Watch it here
Blinkered is advertised by it’s creators @comeuppence & @joshuaknight as “The Office” meets “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia”. Now I really dislike The (US) Office, but do like what little I’ve seen of It’s Always Sunny so was apprehensive towards it at first, but I ended up really liking it. Five sections scored out 10 for an overall 100% score here.
Characters/Cast
Blinkered only has a small cast of characters, consisting of Big Al, Brian (frequently called Jimbo on and off set), Dennis (who manages the hapless lot), Kyle Laws (whose character name I can’t recall) and Richard (as seen above)
There is also a great recurring guest character named Billy Lightfoot who is constantly mocked by the rest of the cast and I’d love to see him become a series regular for season two.
Character with the least character development? Got to be Big Al, the cocky self-know-it-all and self proclaimed best buddy to everyone.this season seemed to focus on Jimbo being the audience proxy, as odd as it seems in an Office-y show.
Sets
Nice and easy set up for a show based in an office (though I don’t think it was stated what they did) it relates to people who spend a lot of their time in their own cubicles and get pissed off with co-workers. I can only relate to the latter, but still find the set for it to be very good. It’s what I imagine having your own little self-depressing world stuffed in to a cube would be.
However, there’s also this large mostly unused area which seems like it would be great for an office chair race for a promotion or something. It was used later on in the season, but still not a whole lot.
Comedy
Richard for me was the run away funny man of the series between stalking Big Al and appearing naked at his house and his dog, it’s very comical.
Lots of comedic value in taunting Jimbo too, especially by Dennis (whereas these are the two creators of the show and are good friends in the real world) and situations that you would never imagine in a work place (Big Al cutting off Dennis’ pony tail for example) akin to The Office.
Soundtrack
Unfortunately this is where Blinkered falls flat on it’s face. The intro song is…bland to say the least and there’s not much of a soundtrack within the show, despite Dennis never removing his ear buds. It might be a good idea for season two if we could faintly hear what he was listening to when he was in a scene to provide a base soundtrack.
Plot
Though it is in it mostly for the comedy, Blinkered does feature some well thought out storylines such as Jimbo’s fake family and Richard’s nigh-on homosexual obsession with Big Al, which he simply sees as normal. I’m not sure where the overall show is going, but I think the next step would be to introduce a female character in to the show, and use her to disrupt the work place. Blinkered has been an interesting watch and I hope they keep up the quality.
Characters/Cast: 7.3/10
Sets: 7/10
Comedy: 8.4/10
Soundtrack: 4/10
Plot: 8/10
69.40%
- 0 – 19% Unwatchable - why the hell did I even watch this?
- 20 – 49% Poor – Certain elements of the show hold it back
- 50 – 69% Average – More good than bad, but you might need to be a fan to really get in to it.
- 70 – 84% Good – This is what you’ll be talking about with people in the office the next day.
- 85 – 89% Excellent – This is what you’ll be talking about for the next month.
- 90 – 100% Fucking Excellent – This is the best TV show ever, therefore going by Josh Whedon logic, it will soon be cancelled.
Thanks to Joel for providing all the Blinkered images used within this review. Cheers man.
