There She Goes

I've been looking forward to this all week

I watched a few minutes of episode one and I couldn't stand it. In less enlightened times, the public could pay to watch the patients/inmates of Bedlam wandering around in moods somewhere between total oblivion and abject misery (depending upon the patient/inmate and the day of the visit).

Nowadays, in these blindingly enlightened times, the public pays via the licence fee to watch two parents struggling to cope with a child suffering from profound learning difficulties in what the BBC calls a comedy-drama.

Plus ça change . . .

I'm sorry you feel that way, the response from families in a similar situation to the programme looks overwhelmingly positive, though

https://blog.scope.org.uk/2018/11/06/writer-shaun-pye-on-exploring-issues-that-affect-many-parents-of-disabled-children-for-bbcs-there-she-goes/

I'm sure families in similar situations will absolutely love this programme and I wish them all the luck in the world when it comes to raising awareness of the problems faced by disabled children and their parents.

My objection is simply that their plight is not a proper subject for comedy-drama. To my mind, a fundamental requirement of TV comedy is that the audience should feel happier rather than unhappier after watching it. I doubt, however, that viewers who are not personally affected by the issues raised by the programme are likely to have their spirits lifted by its content.

Accordingly, even though (in common with many of life's tragedies) it might contain a few laughs here and there, it fails to qualify as comedy.

Quote: jsg @ 6th November 2018, 11:31 PM

I'm sorry you feel that way, the response from families in a similar situation to the programme looks overwhelmingly positive, though

https://blog.scope.org.uk/2018/11/06/writer-shaun-pye-on-exploring-issues-that-affect-many-parents-of-disabled-children-for-bbcs-there-she-goes/

I get what your saying but it doesn't appeal to me. I don't see it as entertainment. If I want to see this kind of thing I'd watch a Documentary.

Quote: Rood Eye @ 7th November 2018, 12:24 AM

My objection is simply that their plight is not a proper subject for comedy-drama. To my mind, a fundamental requirement of TV comedy is that the audience should feel happier rather than unhappier after watching it.

You'd have been one of the stick-in-the-muds railing against 'Allo 'Allo! and Dad's Army, then.

No subject is necessarily off-limits, but the right type of comedy needs to be applied to a given situation.

I agree in principle with your argument ("the audience should feel happier rather than unhappier after watching it"): but most modern TV comedy is guilty of much the same.

Quote: Aaron @ 7th November 2018, 9:05 PM

You'd have been one of the stick-in-the-muds railing against 'Allo 'Allo! and Dad's Army, then.

On the contrary, I was and still am a huge fan of both the above programmes mainly because both programmes were and remain sensationally funny and, although set in conditions of oppression (as many comedies and comedy-dramas and a great many good sitcoms tend to be, in one way or another), neither programme rams the horrors of war down the audience's throats. I don't remember a single scene in either programme likely to cause viewers to cover their eyes and grope for the remote control in order to change the channel.

"There She Goes" is a completely different matter. The complicated issues of disability in children have their place on television and, in certain circumstances, even in sitcom - never mind comedy-drama. However, I do not regard the circumstances surrounding the family in "There She Goes" as appropriate for comedy of any type. The sheer seriousness and gravity of those issues do not, in my view, lend themselves to a partnership with comedy.

Quote: Rood Eye @ 7th November 2018, 9:58 PM

On the contrary, I was and still am a huge fan of both the above programmes mainly because both programmes were and remain sensationally funny and, although set in conditions of oppression (as many comedies and comedy-dramas and a great many good sitcoms tend to be, in one way or another), neither programme rams the horrors of war down the audience's throats. I don't remember a single scene in either programme likely to cause viewers to cover their eyes and grope for the remote control in order to change the channel.

"There She Goes" is a completely different matter. The complicated issues of disability in children have their place on television and, in certain circumstances, even in sitcom - never mind comedy-drama. However, I do not regard the circumstances surrounding the family in "There She Goes" as appropriate for comedy of any type. The sheer seriousness and gravity of those issues do not, in my view, lend themselves to a partnership with comedy.

Guessing you're not a huge fan of Nighty Night, Brass Eye and Snuff Box? It's absolutely fair enough you don't like this show, but to say it isn't a subject for comedy is absurd, especially when It's as well written as this.

Quote: Sitcomfan64 @ 8th November 2018, 5:25 PM

Guessing you're not a huge fan of Nighty Night, Brass Eye and Snuff Box?

You're guessing wrong.

Quote: Sitcomfan64 @ 8th November 2018, 5:25 PM

To say it isn't a subject for comedy is absurd

I didn't say it isn't a subject for comedy: I said that I personally don't regard the circumstances surrounding the family in "There She Goes" as appropriate for comedy. It's simply my opinion: I'm not putting it forward as a fact.

When I was 25-26, I had a job as a care assistant in a residential home for mentally handicapped, as the phrase was then. I often think back to those weird and wonderful - as well as unpleasant and disturbing - times, and was thinking of writing a sitcom based on it, but thought again, as many of the characters would have to have real learning disabilities, which would be a bit tricky to script and film. Might be good fun, though!

Quote: beaky @ 8th November 2018, 6:34 PM

Might be good fun, though!

It might indeed be good fun.

It might also be brilliantly funny and offend very few people indeed.

It's very difficult to legislate against any "type" of joke or against jokes that include references to potentially offensive subjects.

As reasonable viewers or reasonable comedy critics, we have to judge every case on its merits.

Really liked this week, the Dave Hill line was funny and I liked how our perception of the grandparents changed by the end.

Is this likely to get a second series? I'm hoping so, but being tucked away on BBC4 I wonder how many people saw it.

Good series overall. I liked how the last episode was emotional in a different way to most of the series so far, the first episode set a tone of anxiety coming from Jessica Hynes's own concerns about her child, and by the end of the series there felt like there was anxiety but coming from a different direction, that felt like it came from a lack of being able to know anything or have any convenient answers in helping Rosie.

I liked how the series never felt like it went too much in any direction and gave a variety of ways you can feel about disability and how it can be, rather than conforming to any stereotypes. I'm no expert in the topic but given the post on the Scope site it looks like it did a good job

Did anyone catch the first episode of the new series? It's really found its groove with the jumping between two timelines concept, and it is wonderfully written. It isn't the easiest show to watch, but then it's not meant to be, and the characters, especially David Tennant's, are quite unlikable but not to the extent that you don't sympathise with them. And those tiny moments of joy, where they make a breakthrough with Rosie's communication, the "little victories" as Ronnie Barker put it in Porridge, feel so triumphant and earned. Also it's always nice to see Gregor Fisher, his moment with David Tennant in the pub is one of the best acted scenes I've seen in anything for a while.