Moving Wallpaper or watching paint dry? (Moving Wallpaper)

Member Name: jo1976

Product:	Moving Wallpaper
Date:	30/04/09 (180 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some similarities to The Office

Disadvantages: Not as funny as The Office

The second series of Moving Wallpaper was shown on ITV1 on Friday evenings in April 2009. The first series hit our screens last year when it was part of a novel pairing with a soap opera called 'Echo Beach.' The original concept was that of two seperate programmes shown back to back. Moving Wallpaper was shown first which was a spoof 'behind the scenes' look at a TV production company making a soap called Echo Beach. That was then followed by an actual episode of Echo Beach. (That probably sounds far more complicated than it actually was for anybody that didn't see it last year! The first series is available on DVD if you really want to see what you've missed.)

The concept at the time really caught my attention as it seemed a simple but quite a novel idea of linking two separate series together in this way. Cleverly, Moving Wallpaper showed different clips and scenes and references which could then be seen as part of the showing of Echo Beach afterwards. The unfortunate problem though was that Echo Beach, as a series in itself, was really dire. Even as a tongue in cheek soap opera trying to poke fun at traditional cheesy, over the top, drama programmes, it didn't quite work. Even having Martine McCutcheon and Jason Donavon in the lead roles didn't manage to save Echo Beach and, in the end, I stopped watching it (even for the fun of spotting the references from Moving Wallpaper) and just concentrated on watching Moving Wallpaper.

It wasn't any great surprise to me that Moving Wallpaper returned to ITV1 this year for a second series and Echo Beach, erm, didn't. The new series featured the same cast (mostly 'unknown' actors, certainly as far as I'm concerned, with the notable exception of Ben Miller in the lead role and a few significant extras.) The series started with the cast being informed that Echo Breach has been dropped by the network (how art mirrors life!) and the team then has to come up with a new concept for another drama serial. To cut a long story short, they produce a new drama around zombies, 'Renaissance', and have a whole series of misunderstandings, mishaps and crises as they try to produce the new series within the deadline. For anybody that missed the show it is a lot funnier than it probably sounds. To be honest, if I hadn't watched it last year I probably wouldn't have switched on this time around as it sounds a bit too contrived to be funny. As a standalone comedy series it does work surprisingly well and has some great comedic moments, although it's very exaggerated slapstick humour that probably wouldn't appeal to everybody. (Moments like Pope grabbing women's breasts and twiddling with the leading man's 'knobs' whilst he was dressed up in a costume.)

The main character is the producer, Jonathon Pope, played by Ben Miller. If I were going to liken his character to anybody it would be David Brent (Ricky Gervais) in the Office. Just like Brent, Jonathon Pope is a manager with a massive ego and is totally insensitive and oblivious to other people and the consequences of his words and actions. The series also share a similar theme with a team of people being forced to sit by and watch their boss embarrass both himself and them on numerous occasions. Despite the similarities between the two programmes, Moving Wallpaper is sadly nowhere near as funny as the Office.

The 'behind the scenes' aspect is boosted by several mini storylines. Kelly Brook and Alan Dale (Jim Robinson in Neighbours many a year ago) feature as the 'stars' of the zombie programme being produced. There are some gems provided by Kelly Brook who parodies a 'star', constantly questioning her character's motivation and disagreeing with the writers' storylines for her character. There is also a love hate (mainly hate hate) relationship between the producer and his immediate senior who constantly tries to ensure that Jonathon Pope gets his come-uppance and is shown for the egotistical useless idiot that he really is. There is also a 'will they won't they' possible office romance to supposedly keep our attention.

Now that series two has come to an end I'd be surprised if Moving Wallpaper has a third run. I think there was perhaps enough comedy value within the concept and original storyline to justify a second series, but it was essentially based on the 'show within a show' idea and that fell away after Echo Beach finished. The zombie sideline didn't really keep me interested and the obligitary romantic 'will they won't they' storyline between two of the lesser characters didn't really do much for me. In all, I'd have to say that the programme was funny whilst I was watching it but there weren't any moments from it that are memorable enough even now for me to recall them specifically - which actually says a lot.

Summary: Better than watching paint dry but not better than The Office