Nathan Barley (2005) User Reviews

I'm not sure why it works, but it does...

[garydiamond · 8/10 · 16 August 2006]

A lot of people will argue that Chris Morris has gone off the boil. Perhaps he has, but his sense of satire is still sharper than anyone. Before he had great success spoofing media sensationalism of current affairs with the groundbreaking BrassEye and years before that The Day Today (with Steve Coogan). Here he takes it a step further and spoofs London journo scenesters, always trying to stay ahead of the pack with the next trend and fad.

It follows the career of struggling columnist Dan Ashcroft, a semi-intellectual trapped between the idiots he works with and a more astute crowd and a man who epitomises everything that Dan hates about his life - his biggest disciple - Nathan Barley. From the first episode it lays out Dan's dilemma and as the series unfolds shows us why he isn't so very different from the people he hates and is surrounded by, perhaps that he is in some way responsible for them. A philosophical tale that everyone can relate to on some level.

Whether this is an accurate spoof I can't tell, as I don't know anyone of the crowd Morris pokes fun at here so mercilessly. On my third and fourth viewings I still try to decide whether the writing is minimalist genius or just lazy. But for some reason it is humorous and believable... you can imagine tabloid writers sitting round a meeting table surrounded by office toys, desperately trying to "outcool" the next paper by spawning meaningless catchphrases and reviewing supposed artists who are nothing more than shameless fools. Whether it's happened yet, or it's a prediction of the sort of culture we're heading towards, it certainly entertains and forces questions about the way we perceive and are led by mass media. 8/10

Its not rubbish. Really.

[michaelskiy · 9/10 · 2 May 2007]

Everyone who says that Nathan Barley is trash(bat.co.ck) never known anyone like Barley or Ashcroft. These days you can not help but be bombarded by the idiots who are going to inherit the world. I didn't have to watch this show. All I had to do was go outside of my apartment in London to see the idiots with massive amount of money and no direction.

For me it wasn't funny watching my life portrayed by Dan Ashcroft who seems to be the only one who sees through the idiots persona. He is the only one who realizes that there is no escape, there is no turning back, there is nothing you can do to avert the rise of the Idiots.

This is a sharp commentary on todays idiot youth. Its funny and to the point. Everyone should watch it and see if they know any 'Idiots'

7 years later it is much better

[racingmcgregor · 7/10 · 9 March 2012]

It is worth revisiting this seven episode series, instead of being diminished over time it seems better, the characters are more recognisable and we are now in an age where just about everyone is 'a self facilitating media node'.

It is also a who's who of UK acting/comedic/writing. Charlie Brooker & Chris Morris are the writing team although you do get the feeling that at least some of it is ad-lib.

It can be genuinely uncomfortable watching parts of it, we are made to squirm as Dan Ashcroft has to trade in his misguided 'ethics' for cash and the eponymous Nathan Barley can be so tremendously offensive in such a casual manner that is a bit of an eye opener 'does the pope fxxk kids' being a classic example.

Last word is that Julian Barrett as the aforementioned Dan Ashcroft steals the show....

Try is again it is ace.

A futuristic, layered comedy

[rupebear26 · 21 November 2005]

