Well,I’ve now seen the 1hour long Phoo Action programme on BBC [TV]3 twice. It seems to have polarised media critics [as if their opinions really matter] from those who hate it with a vengeance to those who love it.
Honestly,I felt a little disappointed. It was not the Jim Henson style rejects that soured me -I found those okay- but the fact that the “action” was not what we were led to expect. The action seemed slow and so unconvincing that it did spoil the programme for me. All the talk of martial arts,etc. was,it seems,a deceptive lure.
Okay,at times the dialogue was a little bland -but this is based on a comic strip! It is how the dialogue was delivered that matter and,while the two Princes Harry and Wills were the old awful stereotypical “upper class obnoxious” types bordering on non-entities,there was one great performance that stood out…Carl Weathers! Man,he is some police chief.
Of course,everyone is going on about how “hot” Jamie Winstone looked -I think due to the fact that the look and the amount of time the camera was focussed on her.
The trouble is that the whole thing looked like it was done on the lowest budget possible. If you are going to try to adapt a comic strip then,rather than the videoing in normal light,you need to darken the backgrounds more. The darker backgrounds will work better when the colourful characters appear -it really is a case of contrast and brightness. As it was the whole thing looked like a rehearsal tape..
..would the BBC be so cheap as to broadcast a rehearsal tape..forget I asked.
I would like to see more. However,the production needs to be made slicker and if we get promised action it should be action not..well,what we got here. Shorter [30 minutes] episodes might help.
It’s okay setting yourself up as a “trendy” channel but delivering damp squibs won’t work. Let’s see the action and far more of Carl Weathers!
But interest is clear -my earlier item before Phoo Action was broadcast had hit rates soaring.
Now let’s see what happens at BBC 3.
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