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Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway: Episode #20.7 (2024)
The last portion of Takeaway
That's how you say goodbye.
The final episode of 'Saturday Night Takeaway' went out with a real bang, and reminded us just why we have loved it for the last twenty series.
Full of brilliant moments and a genuine sense of heart, there really is nobody like Ant and Dec or indeed like this show on television. We are lucky to have them, and have been lucky to have this show for as long as we have.
The messaging about whether it is just being 'rested' or 'ending' seemed confused, but if I were the boys I would make this the last one ever. Not because I don't love it and will miss it dearly, but because this felt very much like the final 'portion', a lovely way to go out.
Any more could just cause indigestion.
Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005)
Herbie: Fully Loaded
This was Disney basically trying to give Lindsay Lohan one more tween role before she got too old.
What is interesting though is that they rebooted the Herbie franchise with her in the lead, knowing full well she would be unlikely to be able to appear in any follow ups.
This is a decent enough film without ever being spectacular. Lohan is entertaining enough, playing on her 'every girl' charm.
It's got some decent people in support as well, so Disney clearly had faith in the project.
It's just a shame it doesn't seem to know if it's just for kids or for their parents as well, so falls a bit at that hurdle.
The Simpsons: Bart's Not Dead (2018)
Bart's Not Dead
So begins the thirtieth series of the show. Yes, you read that right - the thirtieth.
There's a nice little celebration montage at the start of the episode to celebrate this, and to be honest, it's the best bit of the episode.
I don't like it when the show goes a bit too dark for its own good, and when it starts having a dig at faith/God etc.
I know that's personal preference, but I didn't like the tone of the episode or the situations it put the characters into.
It's got some nice moments along the way, but I just think everyone has their own favourite sort of 'Simpsons' episode, and this wasn't mine.
The Big Bang Theory: The Countdown Reflection (2012)
The Countdown Reflection
This was a nice way to round off the fifth series of 'The Big Bang Theory', and if I were to be cynical, I'd say I hope it brings to a close the rather tedious 'Howard going to space' and 'Howard and Bernadette are getting married' plots.
They've tried to humanise Howard over the course of the last couple of series, but work still needs to be done. Bernadette as a character is still about as three dimensional a postage stamp.
Thee are some lovely moments along the way though, especially in the final scene, that remind us of the quality of the show and how when it gets it right it gets it very right.
The fifth series has had some bumps in the road along the way (understandable when you are producing 24 episodes a year) but the duds have been real clunkers.
The show has certainly changed, and it will be interesting to see how it continues to do so as it moves into Series Six.
Iron Man (2008)
Iron Man
What can you really say about a film that's success doomed us to nearly twenty further years of Marvel doom?
It's fine, it's passable entertainment. That's the plus points covered?
Is it any good? Gosh, no. It's drivel.
Gwyneth Paltrow is hands down the best thing in the film by a country mile.
It's overlong, it's overly loud, it seems to think it's the best thing since sliced bread - and while you can sit back and commend Marvel for creating a Cinematic Universe that spanned nearly a decade after this, that doesn't make this any better than it actually is.
I'm sure people will leap to slate my review, but it's my honest take on the film.
The Big Bang Theory: The Launch Acceleration (2012)
The Launch Acceleration
I can't say the Howard storyline has grabbed me throughout the fifth series of the show. Maybe it's because the character hadn't really ever gone through enough development to become fully three-dimensional beforehand. It's well played out, but the whole thing here about him secretly not being excited about going into space felt like a jarring gear change.
The Penny/Leonard storyline was pretty much same old, same old where they are concerned. They have a problem, they resolve it - normally because Leonard caves into her, and we move on only to repeat this again in the next episode.
The Amy/Sheldon plot was slight but funny, and goodness knows where poor Raj went.
Fine if unspectacular overall.
The Big Bang Theory: The Stag Convergence (2012)
The Stag Convergence
This was a weak episode.
Having the characters be drunk and say inappropriate things is a sitcom staple plot, but you'd think a show of this level of intelligence would be able to put something (anything! New on top of it to make it uniquely 'Big Bang Theory' worthy.