I came to Nathan Barley one Friday night totally by accident, as i am usually out and about on weekend nights. I stumbled on it and was immediately sucked in by their world. It may have got the lowest ratings channel 4 have ever received on a Friday night, but its popularity in DVD format shows its cult following. HMV (Leeds)sold out in their first week and had to re-order another 200 or so due to unexpected sales. The comedy depicts an image-conscious world where most of the characters are working in the media spectrum, either in newspapers (Dan Ashcroft), documentaries (Claire Ashcroft) or in websites/music or anything else he can get his idiotic hands into (aka Nathan Barley). The show is the typical 6 episodes. It centres mainly around the 'friendship' between Nathan Barley and Dan Ashcroft. Barley loves Ashcroft and wants to be just like him (e.g. copying haircut, salmon/scrambled egg coffee) but Dan Ashcroft despises him for being 'the King of the Idiots' and for wanting to sleep with his sister. Just as Dan seems to be winning his little personal duel against Barley, things go wrong for him. The comedy is layered and warrants multiple watches. I have watched 'The Mighty Boosh' last week to see what all the fuss was about. I personally believe Nathan Barley to be a far better comedy. More development of characters, better use of language, more money spent on design, interesting take on London society. Futuristic yet still very accessible, i recommend Nathan Barley to anyone. Even my dad managed a few laughs. It has catchphrases and songs, and games (Barley's take on paper, scissors, stones) and slogans (Suga Rape)and a high number of laughs per minute. It is worth buying the DVD just for the booklet of stencils and slogans and 'political comments' which accompanies it. Futures yeah! Would have been nice if Vince Noir (off 'the Mighty Boosh') had been given a better part. If Peep Show was the comedy of 2004, in the words of Ricky Gervais, perhaps Nathan Barley will end up being the new comedy of 2005. Believe.

Brilliant characters and an original script.

[mazunderscore · 10/10 · 5 April 2007]

One of the most important things about comedy is, in my opinion, the characters. If you don't feel a certain amount of emotion, whatever kind it may be, for the characters within a comedy, it's not worth watching it and it's boring. All of the characters in Nathan Barley you can feel something for.

The first character that I felt a kind of affinity with was Claire, the young aspiring film maker with sass and a kind heart. And her brother Dan, trying to keep his head above water whilst swimming in a sea of idiots and failing miserably because of his extreme lack of assertiveness and initiative. His character you can only feel sorry for up to a certain point before you realize that he has brought most of his misfortunes on him self.

There's also a funny thing about Nathan Barley as a character. At times he certainly falls into the demographic of "the idiot" and even quite a horrible person, but at other times you are forced to almost feel sorry for him, while at the same time remembering if he wasn't an idiot he wouldn't have gotten him self into the mess in the first place. There's something lovely about all of the character in this series, something we can all relate to, laugh at and bond with.

In a way they have hit the nail on the head with the culture in every city society that is coming to light over the past few years. The wearing of tight jeans, huge sunglasses, huge white running shoes, fluro off the shoulder t-shirts and probably the most pointless, the cross over of meaningless web sites into real life clubbing culture. I'd like to call this show a spoof, but that would somehow cheapen it and I don't want to do that. Watch it and make up your own mind on what genre, if any, it is.

Personally I thought it was brilliant as I like to laugh at the little things in a comedy show. The little throw away sentences that not everyone would pick up on, the slight look of a disgruntled character or an extras dressed a certain way in the back ground. If you like to laugh at those little details, then this show is certainly for you. It is also for you if you like what I refer to as 'cringe worthy comedy.'

Probably the first "sitcom" i can think of that achieved this was Faulty Towers. You felt something for Basil, even if he was a prat, and therefore found your self cringing at the scenes in which he embarrassed him self or the scenes in which he got physically hurt. Another show that's like this is The Office. David Brent is another character you find your self not liking too much, but almost wishing when you watch it the second time around that he wouldn't embarrass him self and say what you know he is going to say.

Nathan Barley is the same kind of thing and you'll find your self feeling sorry for many of the characters, while at the same time disliking them immensely. Comedy is an awfully emotion thing, and this is one of the most emotional comedies around at the moment.

Vulgar. Offensive. Brilliant.

[three-m · 10/10 · 10 January 2023]

How amazing (or pathetic) is it to be tragically hip? Let the cast of Nathan Barley show you. I'm not going to summarise the plot any better than others-self-obsessed culture mavens provide each other with circular reference to their amazingness-but I can tell you that the feel of the show lacks the smugness that the characters themselves have in spades. It is brilliantly annoying, camp, and shallow while at the same time the definitive look at the hipster movement, an incisive critique of the idiocy that is modern culture, dictated as it is by Facebook and TikTok and Instagram. This show is brilliant. Just brilliant.

