan later seemingly retired the character and has never spoken of Ferrino again.

This period of Coogan’s career has offered up a weird look at a comedian trying to redevelop his schtick. By branching into this bizarre mix of Variety Show humor and International Horror send-ups, nothing really stuck out. Sure, if you notice the timeline…Coogan was blossoming with his performance in 24 Hour Party People and other films. You gain that international audience, but you make the home team suffer through a lot of poorly planned garbage. Also, you’ve got to take into account that Coogan was starting to lose his supporting creators.

Armando Iannucci and Patrick Marber were starting to move away from Coogan and into their own success. Hell, this again was around the time that Marber’s plays Closer and Howard Katz were starting to set the theater world on fire. A lot of comedians have interesting down periods in their careers, but I don’t quite see the appeal of what Coogan was trying to do here. There’s a lot of chuckles, but nothing that hangs the piece together.

The Package

The
DVD
package comes with some commentaries and a featurette. There’s also a brief mockumentary about Tony Ferrino. What kills me again is that the commentaries on Dr. Terrible serve no fucking point. It’s like listening to buddies talking about something that happened fifteen years before you met them. It’s more annoying than entertaining and it doesn’t serve to support this awkward material.

The Pitch

The characters from the early days get their moment to shine.

The Humans

Steve Coogan and others

The Nutshell

The anthology is always a hard sell for most. When Steve Coogan decided to visit the little town of Ottle, we were treated to six episodes of uneven material. We get to meet Gareth Cheeseman and Ernest Moss. Plus, the Calf siblings are forced back into the limelight. They do the same shit as they did in their specials and shorts. Nothing really changes. It’s just lower-class people being themselves.

The Lowdown

I can’t say that I hate Coogan’s Run, since I enjoy the Crump brothers so much.  These two weirdo brothers in the 1970s blew their chance at winning the High School quiz show. So, they lost their damn minds and killed a few people. Twenty years later, they’re out of jail and desperately wanting to recreate that fateful day. Coogan and John Thomson spend so much time setting up these personalities that you stop seeing the actors behind the makeup and wigs.

Coogan’s Run is full of so many tiny moments. Gareth Cheeseman in his Willy Loman stature gets these bits of sad comedy that seemed to have impacted on a lot of fans. Outside of his inability to deal with defeat and death, I don’t quite the get appeal. The same goes for Mike Crystal and his manager Clint Stallone. Basically, you’re seeing the same setups over and over again.

When I first picked up this series, I started having trouble with Coogan. I spent most of the past few weeks jumping around his body of work, while trying to piece together where the man became a modern legend of British comedy. It’s just that when you look at his early work, he had so many missteps. They happened later in his career too, so you can’t fault the guy for experimenting. It’s just that there’s no rhyme or reason to his comedy. Maybe, I’m a fan of more traditional comedy, but I like to see the process onscreen.

The Package

The
DVD
package comes with select commentaries and a photo gallery. The commentaries that actually try to explain away the episodes are more quick quips about the past. There’s not a whole lot of explaining behind which characters were used and what was the purpose. I wish there was some extra content to flesh out where it belongs in the Coogan library. Oh well, it works for what it is.

The Pitch

Ghetto British twins make video diaries and perform stand-up.

The Humans

Steve Coogan and Karen Taylor

The Nutshell

Paul and Pauline Calf were the first big hits for Steve Coogan. Coogan started the characters alongside his original Duncan Thicket creation on Saturday Zoo. For some reason, the characters caught on and the BBC decided to pimp them out. Sure, they were government housing dwelling freaks that represented the worst in society. But, they were fun to watch.

The Lowdown

The initial Calf offering was Video Diaries. Paul Calf is the star for most of the two episodes. He fights, he tries to impress girls and he gets drunk. Pauline Calf is the headliner for the second half of the sub-series, as she tries to get married. Nothing works out and we’re all left to laugh at the low-class trash. What blows my mind is how both of the Calf siblings look like distant cousins of Edgar Winter.

