Life’s Too Short: Thursdays 9.30pm, BBC2
Heralded as offensive, obscene and pushing the boundaries of taste and political correctness a little too far, Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais’ new venture is definitely out to cause a stir in TV land. Widely publicised as the lovechild of Extras and The Office, Life’s Too Short – a comedic mockumentary chronicling the misadventures of Britain’s go-to dwarf actor Warwick Davis – looks like it has a lot to live up to.
However, after watching the first two episodes of this highly anticipated series, it seems to just fall a little, well, short (excuse the bad pun).
Don’t get me wrong; when I heard the premise of Life’s Too Short I thought that it had all the makings of a great show – a quirky lead actor, a sarcastic self-reflective script and high profile celeb cameos – I mean what more could you ask for? But when this great premise was translated on the small screen it unfortunately felt a little passé, like we’ve already seen it all before – a perfect example of this is when all the characters end up seated in Gervais’ studio office. The whole scenario seemed a little reminiscent of An Idiot Abroad, where Ricky and Stephen are sat rather smugly behind a desk, subtly ridiculing the butt of the joke Karl Pilkington. Life’s Too Short takes this idea and replaces Karl with Warwick resulting in some less than humorous situations.
To say that this series is a load of old rubbish would definitely be an injustice, I think it is best to judge it solely on what it is – a rather decent attempt at challenging the unspoken taboos of political correctness; I do think this programme is a bit too smart for its own good and it shouldn’t be taken so seriously. I will definitely tune in the next few weeks to see how this comedy tries to establish itself.
Pan Am: Wednesdays 9pm, BBC2
Set in the 1960s, when air travel was sexy, stewardesses had compulsory weigh-ins and were forced to adhere to supermodel strict ideals of beauty, pilots were gods amongst men and passengers chain-smoked during the flight; Pan Am is a show that attempts to epitomise the social changes of the time. The Cold War, Civil Rights Movement and gender equality are all portrayed through the lives of four independent air hostesses, labelled the ‘new breed of woman’ as they defy gender stereotypes and focus on their careers unlike most women fifty years ago.
There’s chief trolley dolly Maggie (Christina Ricci), a rebellious beatnik who loves globetrotting (and John F. Kennedy); Laura (Margot Robbie), who jilted her fiancé on her wedding day because she “wanted to see the world”; Kate (Kelli Garner), Laura’s older sister, who is “beautiful, educated and trilingual”; and Colette (Karine Vanasse), a free-spirited Parisienne with a habit of sleeping with the wrong guy.
Pan Am has been compared to Mad Men, and why not? They’re both set in the same era, are both entertainingly sexist and both have immaculate costumes, yet Pan Am is not as witty or compelling as Mad Men. It doesn’t delve deep into the social changes that marked the ’60s; the storylines are weak, often just glossing over big issues like sexual harassment and equality in exchange for corny love plotlines and Cold War secret agents. The show is more concerned with the superficial image of ‘the times’ rather than focussing on the tumultuous decade that the period actually was. Pan Am is never going have the powerful drama that Mad Men or Grey’s Anatomy do, but if you like glitz and glam without too much substance, then, yes, Pan Am is just for you!