Matthew eats… Hypothetical

I’m going to be honest – I really wasn’t that bothered if Hypothetical got a second season or not. I mean, it was a pleasurable enough distraction for an hour, but it didn’t have anything about it that made it zing enough for me to be clamouring for more.

And yet here we are, a new season on air and a third already commissioned. Part of me wonders if this is Dave panicking after losing Taskmaster to Channel 4 (and well they should – TM is the closest thing it has to gold dust that isn’t a repeat). So they are now putting all their eggs in the Hypothetical basket. But is it wise?

Well, based on the opening episode of the new season, the answer is no. There have been tinkerings with the show that have actually made it weaker. The silly screen captions telling us what the rounds are. The wall of celebrities at the end. And what actually felt overall like a really limp panel. Which is strange, because at least a couple have been on other shows where I have enjoyed them.

Meanwhile, there still seems to be no decent explanation as to why this is co-hosted by Josh Widdicombe and James Acaster rather than just being a solo project for the latter, seeing as the strongest comedy energy comes off him. There is certainly no obvious comedy energy between the two of them. Acaster is able to ab-lib and read the autocue better than his co-host. It makes you wonder if Widdicombe has something on his television partner in order to keep riding his coattails.

I feel the need to make a caveat here. I am basing this off one episode, and the trailer suggests there are better panel selections coming up. And the small format tweaks could fall into the background given time. But there is still that big unanswerable problem I have identified above.

So here’s an hypothetical situation for the team behind the show: you must convince viewers that Widdicombe can stay on the show. You cannot sack Acaster or knock any edges off him, but what you can do to Widdicombe is unlimited. You have the remainder of the season to succeed.

Matthew eats… Hypothetical

Panel shows are surprisingly difficult to get right. The best of them are like dropping in on a conversation between friends, full of sparkling repartee and witticisms. Sometimes you can even find out something new along the way.

When they are done badly though, it is painfully obvious. The sparks that seem so easy to manufacture elsewhere never materialise, the jokes fall flat and everyone appears wooden. All of which results in a very painful half an hour to an hours viewing.

Hypothetical very nearly veers into the second category. The concept is that guests are set hypothetical challenges and must come up with the best way to complete it. For example, how would you make an S Club 7 musical a runaway success on Broadway? Would you rather wear a big hat or a little hat for the rest of your life? As with a lot of panel shows, there is not a lot at stake.

It is hosted by Josh Widdicombe and James Acaster, the latter also acting as points giver. Widdicombe in particular doesn’t quite fit as a host, not least because he falls into that common trap for comedians, not being able to read an autocue. Considering it is the job of a stand up to be able to ad lib, I don’t know why they are forced to read from one anyway.

Acaster is better, but flourishes when he is allowed to go off script and just converse with the guests. In fact, it is a bit too obvious that the show doesn’t need two hosts and that Acaster could carry this by himself if needed.

The quality of the guests matters. To be fair, both episodes so far have at least had a few good ones on. But the whole show only zings when the guests almost forget what they should be aiming to accomplish and just start riffing off each other. Which is fine, except it makes the whole point of having a concept pointless. Whilst all panel shows rely on a particular tangent catching fire, most still seem to be able to stick to the central point without detracting from the fun.

Overall, you get the feeling that the show isn’t quite there as a finished product. It’s a bit like when someone gives you a deconstructed dessert – you can see all the bits are there, but it would me much better if it came as a whole thing. But it does show promise. Some smart fine tuning to the basics would see it really fly. Let’s hope they get the chance to do so.

Matthew eats… The Last Leg

Confession time – there has been little new for me to watch this week. No new series have taken my fancy and my week has fell into a humdrum pattern of viewing. The good news is that this week coming there are a couple of new things on the horizon. For now though, you will have to suffer me talking about something I’ve discussed before.

The Last Leg has built a loyal following over the last five years. It has moved beyond its original remit of just being a Paralympics companion show to becoming an incisive current affairs programme, gleefully mixing pop culture references with satire to cut through the news of the week.

By and large, it does an excellent job. Neither forced to be neutral like the BBC or owned by someone with an agenda like our newspapers, it can break down stories to make them understandable whilst offering social commentary. It is positive and uplifting and is capable of discussing both sides of the argument whilst still able to draw a line when one side is talking nonsense. They even have a special ‘bullshit’ button to know when that line is being crossed.

Of course, time restraints mean that they can never go into too much detail, but shows like this are only ever intended to be a jumping off point, especially ones like this that aim to give some light relief. Of course, it is seen by many as a home to ‘libtards’, although this seems harsh when you consider they have been as quick to criticise the shortcomings of Clinton and Corbyn as they have to May and Trump, it’s just the latter two have now got power and need to be more accountable for what they say and do.

