Review of Green Wing: Special

Introduction

This is the first I`ve seen of Green Wing, and it looks like this is the last anyone-else will see of it too. Luckily for me there`s a nice little reminder of all the salient points to note from the second series, so things don`t even more confusing than are about to become…

Mac (Julian Rhind-Tutt) has been diagnosed with a terminal illness and disappears for a few months, leaving Caroline (Tamsin Greig) at the station. Obnoxious Guy (Stephen Mangan) walks out of the smoke and in a rush of blood to her head, Caroline decides to marry him. Meanwhile Dr Alan Statham (Mark Heap) and Joanna Clore (Pippa Haywood) are on the run for killing someone in an old smelly camper van.

So, what happens here then? Well, we kick off with a funeral and the return of the Mac (see what I did there?). This is followed by some heart searching by Caroline and some pretty obnoxious possessive behaviour by insecure Guy. There`s a rebellion by the office girls, inspired by the return of some woman who fell out of a window. Alan and Joanna are still on the run, the former driving the latter quite barmy, and clocking up more dead bodies. Meanwhile things are still pretty strange over in Sue White`s office…

Video

One of the oddest things to get used was is the speed-up/slow-down of certain shots. I understand that this is done deliberately to either cover gaps between takes or outtakes, and it`s a little strange at first but it`s used fairly sparingly so it doesn`t just seem like a gimmick.

Audio

Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 soundtrack with decent subtitles.

Features

Deleted scenes - big block of them that lasts for about 15 minutes

Alternative ending - not sure why they didn`t go with this (bar the Slater/Joanna bits…)

Making Of - last for about 16 minutes and doesn`t really do that much.

Commentary - a bit of a revolving door policy on this commentary as most of the main players are involved at some point, although bizarrely it seems as if Michelle Gomez brought some of her relatives in to comment on something they`d never seen before…

Conclusion

Yet another comedy that I`ve missed until fate put it into my hands via a jiffy bag from Reviewer Towers. I have to say that I was a bit letdown when I first watched this, I didn`t get into it at all. That`s not to say I didn`t laugh at some of the stuff, but I didn`t find it that funny and I also couldn`t get past seeing Mangan and Rhind-Tutt`s characters first in credit card commercials.
Then I watched it again and my laughter quotient increased. I suspect if I watch it a third time, I might just get it. A slow burner for me then. Most of the reviews/comments I`ve seen of this talk about it as a sketch show, but this didn`t feel like that so they must have changed the format for this special. There is a lot of quick cutting between the two main storylines of the love triangle and the fugitives, not sure if that is what is meant. Sorry to say though that I just didn`t get the bits involving the office girls at all. On the other hand, watching Sue White (Michelle Gomez) in action was a real joy, although I was slightly slack jawed watching her wearing what I believe might just be a squirrel costume. Surreal…

As said previously, I think I may have been able to buy into this a lot quicker if I`d seen what had come previously. I haven`t, so it was a little difficult to start with. The humour isn`t for everyone, I didn`t find some of it funny, but it is one of those programmes you might have to watch a couple of times before you get into the swing of things.

Good, but not brilliant…