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Critic Reviews
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Alas, HBO has come up with a dull, unimaginative interpretation of the podcast, essentially giving us animated versions of the three men sitting in a sound booth talking into microphones.
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The show's only visual, literally, is cartoon animation of Gervais, Merchant and Pilkington talking. That's a bold gamble because if the words aren't grabbing the viewer, there's nothing else to hold the fort until the words get good again....So as with radio, you ignore the lulls and focus on the keepers.
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Pilkington's musings are sometimes amusing and always pointless, but the animation almost totally nullifies the first and intensifies the second.
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I'm still not sold on watching the show. I still think I might prefer to listen to the podcasts instead. The animation adds some humor but probably not enough to justify adding this series to my already overbooked TV viewing schedule.
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To reduce talents as large as Gervais and Merchant to caricatures seems absurd. The vitality and enthusiasm that passes between them, and the unfettered joy implicit in that, demands a human face, and without that, HBO is missing the point, creating a show that's easy to listen to, but actually hard to watch.
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The chats are amusing, quirky and strangely obsessed with monkeys (which, granted, is always a funny topic), but the illustrations tend to overemphasize the throwaway moments, draining them of spontaneity and often of their original humor.
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Animation would seem to be an ideal vehicle for this, but there's only so much it can do--in part because there's no adhesive to the episodes. The three guys sit and bullshit for 20-some-odd minutes--at times entertainingly--until the program simply ends.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 19 out of 21
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Mixed: 2 out of 21
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Negative: 0 out of 21
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Apr 3, 2011
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Jan 9, 2023Some joyful, witty banter enlightened by amazing animation. It's a show hard to dislike.
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Apr 10, 2019