This Is Jinsy

If you never grew up on a small island, watch this. If you did, watch this. Amazingly inventive and funny, full of cameos from the likes of David Tennant and Harry Hill.

Perfectly pitched and balanced, with an excellent cast, the residents of the island of Jinsy are definitely act like inmates of an asylum, overseen on the behalf of "The Great He" by Arbiter Mavern and his ever faithful team of dripping, myopic and cleverer assistants. Whilst this may appear simple, it is anything other than that.

If it is an asylum, the inmates have definitely taken over and they have a lot to sing about. So, daily greet and sing sing sing.

...There is every chance you'll enjoy this. This is its own thing. But it's never going to escape style comparisons with Monty Python. And darn it, if you love weird, surreal, off-the-wall and unconsciously jarring British humour, Jinsy is going to sink under your skin. Even when you can't find it amusing, or find it repetitive, the visuals alone will haunt your back brain.

Jinsy also has flavours of Brazil, The City of Lost Children, The Delicatessen, and Twelve Monkeys. It includes the sort of self-consciously ironic music-comedy skits that peppered The Big Gig and The Sideshow variety shows from Australia.

I predict that in 10 or 20 years Americans will discover another reason why cults become classic.

This show sits within that specific genre where people either love it or hate it. I'm not a fan of all absurdest comedy, but once I started watching this I just couldn't stop! It has a hypnotic quality that I just can't describe and it sucks you in. It's just so fabulously fresh and out there, but in a way where it has such momentum going from one crazy and entertaining thing to the next, that there is no time to ponder on one thing too long and get bored with the format at all.

Adding further to this; the show has (for me at least) that rare quality where despite the "nuttiness", it still has enough coherence to make sense without totally losing me. I also love the inspirational story behind the incredibly talented duo who star in and write the show, so I'm crossing all my fingers that we get the third season they so deserve.

If you enjoy something completely on the flip side, with a lot of (very well done and thought out) absurdity thrown in, then do yourself a favour and watch this gem. Hopefully the more positive reviews they receive, the more likely it will be that we'll get another season. Although I understand that this show isn't for everybody, I'm pretty confident that for fans of such niche genres, this show will become an instant cult classic!

WARNING: Be prepared to have the songs and ditties from this show stick in your head for days on end...aaarrgggh!!!!

Nightly Bye all ;-)

Must say I didn't quite know what to make of Jinsy the first time I watched the pilot episode. But after watching a few more, you really do get into the whole surreal world they've created. The songs are silly, catchy and years later I still find myself humming along to a number of them, something I haven't done to any comedic songs since the Python days. This won't appeal to all, especially the more conservative mainstream sitcom type watchers, but to anyone who likes some quirky and a bit crazy comedy sketches and songs and episodes filled with guest stars such as Rob Brydon (love his badger song!), David Tennant, Greg Davies, Stephen Fry etc etc, its a blast!

Funniest thing on British TV in many years and the most re-watchable program I've probably ever seen.

The reason most people who watch Jinsy will think it's genius is because nobody watches it under any illusions of its content - you know it's ludicrous, surreal and childish before seeing it and if you know that's your kind of humour then this will always tickle you terrifically in the tenderness of your titter pouch.

It is Monty Python/Goodies. People say The Goodies is a children's version of Monty Python's surrealist humour - Jinsy is the Island lovechild of their humour. It's like a place in the world where this humour sadly got put in a cardboard box over 30 odd years and has lost what little there was left of its mind and has recently been found and unboxed to confuddle and delight us all once again.

It is adult, although it never swears (unless you are native to Jinsy in which case it's terribly crass and appalling language), and it is just two very childish writers/actors/friends having a lot of silly fun with nonsense ideas that a seven year old could spin off high on sugar.

I envy them massively.

With a guest list involving so many brilliant people as well, it's just got the parrapawow-pop on top of the pong-shwing of swell. It's no low budget attempt at low logic laughs.