Rent Detectorists: Series 1 (2014)

Raiders Of The Lost Pocket Change - Detectorists: Series 1 review by Count Otto Black

This show, despite being fairly obscure, seems to get nothing but rave reviews. Not knowing what to expect, I personally found it disappointing. It's clearly an attempt by Mackenzie Crook, who also wrote and directed, to play to his frankly limited strengths as an actor while trying to escape from being typecast as creepy weirdos like Gareth from "The Office", therefore his character Andy is essentially Gareth's non-evil twin, an equally nerdy and obsessive guy who happens to be a nice, totally harmless man whose life revolves around amateur archaeology rather than trying to be Rambo.

On the plus side, Andy and his best friend Lance, played by the excellent Toby Jones, have extremely convincing on-screen chemistry, and the scenes of them wandering across the English countryside talking rubbish while seeking that ever-elusive Saxon horde of gold, but alas, only finding worthless junk, are 4-star material in a 2-star program. They're seldom laugh-out-loud funny, but in a gentle, rambling sort of way, they're consistently amusing. As stand-alone sketches, they'd work just fine.

Unfortunately, here they're set in a framework which doesn't quite gel. The subplots involving these mens' love-lives tend more toward angst-ridden melodrama than comedy, and are sometimes downright mawkish and/or depressing. Given the already understated comedy of the officially funny scenes, that lowers the average when it comes to laughs. I suppose that's why random zaniness sometimes pops up in an otherwise realistic setting. Totally unrealistic portrayals of severe mental illness are always good for a laugh; so good that there two unrelated wacky loonies to double our fun! And what about those two guys who look and dress exactly like Simon and Garfunkel c. 1970, apparently without intending to? Mackenzie Crook must think that's the funniest joke ever, judging by the number of times he reminds us of it.

Other problems include a story which, instead of being episodic as you'd expect, has all the subplots proceeding over a stately 3 hours. Given the inconsequentiality of the material, at times the pace becomes absolutely glacial. In the scenes where our heroes wander around metal-detecting, this doesn't matter, because the whole point is that nothing much ever happens. But it tests one's patience when the burning question of whether Andy and Lance will be able to perform a song on open mic night at their local pub without making complete fools of themselves is dragged out over 3 episodes. "Father Ted" dealt with a very similar theme in half an hour, and managed to be a hundred times funnier.

What's more, despite the detailed characterization of the two heroes, the other characters are mostly one-dimensional clichés at best, and often badly underused, as if Mackenzie Crook populated his world with colorful stereotypes and then didn't have the slightest idea what to do with them. One poor actress literally gets through the entire series without saying or doing anything! And I'm talking about a character featured on the cover of the DVD, so presumably she's supposed to be significant.

This series will undoubtedly appeal to fans of "The Last Of The Summer Wine" who'd enjoy something similar with a younger cast, more soap-opera elements, and a much stronger emphasis on amateur archaeology. And since a second series has been commissioned, there must be plenty of you out there. But if you think that sounds a bit slow, give it a miss.

Dire - Detectorists: Series 1 review by MH

That's all I have to say about it. I recommend you waste neither time nor money on it. I gave it time and was not rewarded.

Why can't I give it no stars?