Apr. 2nd, 2019

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Wow, This Time (With Alan Partridge) bombed hard in the ratings, starting low-ish and then shedding further week on week. I quite enjoyed it but here are my thoughts, mild spoil-me-dos:

1) Should have spread the developing conflict between Jennie with an I and an E and Alan better through the series. They basically got on until the last ep when suddenly she was storming off set because of one catty remark. Alan is best when he is beset from all sides by the people he wishes he was. Too little too late.

2) The only character who really went toe-to-toe with him was Lolly Adefope's character, but she was under-used on the whole. If she'd been his co-host instead the whole thing might have worked a lot better.

3) One of the best aspects was the nightmare visions of Alan, such as CGI Child Alan, Irish Alan, Sleep Terror Alan, and Allergic Lips Alan. Like point 2 this was a kind of running joke but unlike point 2 it wasn't repetitive or predictable.

4) I don't think the "world" of the series really worked. For instance, fluffs and bad takes were left in the pre-recorded segments which they wouldn't be in real life. I feel like the whole thing was a bit too indebted to Philomena Cunk (the Monty Don sequence perhaps most obviously), and while I love a bit of Cunk, she is more the sort of character who the BBC might give excessive latitude to in their pursuit of edginess etc. Alan is more a frustrated figure and thus the amount of leeway he was given didn't ring true. In particular, Sidekick Simon would probably not have made it to the second episode in real life.

5) Although the whole thing is clearly inspired by e.g. Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid, it was really a throwback to Knowing Me, Knowing You, with a number of ideas (such as the racist old lady) pretty much dropped in verbatim. As such the whole thing felt rather tired. Someone on the Internets suggested that it might have been better to do a spoof I'm a Celebrity-style show, and I think that would have been much fresher and given broader opportunity to see Alan interacting with different characters. I hope this isn't the last we see of Mr Partridge and if it's not, something like that would be a better direction overall.

6) Steve Coogan's timing has been honed to the sweetness of a formula 1 engine, but I do think he exaggerated Alan's Alanness a lot, particularly with the silly voices. I was also distracted by how his hair kept changing.

7) All the above said, it was still nice to have him back. AHAAAAAAA!!!!

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