kingandy | The Smoking Room

Am enjoying this new BBC3 comedy; it's a bare-bones observational comedy in the vein of The Office and The Royle Family - though I never particularly liked the latter much, it shares the key features of being both stationary and real-time. The episodes would work very well on stage.

I think I'm mainly enjoying it - as thousands of Scally families enjoyed the Royle Family - because I'm very much empathising with the nominally central character, Robin. I say "central" because he seems to be the only character who's constantly in the Smoking Room (the others drift in and out, and he manages to make it look like he's doing the same, but I'm not sure he ever actually does any work), and also because he seems to be one of the main points of the series. Other characters, though well-rounded in their way, are there purely to entertain and amuse, while Robin is there to demonstrate that, yes, you can do this in a sit-com without it being derogatory. Once you twig to his tastes, you realise the script actually extends several layers further down than is immediately apparent, and there's some quite good interplay and subtext floating around down there; the humour is in the character, not what the character may or may not be - it's not a big deal, it's just something that is. If that makes any sense. I'm trying to explain it without giving it away, and probably failing miserably. Never mind.

Maybe it's just the vague sensation of being in on a running gag that may pass some people by (I laughed out loud at a few key remarks and physical cues, though my Mum didn't particularly seem to get it), or perhaps it's just that the whole thing is just so very familiar. In terms of realistically drawn characters it beats the pants off - say - Will and Grace. Though that's probably not wholly surprising to anyone.

Summary: It's funny because it's true. Really.

In other news: Random Encounter has been inked. Now I need to scan and colour. This may take some time.

Also, apologies to anyone who may have been struck by my earlier use of words like "interplay" and "subtext" without anything resembling a license. If I am not careful I may start to say "Juxtaposition", and then where would we be?