Garth Marenghi's Darkplace

When The show 'Little Britain' ended, I felt that TV was lacking in any hilarious new comedies. Then I saw an advert for 'Garth Marenghi's Darkplace' so I decided to watch it.

Since then I've been hooked, I have never seen anything like this show before. It is truly amazing. This proves that you don't need clever scripts, great acting or impressive special effects.

Highlights for me include, Episode 4's bike chase, Episode 1's graveyard shootout and well, pretty much the entire show.

This show is pure comic genious.

I'll finish with a quote...

"She was like a candle in the wind ... unreliable"

I'm Garth Marenghi. Author, dreamweaver, visionary, plus actor. You're about to enter the world of my imagination. You are entering my Darkplace. Garth Marenghi is genius, and as Dean Lerner himself said:"Garth is the most significant artist that I have ever worked with, and I have worked with Lulu and four other people.". And when Dean Learner says that. At the beginning of every episode Garth Marenghi reads excerpt from his novels that only further proves his masterful writing abilities (Mike stared in disbelief as his hands fell of from 'Slasher'.). Music by Stig Baasvik, based on melodies originally whistled by Garth Marenghi.

'Garth Marenghi's Darkplace' is fantastic horror and behind the scenes spoof. Probably the best there ever is. It ran only six episodes before the show was cancelled because the low viewer numbers, and it is sad. But on the other hand, the long run would have become repetitive and finally turned stale. Six twenty five minute long episodes is perfect length for such absurdity. The writing is masterfully bad as the acting and directing (all of this is on purpose of course). Constant continuity errors and bad dialogue offers laugh after laugh. But not most of the jokes are on your face, at least half the jokes are very subtle that you notice them on the second (or fourth or even on the sixth) viewing, or when someone points it out for you. TV show inside TV show have never been funnier, and the really funny part about it is that I actually cared about the show and characters Garth Marenghi had created.

Gun doting doctors in hospital constantly plagued by supernatural forces can never be any cooler than in Garth Marenghi's imagination.

I wasn't fully sure what to expect and nearly didn't watch it at all, that would have been a mistake. Three episodes in and I'm hooked and I'm slowly working on all my friends too as it would be a shame if this slipped by without getting the audience it deserves. I was a bit concerned after the first episode that the jokes would quickly wear a bit thin but this hasn't proved to be the case. I don't think it will be everyone's cup of tea but well worth trying because if it is you're in for one of the funnier half hours of television you'll see all week.

This is a comedy spoofing the best and worst of TV from the 1980's. Garth Marenghi is a horror writer who created a show during the 1980's so deep and meaningful that the networks banished it to storage. Now in 2004 the vaults have been opened unleashing it for the world to enjoy. By taking inspiration from classic shows including "Twin Peaks" and "The A Team" a fantastic show has been created. It centers on a Hospital where the docs carry guns and fight supernatural beings. The scripts are deliberately cheesy, the editing is poor and the acting is very wooden. But that is what makes it so funny. There are even those alwful end tags popular with American shows were the main characters laugh at some rubbish joke. If you lived during the 1980's you must see this!

A British TV series that managed to be really crappy, stupid, and genius all at the very same time. Garth Marenghi's Darkplace is an awesome concept of intentionally setting out to be a genuinely awful '80s Horror series with all the bad hallmarks of filmmaking and performances, yet also managing to mock itself with hilarious and bonkers moments almost non-stop. The series throughout the episodes also have small interview/documentary style scenes with the filmmakers and actors to add further context of what is going on behind the scenes and how the crew were feeling shooting specific scenes, leading to some pretty funny moments and insights.

Ironically, the real crew trying to find the film equipment that was used to record '80s media actually made the show more expensive, yet it still feels very authentic due to the execution. The DVD Bonus Footage/Commentary pushes this even further by keeping the actors in character. With only six 25 minute episodes, it zips by very quickly and I wish there was another season. On the other hand though, doing that might have tarnished its perfect track record, so keeping it short and sweet was probably for the best. It wasn't the biggest show ever even in the UK, but outside of that I don't know if many have heard of it. Give it a go when you can.

10/10