Garth Marenghi's Darkplace
Garth Marenghi's Darkplace
| 29 January 2004 (USA)
SEASON & EPISODES
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  • Reviews
    Protraph Lack of good storyline.
    Lumsdal Good , But It Is Overrated By Some
    Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.
    Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
    Dave This 2004 Channel 4 comedy series is a parody that presents itself as a badly-made, previously unscreened, 1980s horror series that's interspersed with the creator talking about it as though it's a masterpiece. It's just one bad joke over and over again - someone thinks that an awful series that he made two decades earlier is brilliant, but it's actually terrible. Neither the fake series - nor the creator talking about it - are funny in the slightest.
    Michael Peterson Someone sent me a link to an episode and I reluctantly clicked it expecting the worst. From the initial intro I started smiling and found that the humor in this connected right to my funny bone. I spent the rest of the day watching the rest of the episodes and forgetting all my responsibilities. After getting to the last episode a frown crossed my face as there were no more. I ended up watching "interviews" with the cast which were also very funny. It reminded me of so many shows in the 80's and really nailed the titles and music. Sometimes it went really over the top for groaners, but they quickly got back on track. A wonderful find from someone in the US who has never heard of this before. Wishing for more!
    stevenvenn I love British comedies and I love spoofs of 80s TV shows. But this seems to be neither a very funny comedy nor a successful parody. I think aesthetically they have the 80s style of a Glen Larson show down pat but that's where the joke ends (and it gets repeated over and over again). I think that satire works best when there is a certain seriousness and earnestness to the writing and the performances, that the characters aren't in on the joke. That doesn't seem like the case here. This just seemed like it was riding on the strength of how weird and wacky the 80s were for TV production and for bad writing and acting. One joke. But the show doesn't go further and becomes just as bad a show or worse than the ones that would have been cancelled in the 80s. I think they could have taken the aesthetic but had tighter, more comedic writing. I like Richard Ayoade and Matt Berry in IT Crowd who are mostly wasted in this show.No this show is not the best comedy since The Office, that award goes to Peep Show which is something I recommend people go and check out. Alternatively The Mighty Boosh or Spaced are miles ahead in creativity and humour.
    Eumenides_0 What I love about British comedies is that they're always looking for something new. They're never content with repeating the same ideas under the guise of new actors and story lines. Garth Marenghi's Darkplace is one of those crazy new ideas. Richard Ayoade and Matthew Holness return to the '80s, look for everything that was bad in that decade's TV shows, for what was in need of a send up, and created this show which spoofs anything from A Team to Night Rider to Miami Vice.Garth Marenghi is a horror writer, a visionary, a dream weaver, or, as he puts it, an imaginer. He's really a mediocre novelist and a worse director and writer. But somehow he manages to get a TV show made with his publisher, Dean Learner, and actors Todd Rivers (the amazing Matt Berry) and Madeleine Wool (Alice Lowe). The show is awful, with corny plots, bad sfx, and a synth-heavy score typical of the time. Garth believes the show was so ahead of its time it could change the world. Unfortunately no channel bought it and Darkplace remained in his basement for nearly twenty years (except for a run in Peru).Decades later a channel decides to air the show. For this Garth adds a few interviews with himself and the crew. Many times they interrupt the action to comment on it. Obviously, these are the finer bits, with the serious way they discuss the show they made, incapable of realizing how poor it is.Alas, they only made six episodes. I can't understand why it didn't gain more popularity. The episodes are short and one will feel hungry for more. For this reason buying the DVD is a good idea. The crew created two extra interviews, each 30 minutes long, which are as amusing as any of the episodes and give a lot of insight into Garth, Dean, Todd and Madeleine's mysterious fate. This is the only DVD I've actually bothered to watch all the extras, they're all amazing and add a lot to the original show.Up there with the modern shows of its kind - The League of Gentlemen and The Mighty Boosh - this mix of humor and horror, of TV and movie spoofs is one of the most original and unforgettable shows made.