They don't though. It's not a good episode.
I'm not even sure the nice speech by Howard at the end that shows some actual growth in him as a character since the first ever episode is enough to carry this over the line. It's a wonderful moment, don't get me wrong - but it's in such a dud episode that it feels like a bit of a waste.
A real shame.
95 Miles to Go (2004)
95 Miles to Go
I like Ray Romano, I like 'Everybody Loves Raymond'.
I did not like this documentary.
It didn't need to exist in the first place. I think sometimes with stand-up comedians we don't need to see behind the curtain, it's ok for there to be some mystique about the person. Look at Jerry Seinfeld - he doesn't pop up too much and we're all glad of it.
This was a dull, slow affair. The journey parts aren't funny, I'm not sure Romano comes out of them looking all that brilliant too.
The bits where he's actually doing stand-up are good, but ultimately for me this was just a DVD extra that should never have been expanded further.
In for a Penny: Episode #6.1 (2024)
Series 6 begins
The new format to this show is that it seems to jump around the country now, rather than each episode taking place in one set location. I'm not sure I like this.
What cannot be denied though is how much fun this show is, and that ITV absolutely waste it by sticking it on so early in the evening. Perhaps after six series they are starting to get a bit bored of it, but is the Joel Dommet game show that followed it really much better? Nope.
This is brilliant family fun, and deserves far more recognition than it gets. I hope that people do start watching it, or continue to do so, because we need programmes like this in our lives.
Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway: Episode #20.6 (2024)
A thinner portion.
While 'Saturday Night Takeaway' is never anything less than good fun, this did feel like a smaller portion of it than normal.
Perhaps they were saving the budget for the final episode of the series, but if you were in the studio audience for this you didn't get to see very much that was live.
A lot of it was pre-recorded stuff, with the 'I'm a Celeb, Get out of my Ear: The Revenge' section being split into two parts to eek out proceedings.
The Take That number at the end saved things slightly, but this did feel like a bit of a padded and thin episode of the show overall.
Fine, but not overly filling.
A Life in Ten Pictures (2021)
A Life in Ten Pictures
This is a nice little show produced by the BBC.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and this show designs to test that theory, by using photographs of celebrities to generate thoughts by those either in the pictures with them, or from those who knew them best.
It's an interesting affair, but obviously does depend on your interest in the subject being covered. If you have no interest in the person then of course you're more than likely going to switch off.
It's a bit of a slow moving affair, but credit to the BBC for making such programmes. It's certainly not in the Gen X remit that they seem to be going for.
A Life in Ten Pictures: Robin Williams (2023)
Robin Williams
I'll happily watch any documentary about the much missed and loved Robin Williams, so I was pleased to see his inclusion in the 'A Life in Ten Pictures' series that the BBC produce.
It proved to be an interesting affair, with talking heads that don't tend to pop up on this sort of thing all the time. Pam Dawber (the Mindy to his Mork from 'Mork and Mindy') being one such example.
This is of course a BBC programme, so the need to be woke screamed through, so there is a very notable lack of coverage about 'Mrs Doubtfire', which seeing as this was one of Robin Williams' biggest commercial hits seems strange.
We do get some coverage about 'The Crazy Ones' though, so that's something.
Good enough overall.
The Big Bang Theory: The Hawking Excitation (2012)
The Hawking Excitation
It cops out at the end with a rather cheap joke which I wasn't keen on (and that we've seen before from Sheldon), but on the whole this was a good episode from the fifth series of 'The Big Bang Theory'.
I like the Howard/Sheldon dynamic, and that features heavily here.
Nobody else really gets much of a look in here in terms of material, though there's a nice Penny/Sheldon moment at one point.
It was a shame that Raj's quandary from the last episode hadn't become more of a running plot and seemed completely forgotten, because I thought that had much more room for development.
It does feel on this occasion that the show went for laughs rather than growth.