Nathan Barley

[jdpage11 · 24 February 2005]

Chris Morris has not, contrary to some people's opinion, failed at producing a truly inspired piece of work in his latest series "Nathan Barley". His talent for humour shines through all over the place, and the show is riddled with almost subliminal jokes. When I watched both of the two first episodes, I was laughing out loud. This certainly rivals "Brass Eye" and "The Day Today" and I would personally rate it above those two.

One thing I will say though is that the people who don't appreciate "Nathan Barley" clearly are the people who find "Friends" funny. There is a lack of the increasingly boring slapstick humour, instead the show is packed with amusing irony and stupid phrases - my favourite: "It's gonna be totally fukin Mexico." I think that Chris and Charlie are onto a winner and avidly await the next four episodes...

Painful - but brilliant - media satire

[ThreeSadTigers · 28 March 2008]

Chris Morris advances on the agitprop satire of Brass Eye, and the ambient weirdness of Jam, with the wonderfully caustic and gleefully vicious Nathan Barley. As others have noted, 'Barley' is probably Morris's most-subtle creation yet... a seemingly conventional sitcom about life in the world of the media, with cutting edge magazine publishers, idolised DJ's, crusading digital filmmakers and techno-wiz-kids all standing in as the centre of attention, complete with their own annoying txt-speak characteristics, daft costumes, anti-establishment opinions and ever-so-trendy idiosyncrasies. However, the joke here is not what is written into the scripts (though, more often than not, this is incredible funny), but rather, the notion that these kind of characters - which do exist in real life - will no doubt buy into the whole joke, watching each episode eagerly before going into the office the next day to confront their friends and co-workers with the usual one-liners.

Morris, writing here alongside Charlie Brooker, is to television what Luke Haines is to pop music... someone who can work within the confines of an industry, gathering acclaim and a legion of devoted fans, whilst simultaneously trying to bring said industry down from the inside!! Morris and Brooker seem to have a genuine contempt for the characters that they write about, and - as with Brass Eye and The Day Today - the joke sometimes becomes so scathing and so accurate, that you actually forget that you're watching a satire (a notion continued by Morris's faux-edgy directorial style, which has swerving hand-held cameras and random zooms to, I would hope, rip the pip out of all of these trendy new TV shows that want be challenging - in a Dogme-style sense - so bad, they can practically taste it!!). Some of the media pastiches are fantastic too, like the so-chic it hurts art gallery that consisted of nothing more than pictures of celebrities urinating, or the Russian underground website, which includes pay-per-view downloadable clips of "tramp marathons" and tooth-pulling competitions, complete with armed police threatening anyone refusing to take part with assault rifles and teargas.

The madness of the show works because Morris and Brooker tend to anchor the shows to the character of Dan (The Preacher Man) Ashcroft, a cynical and fairly down-to-earth sort, who seems at odds with the backslapping and self-congratulatory cretins who populate his office. As a result, the jokes work because we can relate to Dan's anguish at being celebrated by these fools, who find humour in irreverent spreads on child molestation, have chainsaw ring tones and have a unhealthy habit of composing raps while they get it on with the opposite sex (Nathan's seduction of Claire is absolute comedy genius... "yeah, well plastic, man!!"). My favourite gag would have to be Dan unintentionally creating a new trendy hair-style when he falls asleep under the paint table. "What's it called?" asks Nathan. "Errr... Geek Pie" replies Dan. Cut to Nathan on Japanese TV promoting said hair-style without a shard or irony or good humour.

Most of the jokes work on multiple levels, often acting as an out-and-out parody of the kind of pretentious, novelty, tabloid-bating nonsense that seems to be continually spat out of these nu-media outlets (digital television, on-line publishing, underground advertising, or remnants of the shallow mid-nineties art scene, etc)... but then, there's also the integration of the characters, the disgust and contempt that Dan has for his colleagues, and the sheer genius of the word play used by these bizarre caricatures (typical Barley invitation, "you should come doll snatch, it's gonn'a be Mexico!!"... all this and more from the man who gave us "fact me till I fart"). The cast is great, padded out with characters form The Mighty Boosh and the brilliant Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, so you know the timing and delivery will be pitch perfect and the plausibility spot on.

