Screenwipe (TV Series) 2015 Wipe (2015) User Reviews

Not the best look at 2015

[Prismark10 · 5/10 · 31 December 2015]

Maybe revisiting the results of the 2015 General Election made me depressed or seeing Labour shooting itself in the foot in electing another incompetent leader just got me jaded.

Brooker takes a wry look at 2015 which started with terrorist atrocities in Paris and ended with something similar even more blood crazed in Paris.

Brooker now married with a child comes across as less vitriolic and bitter as well as being better groomed than before.

Still Brooker whizzes past with the events of the year. Some of it was mildly funny when he looks at garbage television, Cameron being allegedly intimate with a pig and Trump being nasty to every minority he can set his eyes on.

However this was not a vintage yearly wipe compared to previous years.

Brooker is a bit more restrained, and the amount of awful stuff in 2015 means the easier material tends to come to the fore

[bob the moo · 14 January 2016]

With Netflix meaning Charlie Brooker must be fairly focused on delivering a huge amount of Black Mirror episodes to them for some point in 2016, I did wonder if he would have the time in his schedule to be part of the annual Wipe. I was happy to see he did (although I doubt Screen Wipe will do its usual short run early in the year), although the headlines this year have really given him little to work with in terms of comedy. Perhaps this, or his recent entry into married fatherhood, has contributed to him coming over a bit more restrained than he would have been in the past (although a restrained Charlie Brooker is still pretty bitter).

For the majority of the hour, the review of the year tends to focus on the material which is a little bit easier to laugh at, or is perhaps at least a bit less horrifyingly awful. As a result we have coverage of the elections, politicians, 50 Shades of Grey, adverts, terrible TV shows, and so on. All of this is done with wit and is pretty funny, although it does feel a bit like the lead is being buried. ISIS comes up towards the end of the hour, and it is well handled by virtue of being funny but also having some brief element of discussion in there too – with Barry Shitpeas commenting on the American terrorist shooting (as opposed to all the other ones) and the refugee crisis being the most on-point.

I was pleased this year that I had managed to never see the adverts or crappy reality television shows that the special featured, so it does seem I was doing something right during 2015. As well as these shows though, it does seem that the content of 2015 has meant they have gone for some easier material and as a result we don't really get to see Brooker in full-on acerbic bitterness mode as much as usual, even if it still is a pretty funny show.