TV Review of BBC Two's Psychoville
Comedy Thriller from Half The League of Gentlemen Team
Jun 18, 2009
It’s clear that the Thursday night comedy line-up on BBC Two is back in full swing with Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire and the latest series of jumbled sketch show That Mitchell and Webb Look already underway. Joining them is the strangest and most twisted black comedy show of the year, no surprising as it’s written by and stars Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton from The League of Gentlemen. And it’s called Psychoville. Sounds like heaps of fun...and in a bizarre way it is.
Psychoville is Full of Strange Characters
Where to start with such a programme? Like The league of Gentlemen it’s difficult to describe just what Psychoville is, as it’s almost a series of interlinked sketches held together by one cohesive storyline. The first episode introduces the main plot thread and most of the world’s inhabitants as they are sent the same anonymous message through the post from a mysterious, Darth Vader-voiced shadowy figure saying: “I know what you did”. By the second episode, available through the red button, it had been changed to “You Killed Her”.
Some of the characters are just completely barmy. The stand-out so far is Mr Jelly – a rubbish clown that drives a hearse and has one hand – who is undeniably a ranting Reece Shearsmith. Pemberton’s serial-killer-obsessed man-child David Sowerbutts is unbelievably frightening, Dawn French appears as barking mad midwife Joy who believes her toy doll is an actual baby and Christopher Biggins even shows up in the panto sub-plot (what else?) as a director.
Short on Laughs but as Creepy as The League
One thing’s for sure, the guys seem to have spent more time on the narrative than forcing in any laughs. This isn't a problem because it looks the part as the atmosphere is very creepy and more in line with The League’s unfestively spooky Christmas Special, complete with eerie musical cues and blinding fade outs.
There were some funny moments in the first two episodes – the opening with the blackmailer in a post office, Mr Jelly’s cringeworthy attempt at a child’s party, David messing up a detective role play and Mr Lomax’s (Pemberton) petty eBay bidding war with conjoined sisters for a Beanie Baby – but the quick flashes between situations show that the focus is very much on the ambiguity surrounding the messages.
The pair has certainly put a lot of thought into the project with the online activities and extras, including a range of websites and videos, being welll produced. The red button option to watch the second episode straight after the opener was also a nice addition as this is a series that is hard to fully understand, so the more episodes crammed together the better.
Psychoville Similar to Royston Vasey
Psychoville is definitely a solid outing for the duo but the problem remains that this is all a little too similar to the (ir)regular happenings in Royston Vasey. This will definitely put off those who didn’t have the stomach for The League’s dark, horror-filled lunacy and comes across almost like self-imposed typecasting as the characters are all too familiar.
Still, the entire experience is an enjoyable one even if the story is incomprehensible at times and the cliff hanger endings do hook the viewer in to discover just what the hell is going on. Or maybe the point is no-one is supposed to know. Only one way to find out...
Psychoville is shown on BBC Two every Thursday at 10pm.
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