Nathan Barley may not scale the comedic highs of Morris's more on-the-nose satires like The Day Today and Brass Eye, but it is, nonetheless, very funny, not just in the way the jokes are constructed, but in the believability and plausibility of the characterisations and the recreation of that kind of self-conscious, self-styled universe. Morris (and Brooker) should be commended for taking a risk with this serious, creating something that almost passes for a normal sitcom, but with that much loved/much needed Morris contempt always lurking, just beneath the surface.

This is a great sitcom.

[startledbunny · 29 November 2005]

Before I watched this series on DVD, I was wondering why there were so many bad reviews by fans of Chris Morris. But now I kind of understood the reason why. Because the story is pretty much about Chris Morris himself; a caricature of what he has achieved and people who appreciate his comedy. Chris Morris's followers are all despised in there. The person who you believe is your 'Preacher Man' now tells you he is an 'Idiot'.....who could instantly appreciate such things? From 'On the Hour 'to 'Blue Jam', he had been making, topical , but more and more excessive humour to the point that no one can really laugh out loud. (Oh, please, is there anyone who's cracked up with the joke about a man who kept committing suicide?) Those jokes are just like Nathan's trashbat.co.ck and what his people find 'COOL'. By watching this sitcom, one could guess a bit about his inner thoughts when he received all those praises and admiration on his works. He might have been in a gridlock because how deviantly he went, no one said no to him and the way out was to ridicule himself in the exactly same way as he did previously. I think Nathan Barley is a natural step for a comic genius like Chris Morris. I really loved it. Glad to purchase this DVD.

Extremely Amusing!

[Mr_Alex · 6 December 2005]

Opinions are mixed about Nathan Barley - suffice to say, if you expect Chris Morris and Charlie Brooker to re-hash their earlier work and be satisfied then you've misunderstood their ethos (wheras I'm guessing at it - but at least I'm making an effort!!)

It's not Brasseye or TV Go Home, and why would it be? They're done, they exist and we can watch/read them.

The target for their humour might be narrow, but it works from a city-dweller perspective - and as I recall from my youth, there's always stupid trend-focused fools in villages too!

I loved it - you might? But it's not Jam or Brasseye, or TV Go Home or Charlie's Guardian columns (although I *would* like to see Charlie getting proper spleen-venting exposure!).

What's not to like?

[dog_belch · 4 July 2005]

Well, I thought this was just great. Starting as a light hearted satire then slowly, inexorably descending into darker and darker territory, right up until the very end. The final scenes going beyond comedy and pathos, Dan resignedly saying "Shut up" as he lets himself drop out the window, the Jam-like rewinding of the camera and the freeze frame of Pingu diving out the window, the final image retreating as Dan lies motionless in hospital...

What's not to like about this series? The original music alone is incredible, a mix of IDM/electronica that's too convincing, too good to be just pastiche. Nathan's electro clash rap at the club is ... I don't possess an ounce of the wit necessary to describe it… "A night down the pub, with your mates, and its f--king mental!"… There are few conventional gags, but there are plenty of moments when I get a cold thrill down to the marrow that only comes from watching utter, deft genius on display. A desperately funny series, perhaps misunderstood. I think people may have watched this with far too many preconceptions, about Morris, about sitcoms, and were very quick to judge after just watching the first episode. People may have been upset recognizing themselves unflatteringly represented here, or irked that they were wrong footed in the way the series developed. Morris is a dark, dark, dark writer. A very funny writer too, and far, far more intelligent than 99.9% of his audience. That he lets any of us peasants see his work is a miracle, and we should be thankful for whatever he gives us.

