I was really looking forward to "Labrats." Chris Addison has been a part of some of the best radio to come out of Radio 4 in the past while, co-starring and occasionally co-writing in "The Department" with John Oliver and Andy Zalzman, in addition to radio adaptations of his one-man shows "The Ape that Got Lucky" and "Civilzation." Since "Labrats" was co-written and co-starring all of the same people from the latter, I was expecting it to be a little bit brilliant. But this show takes the broader one-off jokes that are background to smart if silly humour, and surrounds entire scenes around them. For example, a quiet suggestion that Addison's hair makes him look like "one of THOSE" in radio, turns into characters calling him "gay hair" repeatedly throughout the first episode.
The delivery is so broad, the audience so annoying (I don't always mind an audience pleasantly tittering away at jokes, but seriously, who APPLAUDS when a character enters a room anymore?) Addison, who is excellent in "The Thick of It" is far more stiff here, but it's hard to notice with so many one-dimensional and overblown characters around him.
I know that Chris Addison is funny, and the setting of an under-funded lab messing about with the laws of nature has potential. (The website for the show is actually hilarious.) So I wonder what exactly went wrong. End of the day, the shows feels like the management-diddled "When the Whistle Blows" from "Extras," only it's real. The upside is, if the reception in "Extras" is any indication, it's bound to be popular, even if it's not good.
The delivery is so broad, the audience so annoying (I don't always mind an audience pleasantly tittering away at jokes, but seriously, who APPLAUDS when a character enters a room anymore?) Addison, who is excellent in "The Thick of It" is far more stiff here, but it's hard to notice with so many one-dimensional and overblown characters around him.
I know that Chris Addison is funny, and the setting of an under-funded lab messing about with the laws of nature has potential. (The website for the show is actually hilarious.) So I wonder what exactly went wrong. End of the day, the shows feels like the management-diddled "When the Whistle Blows" from "Extras," only it's real. The upside is, if the reception in "Extras" is any indication, it's bound to be popular, even if it's not good.