Red Dwarf 10 Announced
- Thread starter Bob The Skutter
- Start date
yes, because i want a continuation of Red Dwarf as it was, not some stupid shitty fourth wall-breaking crap that trades on the show's past glories for cheap laughs.
RD should have some continuity (and indeed they did on occassion), but I jsut dont' think it would work regularly. That is to say, I don't want some bullshit Simpsons continuity, but at least an effort.
I guess I don't care as much about whether the Season 8 cliffhanger is followed up (it doesn't really matter, since at the end, the characters are in exactly the same situation they were in Season 6), I just thought it was really stupid that the new season is supposedly the 10th just because Back to Earth suggested that there was a 9th - which we will never see. This show has never done anything quite THAT lameass.
And for the record, I fucking HATE laugh tracks. I hope that whenever RD had laughs, it was a real studio audience. Even then, though, a show that is authentically funny doesn't need ANY laugh sounds. As Corner Gas proved.
(The only time a show needs a studio audience is when it's part of the plot, like The Red Green Show or the 'Tool Time' bits of Home Improvement.)
And for the record, I fucking HATE laugh tracks. I hope that whenever RD had laughs, it was a real studio audience. Even then, though, a show that is authentically funny doesn't need ANY laugh sounds. As Corner Gas proved.
(The only time a show needs a studio audience is when it's part of the plot, like The Red Green Show or the 'Tool Time' bits of Home Improvement.)
Breaking the fourth wall was only done in the "Back to Earth" special and they covered themselves by saying it wasn't real. You want a continuation of Red Dwarf as it was? From series 8 which many people thought was rather weak.
Of course it was a studio audience, like most British comedy. I think in many cases it adds to the atmosphere, because the actors can play off the audience reaction. Red Dwarf was definitely one of those series.
Back to Earth was no less funny than most of Red Dwarf, but it felt all wrong. Glad to here the new series will restore the audience.
Really? Well, that's something, I suppose. I am definitely, unreservedly, absolutely opposed to the existence of fake, canned laugh tracks. If British comedy doesn't use them, that's great.
Even though a studio audience means the laughter is real, I disagree about it being necessary. IMHO, added laughs - whatever the source - are only put there because the material isn't funny enough on its own, and the audience must supposedly be told when to laugh. Except when it's part of the plot, as I said. (Red Green is a show ABOUT a show, so it must have an audience.)
But if shows like Corner Gas can be funny without having any added laughs, then I think RD can too - even though CG is Canadian and not British, humor *is* humor, after all. At least CG treats the audience with enough respect that it doesn't try to tell them when to laugh.
^Series 1-6 had a studio audience, 7 had a laugh track recorded from an audience watching the show after it was filmed, 8 has a studio audience again, then Back to Earth didn't have an audience or a laugh track.
I don't think comedies in general need a laugh track, and at times laugh tracks can be distracting and/or annoying. But Red Dwarf had an audience from the start and it feels wrong without it, also some of the timing in series 7 is off, since they sometimes left gaps for laughs that never came or didn't leave enough gap for a longer laugh.
I don't think comedies in general need a laugh track, and at times laugh tracks can be distracting and/or annoying. But Red Dwarf had an audience from the start and it feels wrong without it, also some of the timing in series 7 is off, since they sometimes left gaps for laughs that never came or didn't leave enough gap for a longer laugh.
Yup - and the actors have said on commentary tracks that they liked both approaches for different reasons - the original "studio audience" approach inspired them to hone their performances and was good for confidence, whereas S7's single-camera approach allowed for better scene setup on the technical side - but, as you say, at the expense of good timing for gags. Apparently it was a bugger to mix the audio so that the dialogue and laugh track didn't trip over each other...
I generally prefer Red Dwarf with a laugh track (the "boxer shorts" scene in S3's Polymorph is a standout moment for this, IMO), but when I watch the S7 episodes that have a non-laugh track option, I think it works. But then again I like S7 more than some do anyway...
I like 7, 8 and BTE more than some too, but I do think if BTE was the start of a new show I wouldn't continue to watch it. 7 works better without the laughs I think, BTE in general feels wrong though. It's up its own arse and that is annoying.Yup - and the actors have said on commentary tracks that they liked both approaches for different reasons - the original "studio audience" approach inspired them to hone their performances and was good for confidence, whereas S7's single-camera approach allowed for better scene setup on the technical side - but, as you say, at the expense of good timing for gags. Apparently it was a bugger to mix the audio so that the dialogue and laugh track didn't trip over each other...
I generally prefer Red Dwarf with a laugh track (the "boxer shorts" scene in S3's Polymorph is a standout moment for this, IMO), but when I watch the S7 episodes that have a non-laugh track option, I think it works. But then again I like S7 more than some do anyway...
Yup. Over the three days of broadcast I went from thinking
"WTF? Metafictional and unfunny? Shit...." to "OK, it wasn't metafictional after all - but it was a derivative (despair squid) cop-out. And still not funny".
Doug needs Rob. Truth.
john titor
Captain
Any red dwarf is good news, the studio audience might actually force Naylor to hone up on writing good comedy. That said Rob Grant.
I agree, Doug needs Rob, or at least to bring some new blood in and just be a show runner rather than main writer.
BTE had funny parts, but on the whole it was unfunny, and it wasn't down to the performance it was the writing.
The part that sticks out in my mind as funny was the overlong "zoom in, pan, flip" thing with the photograph.
Red Dwarf "as it was" was not the Red Dwarf a lot of us prefer anyway, which wasn't the Red Dwarf it started out being either.
The Back To Earth plot was a perfectly acceptable plot line for a Red Dwarf episode, and had it been used as an earlier episode nobody would have batted an eyelid. The problem is not that they broke some imaginary law of what you should or shouldn't do in a Red Dwarf episode, or ceased respecting a continuity that they never respected in the first place, the problem was that it wasn't funny.
All I ask is that it be funny.
Exactly. I wasn't keen on BTE's plot, but that wouldn't have mattered to me if it had been funny. When Red Dwarf is at it's best it's fecking hilarious. Want moar of that.
Agreed. I would happily accept BTE if it were funny. As it stands it isn't funny enough to be good,or work well enough in its own right for you to overlook the lack of funny.
*throws bone*
Dave is the name of a TV channel, the TV Channel that aired the recent Red Dwarf mini series "Back to Earth"
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