This episode revolves around a scam that would
be much harder to pull off since the advent of the Internet, now that it isn't
really possible for people to disappear without a trace for ten years, and
return claiming to be a huge success in America.
I've realised that watching Citizen Smith brings out the same responses in me that reading the early plays of Ibsen and Chekhov always does - a distracting awareness of preoccupations, characterization and situations that then go on to be better realized in the more mature works. Citizen Smith has a variant version of the Only Fools and Horses inner London milieu, delusional hero, circle of gormless friends and schemes that don't come off, but it isn't as funny or empathetic yet.
Wolfie Smith is an odd lead for a sitcom. Seen 40 years on, failed radical chic is a rather niche characterization and the combination of vanity and thickness is hard to be much drawn to. I always respond better to Shirley, the tolerant girlfriend of an idiot personality being a type of person that one often meets in real life, although this is perhaps due as much to Cheryl Hall's performance as anything else.
I've realised that watching Citizen Smith brings out the same responses in me that reading the early plays of Ibsen and Chekhov always does - a distracting awareness of preoccupations, characterization and situations that then go on to be better realized in the more mature works. Citizen Smith has a variant version of the Only Fools and Horses inner London milieu, delusional hero, circle of gormless friends and schemes that don't come off, but it isn't as funny or empathetic yet.
Wolfie Smith is an odd lead for a sitcom. Seen 40 years on, failed radical chic is a rather niche characterization and the combination of vanity and thickness is hard to be much drawn to. I always respond better to Shirley, the tolerant girlfriend of an idiot personality being a type of person that one often meets in real life, although this is perhaps due as much to Cheryl Hall's performance as anything else.
No comments:
Post a Comment