Punches Pulled

[MobileMotion · 10 May 2005]

People seem to either love or hate this series. I found myself liking some of it, but overall I thought the scripts were underdeveloped. Considering the unrestrained venom that went into the original Nathan Barley character (as realised in the www.tvgohome.com spoof TV listings - which I still find hilarious), this TV series is actually pretty tame (and sometimes lame).

I found some moments of this show funny, but not rolling around on the floor laughing my head off like when watching Brass Eye. Nathan Barley the TV show is just not daring enough. The worst moments are when the shows slip into clichéd sitcom farce, which just doesn't fit the Chris Morris style.

Good, but not great.

Oh-so funny

[mathewdc · 17 February 2006]

I've watched the DVD several times now and I can say it's hilarious. It did take a little to get over the overly annoying characters though but...

I caught this on TV when it came out and I didn't really give it the time and as such... I didn't really get much out of it. To tell you the truth, the character wound me up a lot. Later on a friend pointed out that Chris Morris had directed it, so I had to give it another go.

Being a Chris Morris fan (other for Blue Jam, which I thought was just a little bit too far over the line) I had to give it another go. And it was worth it. Give it a bit of time and there is no turning back. As many have said, it's not an overly obvious joke based Sitcom but it's in the subtleties.

I'd say, give it a go and you MAY love it… or you can give it to a friend. The choice is yours.

Mat

Whow! its before its time

[stevanjackiw · 1 December 2005]

I was a lucky man when i saw his the first time round... i was part of a small cult that rallied at the Morris mastered work. As I'm a fan id have to say the first time i saw it, i didn't think any of it was funny, i thought it was offence, racist, cultist and abstractly over torqued with ragingly bad seamless jokes. Oh... How i was SOOOOOOO wrong.

Like Jam, and BrassEye. This was a comedy too advanced, i just didn't get it... When a friend called me up to tell me bout his new Chris morris DVD i shook my head...

He came round stuck it on the box, and for the best part of 3 hours, i wet and shat myself in the intense humour of Nathan's Character. I just couldn't believe what id missed, i watched the whole DVD again and again, 6 times, I JUST CANT STOP LAUGHING MY ASS OFF!!!!

A comment Nathan says in the Geek Pie epic, set up the whole series... "Today ridicule... Tomorrow ridicule..." Oh how right he is... The offence unintended through out the series just makes me laugh. His "Allright Treacle-slit" and "Hey Doll Sn4tch" phrases are so shared with the reality of todays youth. For most of the Series i was too busy barfing... stopping myself by swallowing, only to barf again.

All those out there who are die hard fans of Morris, Will like me respect the comedy more and more they watch it.

Peace and 4ckin, Believe!

Hits the nail on the head in some ways but the sitcom format doesn't work well and too much is not fleshed out

[bob the moo · 28 July 2014]

I think it was the mid-90's when I first watched the film King of Comedy, and I remember being taken aback by how, some 10 years prior, the film seemed to have perfectly satirized the world of the celebrity and those famous for little else than seeking out fame regardless of their talent. Watching Nathan Barely for the first time, I have the same benefit of hindsight since it is almost a decade since this show screened on Channel 4 for the handful of people that actually watched it (and the even smaller group that stayed with it). I remember hearing about it at the time, but it seemed very London-specific with its characters and world and it didn't appeal to me.

Watching it now, too much of it is instantly recognizable as manifested in the world we currently call hipsters; a culture where some talent exists but too many are trend-following yaysayers about anything that is seen as cool. Also looking back, it is hardly surprising that it is so brutally harsh on these characters since the show was written by Charlie Brooker – one not known for holding back. And harsh it is as it portrays almost everyone as talentless and clueless but yet supremely confident or numbly stupefied to the whole thing – even those "normal" characters get no grace as they are shown up for their complacency and/or complicity in the whole thing. As an attack on a subculture it doesn't miss its target very often and it is depressing how so much of what it shows has gone on to become almost the norm (wanky art, cruel prank shows, obsessions with trends and being "in", slang terms).

