Ketrivie
It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.
Just-Being-Me
This is one of my top comedy shows. I love it, it never fails to make me laugh, Steve is so good at playing this role. From the first time i watched this it got me hooked... i just wish there was more eps, you can never watch enough Alan, it never gets boring.I think Alan Partridge is by far Steve's best work, I do know a few people who don't like this as they say he is stupid but i don't get that because he is meant to be, he is meant to be a person that is insulting, that makes inappropriate remarks, he is rude and people on the show don't like him because of how he is (meaning the characters the actors play are meant to not like Alan in the show).I personally love this and would love to see more Alan Partridge shows.10 out of 10 from me.
KingofCarrotFlowers
It's impossible to like the foul beast known as Alan Partridge, yet he's one of the funniest dudes around. The comedy he provides is as painful to watch as Larry David's "Curb Your Enthusiasm", the difference being that Alan NEVER means well, hasn't got a good heart nor tries to help anybody. He doesn't spend a second considering the well-being of anybody and is totally oblivious of what goes around him. He fails in pretty much everything he puts his hands on and deceives all those who approach him, all this while seeing himself as the crown prince of mankind. Yes, he's hopelessly clueless and remorselessly mean but also gives the vibe of not even being aware of what he's doing, so that bit of childish innocent stupidity is what eventually turns him into the quintessential involuntary buffoon.
shark-43
I was fortunate to get a copy of the first season on DVD and just watched it with friends here in the States. And yes, I pretty much agree with everyone else who makes comparisons to Blackadder and Basil Fawlty and Gervais' boss character in The Office. Partridge is simply one of the funniest and pathetic characters ever to appear on TV. American TV would never have a character like this - they always make the sitcom people likable and "we have to want to root for them" and all that other bland stuff. A classic U.S. sitcom in the 80's - Buffalo Bill with Dabney Coleman was so outside the box from what had appeared on broadcast TV that they didn't know what to do with so they axed it. (His character too was a local Morning Show host in Buffalo, NY with an ego the size of Earth and total scum to everyone around him) and of course Larry David tries to pull it off on Curb Your Enthusiasm - and yes, even though the show is funny - David is very limited as an "actor" and Coogan is not. In fact, it is his performance and the fact that he adds dimension to this guy that truly makes it special and heartbreaking and hysterical. I loved it and I thought the rest of the cast was wonderful too.
JamBap
... and that seems to be the only reason. As I return to watching an episode from the original 'I'm Alan Partridge' series after having watched the second a number of times now, I am struck by the disparity. It seems the original series was somewhat experimental and very much with the objective of exploring many more facets of the fascinating character that is Alan Partridge, and it's study is a tremendous success.This second series seems far more 'commercial', based less upon astute observations of the character and his life and more by exaggerated caricatures and a host of outrageous and unrealistic situations created purely for comedic purposes. It seems to me, series 1 has humour more as a by-product of the journey we go on into Alan's private world, while series 2 has humour as it's sole objective. Vomiting while hosting a fire-place sales conference after piercing his foot on a spike, or re-enacting the opening sequence to The Spy Who Loved Me, are two typical examples. This series seems to have been created in response to the 'call of the punters' wanting to see more 'Alan' to make them laugh, and was the bone that was thrown them, but in doing so, compromising many of the sacred keystones that had been previously laid. While it certainly succeeds in providing a number of genuinely funny situations and lines (after all the 'Coogan crew' are very clever comedy writers), it no longer attempts to remain loyal to the accuracy of the archetype but instead indulges in humour that was once much more subtle and measured. Furthermore, it lazily shortcuts it's way through by self-abusively reusing many of the highly successful original ideas from series 1 and manipulating them to fit the new context, using the petrol station as centre stage while originally being merely incidental, springs to mind. Alan's mimicking of accents too, is just incessant here while far more restrained and calculated in the first series. Another typical example would be the joke where, in series 1, he mistakenly refers to the pop artist, Sinead O'Connor, as "the bald chap", serving to expose his ignorance and disregard for all things Irish in front of his Irish guests, whereas in series 2 this joke rehashed in his comment of "a beautiful blonde man, with a lovely voice" being Annie Lennox is... well I'm yet to understand the point of that joke. While this second series is certainly worth watching for many worthy laughs ("the worth of boast worlds", "cup o' beans", "I've got your kids Dan!", "I wonder who got the power pack", "Bono?!! No he's not here" and so on), those who love Steve Coogan's work for his incredible gift at capturing so poignantly yet hilariously the human condition will be disappointed. It seems a half-hearted effort more motivated by the need to meet public demand and an opportunity to indulge Steve Coogan's acting prowess than with anything further to say. The genius of the earlier Alan Partridge was that he was a man who we primarily find offensive and utterly repulsive, yet with a humanness and vulnerability that we could all identify with in some way and not help but feel incredible sympathy for. There are certainly moments in this series of its former glory and its ability to portray the agonizing realities of this man's life. Playing in a video game arcade alone on a Saturday night is effective and the scene of his trip to see his book being pulped, accompanied with The Windmills of My Mind, must be the series' finest moment; describing it looking like 'word porridge', plaintively crying out when he spots a copy, and then (as the closing scene of the series) in the distance breaking into a trot as he leaves, brings tears to the eyes.Years earlier in one of the original 'Knowing Me, Knowing You' radio shows on Radio 4, Alan Partridge had on, as a guest, a comedian who was trying to make the point that he wanted to make "observational comedy" dealing with "generic human truths", he said "I want to be funny but, with dignity" to which Alan whispers "Do your Frank Spencer". Coogan was here drawing attention to the form of comedy that he obviously was intending to emulate in the creation of Alan Partridge, and incidentally, very cleverly in the same script using him to portray the typical audience that won't grasp that and just wants cheap laughs. Well now sadly, it's Steve Coogan himself who is committing the crime that he once mocked by resorting to the painfully unsubtle techniques of silly accents, caricatures, and repeated jokes to provide cheap laughs at the expense of the comedy 'with dignity' that once hallmarked the humour of Alan Partridge. Ironically, being swayed to cash-in on public demand by producing makeshift follow-ups is in itself is a generic human truth, but I can forgive the makers of works like 'Police Academy', as they had far less to compromise. The hallowed ground that was the world of Alan Partridge should have been treated with more respect, but maybe that's just yet another example of the Alan Partridge in us all.In summary Episode 1: * ½ Episode 2: ** Episode 3: **** Episode 4: *** Episode 5: ** ½ Episode 6: ***