The Big Bang Theory: The Transporter Malfunction (2012)
The Transporter Malfunction
This was an odd little episode of 'The Big Bang Theory' indeed.
It manages to mix more surreal elements with actually some deeper material.
It's all very well played out, but actually I preferred the plotline involving Raj. I said in my review of the previous episode that I hoped the creatives behind the scenes would start to explore his loneliness in more detail, and here they do so. I thought there was a nice tenderness to this storyline.
It's a bit of an odd tonal mix, but on the whole it all comes together nicely and again proves that when this show is on top form it can be very good indeed.
The Big Bang Theory: The Weekend Vortex (2012)
The Weekend Vortex
How Amy puts up with Sheldon I'll never know. I think it's a testament to the performance Jim Parsons puts in weekly that makes you still tolerate and like him, because in the wrong hands he'd be unbearable as a character.
I liked this episode, I thought it had some nice moments, and you can't deny that the interplay between the cast and their chemistry is great.
I wish they'd spend more time on Raj though. His loneliness has been present in lots of episodes lately, and they sort of gloss over it or not develop it much further.
It would be quite ground-breaking for the show to actually tackle this in more depth.
The Big Bang Theory: The Werewolf Transformation (2012)
The Werewolf Transformation(
I could really take or leave Howard and Bernadette by this point. The whole NASA storyline hasn't produced much in terms of comedy, and this episode is no great exception. I don't think I found anything in it remotely amusing.
It lets down an otherwise very funny episode, with the Sheldon storyline being enormous fun. Sometimes just putting him in the simplest of life situations and seeing him battle against them in his own way is very funny, and this was the case here. It's all very well played, despite a rather predictable ending.
Overall, the good outweighs the bad, and this proves to be fun.
The Big Bang Theory: The Rothman Disintegration (2012)
The Rothman Disintegration
Weak.
Very simply this felt like a very weak episode indeed and relied heavily on Jim Parsons to try and pull it over the line in terms of quality. Even then he can only do so much.
'Geeks try to do sports' - it's a fairly standard sitcom plotline, used many times before, and if 'The Big Bang Theory' was to try and use it I thought that they especially would be able to put some new slant onto it.
They don't.
Even the Penny/Amy (normally a reliable pairing) storyline with the painting has been airlifted from 'Friends', and they did it much better as well.
Overall, this was not a good episode for me.
The Big Bang Theory: The Vacation Solution (2012)
The Vacation Solution
For once the Howard and Bernadette storyline was engaging and well played out. Of three couples that the show is circling around right now this is the least interesting one for me, so to see it 'clicking' for once was nice.
It all gets upstaged rather brilliantly by the plot involving Sheldon having to take a holiday from work and ending up working alongside Amy in her lab.
It's all very funny stuff, and wonderfully played. There are very few Sheldon storylines that misfire in a show that often that does have one dud plotline, and this continues his good run.
Overall, a lovely episode of the sitcom.
The Big Bang Theory: The Friendship Contraction (2012)
The Friendship Contraction
A big question I've always had linked to this show was how Leonard put up with Sheldon and his demanding ways. Surely he wouldn't suffer in silence quite so much as he does.
This episode shows him snap, and although he does end up going crawling back (of course he does, there's no real show if he doesn't) it was nice to see someone notice that Sheldon is more than a little demanding and annoying. He really does need someone to tell him to go and take a long walk off a short pier!
It's all very nicely written and played though, with even the B plot involving Raj and Howard proving to be nice as well.
Wonka (2023)
Wonka
Not since 'Rise of Skywalker' has a film frustrated me to such a degree. Because it had so much potential that it doesn't deliver on.
This is 'Wonka', the origin story of Willy Wonka that the world didn't know it needed or indeed wanted.
It's also basically the team behind the 'Paddington' films regrouping and trying to make a film that's very similar in themes and tones. That big family film you can all sit around and watch at Christmas.
The problem is that while those things felt natural with that franchise, here it comes across as being false, almost done by a checklist.