Unfortunately for the show the frame in which this material is put is not as strong as it needed to be. As a sitcom, the series tries to have some structure and indeed we get narrative devices mostly from the characters of Dan and Claire, needing money and/or work and then around this basic structure other things happen. This isn't terrible but for sure it is not as strong as it needed to be for a weekly 6-part comedy and without a real structure or development, it is easy to think that the points it is making are not only the same ones it made at the start but also being made the same way.

The cast go with whatever is asked of them, even if sometimes it is pretty straightforward. Burns doesn't hold anything back and he is indeed a tremendous waste of space with his hollow insecure character and lack of consideration for others around him – he plays it very well throughout. Barratt is also very good as he is the straight man in the cast but at the same time he isn't allowed to just be on the outside. Keelan does what she can with a non-character; she herself is good but the character is not. The supporting cast is (with hindsight) quite incredible as it includes Whishaw, Fielding, Cumberbatch, Sosanya, Eldon and many other faces and names you'll know. Everyone does well with what they have to do, but as before, they are not always rewarding with something that is going somewhere.

It is a show that is worth a watch for what it does very well, but it does have weaknesses in the structure and lack of development and narrative, and these do rather leave the impression that it is doing the same thing in the same way for the duration of the season.

Doesn't work on any level

[world_of_weird · 6 December 2005]

Chris Morris is undoubtedly a satirist gifted with genius, albeit a very dark and anger genius. He found his natural home on Channel 4 with the excellent BRASSEYE, a dead-on spoof of current affairs programmes, which was followed a few years later by the flesh-crawling pitch black sketch series JAM, which outdid its own radio origins simply by adopting a slurred, woozy visual style that perfectly matched the surreal flavour of the sketches and situations. Then, for some bizarre reason, he looked to the internet for inspiration, found Charlie Brooker's scabrous and wildly funny satire on vacuous media types on the TVGoHome website with the titular Barley as the loathsome protagonist, and this is the result.

Laugh? I nearly dug out a Little and Large video.

Save for a brilliantly dead-pan performance from Julian Barratt as the reluctant King of Cool, and some neat background touches (a light Gilbert O'Sullivan song recast as a techno dance track, a magazine cover trumpeting an interview with the minor TV celebrity Nicky Campbell as if it were the long-lost eleventh commandment), NATHAN BARLEY hardly works as satire, as comedy, as social commentary, or as anything rather than a confusing, headache-inducing whimper of impotent rage at the very people who are likely to watch this kind of thing. And there's the rub - satire has to have a target, the bigger the better, and if you restrict your satire to your target audience, it's not likely to have much of an impact. As a previous reviewer noted, punches are indeed pulled, and if there had been an ounce of the throbbing-vein anger and disgust that had made Brooker's website so addictive on display here, NATHAN BARLEY would have been a minor classic. Instead, it's the televisual equivalent of an executive toy, a shiny, modernistic gadget that exists only to occupy vacant mindspace.

A thundering disappointment that should be avoided at all costs.

Not so brilliant as you think

[wj-mcgrath · 25 September 2007]

Most fans of Nathan Barley defend the show from its critics on the grounds that its an "oh so brilliant satire". Well, i hate to disappoint you but the satire don't enter into it this time.

Sitcoms aren't really an appropriate area for satire. Satire usually forms in sketch shows or (god forbid) panel shows. You could have moments in sitcoms which are directly satirical but you should en't make it the emphasis of your entire screenplay. Because then you lose the most important part of a sitcom script and thats the characters (Who were about as "realistic" as talking fish).

What amazed me was how much Chris Morris has lost touch with his common satirical roots. This was obviously advertising itself as a satire but was in no way. For a start Barleys form of sub media twunt doesn't exist outside of Hoxton. And even if they did its not as if there are millions of them crawling around the place.

Bottom line: Failed as a satire, failed as a sitcom and failed as a comedy. Draw your own conclusions.