Spitting Image

A poor reboot of the highly original series, mediocre writing and substantially less recognizable impressions limit appeal. Watch one episode you'll see what I mean.

This belated and tired revival of Spitting Image is exactly what it shouldn't be, completely safe and quite boring - despite a wealth of ex-Futurama (!) voice/writing talent and some clever puppetry the whole series comes across as flaccid, dated, cheap and nowhere near the sharp satire we desperately crave. There are rare glimmers of potential in there - the Cummings-as-alien-overlord shtick was routinely very good and most of the UK cabinet bashing was semi-cathartic but generally it was more spinelessly preoccupied with celebrity egos and desperate slapstick than anything really meaningful or... well, funny. It wasn't funny. Fundamentally it should have at least had that. Existentially there were issues as well, in that it was relegated to a subscription service rather than on "normal" television - so barely anybody even saw it. Satire really should be available to everyone but when it's this tired and crass perhaps obscurity is a kindness.

With another series commissioned they need to do a serious re-think. Get some more talented impressionists (no offence to the bafflingly sidelined veteran US voice talent of Billy West, John DiMaggio and Phil LaMarr but full offence intended for the over-used Forde who can only really do Boris well), go after some hard targets, stop chasing the easy gags and REALLY don't feel like you need to do a song an episode. It's not really a modern satirical show but a lazy nostalgia project for people who half-remember what mainstream satire used to look like.

Thought I'd give this a try with a free britbox subscription. Not seen the original series.

The show doesn't hold back, seems rather uncensored and raw at times but this is refreshing in my opinion. It cuts through the dire politics either side of the Atlantic.

The content is topical and there's some clever ideas though also some sketches that aren't effective. Lewis Hamilton is done well but Keir Starmer less so.

The voice acting isn't the best but with caricatures this isn't the focus.

It's not so much laugh out funny as some of the content is just cringe. It will offend but that's par for the course.

Judging from the first episode would giving it 7/10.

It would be unfair to compare this new Spitting Image to the previous version. That being said, this is, without doubt, the most unfunnyest program on offer.

The voice work isn't up to par, and the context seems out dated. I bet the impression that the creators, are wholly relying on the outrageous characters (puppets) for laughs. Although good, isn't enough to keep an audience entertained for longer than a few minutes.

Oh dear. I was so looking forward to its return. But it's just not that funny.

Sure the odd scene raises a bit of a smile, but that's few and far between.

The puppet work is spot on and amazing. All praise there.

But the voices aren't very good. Trump for example... there are SO MANY people that can do Trump well. And this is just substandard. Boris Johnson too.

Add to that it's not funny, it's not daring... it's sadly one to miss.

The fact that they wanted to sell subscriptions of this makes it particularly risible.