My biggest critique is that actually, for all its talk of equality and diversity, it sometimes fails its own standards. The last three female guests on the show, Victoria Coren Mitchell, Sandi Toksvig and Sharon Horgan, have all been paired with male guests, with only Horgan’s understandable, as it was her writing partner Rob Delaney. Both Coren Mitchell and Toksvig could hold their own. There didn’t seem to be a need to book a female guess to counter balance Kevin Bridges, and, as Harry Hill pointed out when he appeared, it was ironic that the show broadcast on International Women’s Day had five men and no women.

Similar arguments could be made regarding race and LGBT figures (Stormzy the sole BME guest and Toksvig ticking the LGBT box for the series). Nobody wants this reduced to a box-ticking exercise but something as simple as allowing female guests to fly solo would be a start.

Am I being pedantic? Maybe. But it would be a shame for a show that covers equality and diversity so well in other areas to fall on something as basic as this. Otherwise it might be their hiring policy that is termed ‘bullshit’.

Matthew eats… Taskmaster

Panel shows seem to sprout up like weeds at times. There must be whole meetings, perhaps weeks of them, dedicated to just thinking up a new format. Then there are hosts and team captains to allocate, and a USP to find. So many fail, because quite frankly when you see them executed to near-perfection (Have I Got New For You, QI, Would I Lie to You) anything that falls short of that just looks like a mess with a bunch of ego’s fighting for airtime. Besides, all the best formats have been done. Haven’t they?

It turns out not, and there is still space for genuinely new takes. Taskmaster, currently being shown on Dave, is a panel show with the constraints loosened. The format is deceptively simple. Host Greg Davis, sets five comedians bizarre tasks to complete and awards points based on their success. These tasks range from high-fiving a 55-year-old, to emptying a bath tub of water in the quickest time possible. Obviously the humour is derived from the varying levels of incompetence the comedians perform these tasks with, as well as the subsequent banter.

It is hard to get across how funny this actually is, especially as the humour builds with each episode. You see, each week it is the same comedians, so patterns emerge, and the banter gains power by the fact they learn and use each other’s weak spots. For instance, there is a running theme of Romesh Ranganathan constantly running a constant low-level rage that explodes on certain tasks. Tim Key meanwhile, is constantly portrayed as sneaky, Roisin Conaty as ditzy and Frank Skinner as a calm, elder statesman, governed by logic (even if this logic rarely works).

I have genuinely cried laughing at times at this show, for reasons it is impossible to explain. It is daft, stupid, and ultimately pointless. Yet it is also a stroke of genius, and just the right side of twisted to stop it slipping into uncomfortable territory. At the end of the day it puts a smile on my face, and sometimes that’s all I want.

Matthew eats… The Last Leg

For saying we live in the 21^st century, there are times when you feel TV is struggling to play catch-up. Take for example the excitement over Claudia Winkleman being made permanent co-host of Strictly Come Dancing. Finally, two women were allowed to co-anchor a primetime Saturday night family entertainment show. How it took us to 2014 to achieve that landmark should be the real story. It’s not like the concept of Saturday night as a captive audience or that women being good at presenters is a new thing. As good as something like this happening is, you can’t help but wonder why this wasn’t being done a decade or two ago.

Likewise, considering that being disabled hasn’t been invented in the last few years, it seems surprising that it took until 2012 for a light entertainment format to be fronted by, and to frequently discuss, people with disabilities. Yet in The Last Leg, we finally do. For the uninitiated, The Last Leg is a satirical look at the week’s events, with an added chat element thrown in, fronted by Adam Hills (a successful stand-up comic who has a prosthetic leg) and co-hosted by Alex Brooker (another comedian and also disabled) and Josh Widdicombe (not disabled, although he is from Devon, so has his own issues to deal with).

For a show that is at its heart quite light-hearted, it doesn’t shy away from big issues. The most recent episode debated tax avoidance, whilst on the flip side it also looked at Fifty Shades of Grey and Australia entering Eurovision. It is informed, edgy and sharp, but isn’t worthy. It’s like Mock the Week without the cruelty. The central theme of the show, whether they are discussing Russia, ISIS or trigger-happy Americans, is ‘don’t be a dick’.

One of the most interesting recurring themes of the show though is disability. I like the honesty of it. When discussing whether or not they would take a pill to cure their disabilities, Hills gave a resounding yes, pointing out that he had learnt all he could about life from being disabled. In a previous series, he had said that the biggest issue with being disabled was that it was, quite frankly, a pain the arse. I find this honesty far more inspirational than the ‘human interest’ stories you read in the tabloids, where someone discusses their triumph over tragedy.

It is a sign of progress that a show like this is being made for a mass-audience, not a niche one that some may presume. However, it would be even better to see more of this kind of programming, not just involving disability, but covering all sections of society. Too often diversity is tucked away into niche programming, or at the other extreme so heavily promoted you choke on the worthiness. The Last Leg shows how you can avoid this.