Count Arthur Strong
Count Arthur Strong
| 08 July 2013 (USA)
SEASON & EPISODES
  • 3
  • 2
  • 1
  • Reviews
    Incannerax What a waste of my time!!!
    Acensbart Excellent but underrated film
    Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?
    Clarissa Mora The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.
    texxas-1 This program works because it does exactly what it's supposed to, make you laugh. Modern day comedy seems to rely on smart arse comments, so I suppose Count Arthur Strong is considered old fashioned. But it's seriously the best thing I've watched on TV in a very long time. The lead character, Arthur is like an old Frank Spencer, always getting things wrong, misunderstanding people and being oblivious to all the chaos he causes. His despairing sidekick Michael is a really likable character. I must warn you though, this is the BBC so it is very left, there's interracial relationships and gay characters left right and centre, but that doesn't seem to ruin this.
    aaroninacave I'm really not sure why i like this programme as much as i do... but it is one of the funniest things i've seen in a long time. i only gave it a go because Graham Linehan was involved in the writing.It is good clean comedy with the typically bizarre moments you would expect from a piece of Linehan writing... as the show progresses you see Michael slowly but surely becoming one of the crazy collective.The character that is Count Arthur Strong was an amazing idea and is brilliantly acted in this show.The confusion is pure quality.If you have never even heard of the radio show (like me) just give this show a try and you may well be glad you did.
    dan-845 I've come to this late, and not heard of the radio series.For the first minute I thought this looks dated and this Count Arthur Strong actor is overacting a bit. Then I realised I was watching hilarious comedy gold. I've just watched the 4th episode. Maybe they've gone a bit heavy-handed on the tragedy - I think it works but I think it just lingers a bit too long, like on Eggy's face during his sorry tale, and in the taxi ride back from the hospital.Perhaps this is a slight editing problem, where just a 5 or 10 second cut would have got the balance right. The problem is that the tragedy is very real and sad, which is an achievement in itself that we care so much about the characters so quickly, but it's just a bit too real and sad, for 10 seconds too long :)I think people must be drawing parallels between The Count and John Shuttleworth, another hilarious older-than-the-actor Yorkshire buffoon in his own internally logical world.This is the loudest and longest I've laughed watching anything since Curb Your Enthusiasm, it's a work of absolute genius in both Steve Delaney's masterful performance and the Father Ted-like farcical comedy plotting. As soon as I've seen the last 2 episodes I'll be straight onto the radio shows :)
    miss_lady_ice-853-608700 Close your eyes and you can imagine that this could possibly be conceived as funny on the radio. Radio comedy thrives off stereotypes- take for example the brilliant Cabin Pressure: smooth mature man, bumbling son, haranguing older woman and lovable loser. All clearly distinctive characters and all terribly funny.However, the style is too broad for TV and I can imagine that even the genius Cabin Pressure would suffer there. Steve Delaney's ridiculously broad acting simply doesn't work. I'm not a particular fan of Miranda but it just about works in that all the characters are a little broad. It also doesn't help that the character is meant to be perceived as unfunny by everyone. Of course, this is all part of the joke but it's hard to make unfunny things funny.Count Arthur Strong is a very gentle sitcom. Old Aunt Edna will not be offended in the slightest. I don't mind that there's an antidote to the ubiquitous swearing that passes for comedy nowadays, but it's all just a bit strained. It clearly wants to be like The Two Ronnies and other seventies sitcoms but the style just doesn't work in the modern day. If we wanted seventies-style comedies, we'd watch comedies from the seventies. The best comedy is based on truth- even if it's a surreal comedy. Count Arthur Strong does manage to scrape some credibility back, such as the ending of episode 5, which actually had a nice amount of pathos. It's these moments of pathos that make you hope that what is intended to pass for comedy will finally become comic.As for the other characters, this is very much the Count Arthur show, despite the show being when he is not there. Rory Kinnear is excellent as biographer Michael, the disappointing son of a successful comedian, but the other characters are even thinner than cardboard cutouts.Hopefully it will turn itself around with the last episode but I doubt it. Despite the name, Count Arthur Strong is rather weak.