The Trip

I'm always on the lookout for comedy series to entertain me during my short lunch break whilst sat in my little office on my own far from civilisation. So far.. Green Wing, Mitchell and Webb, the excellent Big Train, the surreal Garth Marenghis Darkplace, The Great Outdoors, and others have stood the test of my thirty minute sandwich break.

This time, its 'The Trip' , and I don't expect to get through it, as its already becoming tedious after three episodes. This is clearly nothing more than a marketing gimmick for the restaurants involved.. its certainly not a comedy. Its basically Rob and Steve sat at a table, doing impressions, and that's as far as the plot goes. They're not comedy impressions though, just regular, everyday impressions. The type of impressions that impressionists with no comedy talent (such as Alistair McGowan) think are funny... ie, they're not funny at all.

The best thing about this series is actually the scenery that the UK has to offer. They go to some stunning locations and some nice hotels and restaurants. But, the restaurants clearly have some kind of marketing involvement going on here, as we are treated to full menu breakdowns, shots of the kitchens and chefs, history of said restaurant or hotel, and as yet, not a bad word to be said about any of them by Steve or Rob.

Odd program.. sometimes uncomfortable viewing.. certainly not funny.

Since my major interests are conversation, food and scenery (And it helps that I was brought up in Yorkshire) then this hit every nail on the head.

I got hold of the DVD with all the extras, and after loving watching the series with its perfect execution of the relationship between the two main characters, then the extras provided a great insight into the amount of improvisation that was going on throughout.

It won't appeal to everyone, particularly those who have some sort of grudge against Coogan and the BBC as a whole (although how you can lump the two together is a mystery to me), but I thought that the willingness of Coogan and Brydon to caricature themselves as perceived by the media and seriously take the mick out of each other was not only brave, but quite touching.

The "To bed Gentleman, for we rise at daybreak!" scene was a highlight, as was the "Michael Caine-off" competition, for want of a better description.

But there is also pathos, as the Coogan and Brydon characters are at very different points in their respective relationships, and that's what holds the whole thing together.

Well, basically, it's brilliant.

Cheers, Will

What we've really got is two series. One is the comedy of "Steve Coogan" and "Rob Brydon" exchanging barbs and doing impressions and making witty observations. These parts generally occur over the six meals they share, and I really enjoyed them. Some of their banter is hilarious... I had already seen the Michael Caine routine several times on YouTube and yet I still laughed at it. The other film involves the contrast between these people/characters: Steve, trying to bolster his acting career and struggling with a relationship that's starting to crack, and Rob the less successful but content family man. And I really enjoyed this part as well. Rob's calls home to his wife are amusing but also quite touching. Steve's existential midlife crisis is engaging and insightful as well. The two halves of the film do bleed into each other a bit, but I genuinely appreciated the separation between them. Winterbottom knows that it's okay to just let these two guys play off each other with their natural comedic chemistry and not worry about whether or not it's pushing the "plot" forward. The photography is mostly functional, concentrating on the personalities, but quite lovely when capturing all that gorgeous English countryside. While the film isn't as post-modern as the previous collaborations (24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE and TRISTRAM SHANDY, both of which seem to get minor callbacks in the first episode, though it may be merely coincidence) it still maintains an unconventionality.

One of the things I did enjoy about 2005's Cock & Bull Story was the relationship between Coogan and Brydon in terms of how funny their discussions were but also how informed by their own insecurities and jealousies they were. It wasn't the whole of the film of course but it was a small part of it that worked well and I was definitely interested to see that idea and that relationship explored a bit more in The Trip. Although a shorter film version exists somewhere, in the UK I saw it as the six-part sitcom on BBC2 that gained near universal praise from critics but at the same time seemed to be actively disliked by the majority of the people who casually checked it out on TV one evening. Likewise on the internet forums opinion appears to equally polarised with people thinking it brilliant or dismissing it as self-indulgent tosh. In a way I sort of see where both sides are coming from.

On one hand the potential here is to really make a smart and clever post-modern study of "fame" and success using fictionalised versions of these two men, but then on the flip side much of each episode appears to be them having the same sort of conversations driven by impressions delivered mostly by Brydon while Coogan goes increasingly impatient with him. For me both of these things are equally true but they both end up working against each other and the material doesn't even seem to be strong enough or tight enough to be able to deliver on the idea and realise the potential. Of course it is mostly improvised around an idea and this does seem to help the comedy as their messy conversations produces some good laughs, but it means that the bitterness, the awkwardness, the slight air of failure and resentment doesn't even go deeper than specific scenes on which it is painted. What I was looking for was that these aspects would be "in" the characters and always part of them in more of a way that it was – irritation and impatience during a specific conversation is not quite the same as this and it isn't really countered by making sure we end each episode with Coogan silently considering his navel in one way or another.

I didn't hate it like some did but I certainly didn't love it like others did either. The potential is there and the two actors certainly seem talented enough but it does feel like they could have done with a much tighter leash in terms of being allowed to improvise and needed clever scripted material and direction to make sure the potential in the idea came through. It is an interesting and sporadically very funny failure though – but it is ultimately a failure as the potential never comes through in real meaning or substance and the comedy is a bit too repetitive after a few episodes to be classic.

This show makes me cry whenever i revisit it, i also find it incredibly funny, good show.