Paul and Pauline Calf’s Cheese and Ham Sandwich actually gave me hope that there was humor to be mined out of the siblings. The comedy special benefits from age and distance, as this is more of a live special that Coogan headlined in 2003. Nearly a decade out, Coogan gets to work some of that Alan Partridge magic and flesh out the slag and the dope. What does suck about the special is how they try to play the characters off of other Brit TV staples. It becomes a little topical, which doesn’t do shit for those of living in the here and now.

Steve Coogan has been such an odd guy to watch develop across this Collection. As a BBC America viewer, I didn’t get the privilege of watching the Coogan shows in any sort of chronological order. We took what we got and tried to make sense of it. If the hardcore Brit Chewers have a problem with that, well nobody’s perfect. I’m just here to make the dick and fart jokes.

Paul and Pauline Calf served a point at the start of Coogan’s career, but they’re not what I would call peak material. Much of the setup for Alan Partridge starts here, but I don’t know how that can be called a plus for this show. Patrick Marber steals the show from Coogan more times than not, but even he doesn’t do anything that amazing. The Calf legacy is built on a few quick laughs and some awful images. Steal, it’s better than most of the shit on American TV.

The Package

The
DVD
package comes with an interview, plus a look behind the scenes. The original Calf siblings’ debut on Saturday Zoo. It’s all basic stuff, but you don’t get a commentary. Why is it so hard to get Steve Coogan to actually sit down and offer up a real commentary. Not one of those quickie bits like he did on the Alan Partridge Christmas Special, but a substantial commentary that informs the fans.

BUY FROM AMAZON: CLICK HERE!
STUDIO: BBC Warner
MSRP: $129.98
RATED: Not Rated
RUNNING TIME: 1475 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Episode Commentaries
• Bonus Episode
• Test Episode
• Bonus Clips
• Episode Promos
• Photo Gallery
• Text Bios

The Pitch

Alan Partridge’s ego has a show.

The Humans

Steve Coogan, Phil Cornwell, Simon Greenall, and Felicity Montagu

The Nutshell

Steve Coogan is all about timing. It’s a lost art in American comedy. Too often, we’ve got idiots mugging for the camera or they’re trying to poop out the next catchphrase. Coogan spends his time building a character with the start of his Alan Partridge trilogy. Within the first six episodes, you learn all about Partridge’s initial social qualms. He’s got a lack of patience, he has no tact and he’s a terrible person. But, you can’t take your eyes off of him.

The Lowdown

Steve Coogan started to break through to audiences outside of the United Kingdom with Alan Partridge. While most Americans associate talk show satire with the Larry Sanders and Stephen Colberts of the world, the Brits perfected it. Alan Partridge is such an oddball of anger and ego that it walks the line of turning awkward. But, that’s what the British have perfected over the last fifteen years. Laughing at the uncomfortable moments in life.

Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge begins with the usual jokes about awkward television interviews and production banter. What stands out is how Coogan as Partridge tries to force the character into every situation. He’s got to be as tough as the punk band he’s interviewing. Partridge has to be the daredevil and play with a guest’s gun. But, when something goes wrong…he smashes through the walls of normalcy.

It’s as though Partridge stops being the character being the character of the host. He’s just a fragile man that desperately wants to remain in control of a life that’s barely pinned together. Towards the end of the series, he’s singing an Abba medley with a guest. When the notion appears that she might be upstaging Partridge, our beloved character starts to lose his fucking mind. By the time that he’s screaming Thank You for the Music at the lady, you begin to understand what makes Alan Partridge run. 

The Alan Partridge trilogy didn’t really come into its own with the first series. The Partridge character would later peak at the end of the Christmas special and during the first few episodes of his last series. What we see here is the glory before the fall. That last shining moment of a British television star, as his ego weighs him down like an anchor. It’s awkward comedy at its best and it is meaner than anything that Merchant/Gervais has ever done.

The Package

The
DVD
package comes with a ton of featurettes for the Alan Partridge entries. You get a mix of text bios, bonus clips, other episode promos and some cut material. It’s a fair mix and it holds up the same across all three Partridge adventures. I would’ve liked to have had a commentary from Coogan, but I guess he’s busy. Those Night at the Museum movies don’t make themselves. How sad.