Considering I thought so little of this show you might wonder why I bothered to watch this special. To be honest, part of it was morbid curiosity as to why a show that had disappointed so many people on so many levels was given another chance. I hadn't hated the show but I had not cared for this rather cruel comedy and unpleasant character. It is telling then that this special opens with a step away from this character – out of nowhere too. Warwick states he had been a cruel person but was nice now and learning to be good; it seems someone listened to the criticism about the first season and spotted that having a selfish idiot as your main character only works if you are able to do more with that character and play it out for all its tragic humanity (ie David Brent).
Problem is that by stepping away from that aspect of this empty character, you're left with very little and nothing is adding to Warwick to really make up for the gap left by this sudden change. Here he ends up as a plot device in his own show and all he has to work with are the same slapstick moments as before. If you ignore that the show is therefore empty and just watch it, it isn't actually so bad, still not great but it has its moments. The special focuses on Cheggers, Les and Barry as Warwick takes them on a tour of pubs with their show that turns out to be better than expected, in doing this we get more of the asides that were at least funny in the man show. It doesn't all stand up but it is quite amusing to watch them – even if an hour is too much. The plot goes where you expect it to and mostly it wasn't funny or clever – OK it does the awkward thing well several times, but there is nothing beyond it apart from this and it tired me by the end.
I came to the special surprised it exists and I came out the other side even more unsure as to why it does. It seems to deliberately step away from what it did with Warwick before (and rightly so) but doesn't actually replace it with much. As a series of moments, some of them are quite funny but it is not consistent and mostly it drags itself along with no spark or reason.
Problem is that by stepping away from that aspect of this empty character, you're left with very little and nothing is adding to Warwick to really make up for the gap left by this sudden change. Here he ends up as a plot device in his own show and all he has to work with are the same slapstick moments as before. If you ignore that the show is therefore empty and just watch it, it isn't actually so bad, still not great but it has its moments. The special focuses on Cheggers, Les and Barry as Warwick takes them on a tour of pubs with their show that turns out to be better than expected, in doing this we get more of the asides that were at least funny in the man show. It doesn't all stand up but it is quite amusing to watch them – even if an hour is too much. The plot goes where you expect it to and mostly it wasn't funny or clever – OK it does the awkward thing well several times, but there is nothing beyond it apart from this and it tired me by the end.
I came to the special surprised it exists and I came out the other side even more unsure as to why it does. It seems to deliberately step away from what it did with Warwick before (and rightly so) but doesn't actually replace it with much. As a series of moments, some of them are quite funny but it is not consistent and mostly it drags itself along with no spark or reason.