Timothee Chalamet is good in the lead, but is he trying to be the young Gene Wilder or Johnny Depp, both of whom played the character prior. Is this a prequel to the Wilder film? How did this cheery chap suddenly become a recluse? These questions are never answered.
The film quite simply doesn't truly know what it wants to be, so ends up being a hodgepodge of lots of different bits and pieces. It's basically a selection box of chocolates, with no big thing to get your teeth stuck into.
It feels long. When you keep checking how much of the run time you have to go, it's not a good sign of your enjoyment.
Yes, you can get a bunch of well-known UK character actors, shove them in small roles and make it look like an all star cast, but none of the side characters are half as engaging as those in 'Paddington'.
People bang on about how great Hugh Grant is in this film, but he's barely in it, and even then feels like he's just doing what he did in 'Paddington 2' all over again.
Overall, this is a big sticky concoction, that never really delivers for me.
The Piglet Files: A Question of Intelligence (1990)
A Question of Intelligence
People of course know Nicholas Lyndhurst from 'Only Fools and Horses' - a show that continues to be a massive part of the British comedy landscape to this day. A show I must say he deserves more recognition for the success of than he gets.
You might also know him from other shows such as 'Goodnight Sweetheart', 'After You've Gone' and of course his scene stealing turns in the rebooted 'Frasier', a show that I hope will give him some cred in the US.
People don't really know this show though, which is a shame. Yes, spy spoofs are ten a penny, and this one isn't amazing, but when you look at what a master Lyndhurst is in the sitcom genre, you can only sit back and watch talent at work.
Well worth seeking out.
The Big Bang Theory: The Beta Test Initiation (2012)
The Beta Test Initiation
I was under the impression that Leonard and Penny were dating in secret based on the last episode (timey wimey though it was) so the fact that Sheldon and Amy knew about them here was confusing.
This was an episode of two halves for me - the Amy and Sheldon 'Fun with Flags' stuff was amazing. So very funny.
The Leonard and Penny stuff was engaging, though you do wish Leonard had a bit of a spine and wasn't quite so beguiled by Penny's beauty all the time. Though it must be said the work they have done on the latter character has been well well done.
As for Raj and his phone...yes. Not the show at its best. Funny, yes, but very very low hanging fruit in terms of seeking comedy.
Free Samples (2012)
Free Samples
This is dire.
It's almost like the people behind the scenes of this film had a Bingo card of standard indie comedy tropes, characters and dialogue and took great delight in then ticking them off as they completed the making of this limp project.
There's very little to like about it I'm afraid. It ticks the indie comedy boxes sure, but there's nothing here of note. A few big names slumming it, but nothing more.
To be honest, apart from the big names, if you were to have told me that this was a students final media piece for school I would have believed you.
This really wasn't very good I'm afraid.
The Big Bang Theory: The Recombination Hypothesis (2012)
The Recombination Hypothesis
As it reaches 100 episodes here I don't think there can be any denying that 'The Big Bang Theory' has developed as a show in that time.
It's no longer just the 'beauty and the geeks' premise that was the mainstay of the comedy in the early years of the show, it has developed into something more.
Has it been plain sailing? No. Has it taken a long time for the show to settle into itself? Yes.
It's getting there though, and the addition of Bernadette and Amy has been a big part of that.
This episode paid massive service to the on/off relationship between Penny and Leonard which has been the lynchpin of the show for a lot of those 100 episodes, and it was all very nicely played in a very clever way.
The Big Bang Theory: The Shiny Trinket Maneuver (2012)
The Shiny Trinket Manoeuvre
As it closes in on 100 episodes I don't think there can be any denying that 'The Big Bang Theory' has developed as a show in that time.
It's no longer just the 'beauty and the geeks' premise that was the mainstay of the comedy in the early years of the show, it has developed into something more.
Has it been plain sailing? No. Has it taken a long time for the show to settle into itself? Yes.
It's getting there though, and the addition of Bernadette and Amy has been a big part of that.
Some people will prefer the early days, and I point them in the direction of the Series 1-3 box set, but for me this episode was a good example of what the show has grown into.