An unimaginative and irksome quiz show (Never Mind the Buzzcocks)

Member Name: Burning_Darkness

Product:	Never Mind the Buzzcocks
Date:	25/10/09 (19 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: can be mildly entertaining, the odd rare highlight

Disadvantages: tired, bland, not particularly funny, mediocre panelists and hosts

Never mind the Buzzcocks is a BBC 2 pop music quiz that has been running since 1996. The programme follows a familiar panel-show format, with a celebrity host, two celebrity team captains and four different celebrity guests each week. The show concentrates primarily on pop/indie music, with rounds requiring the teams to complete the next line of lyrics from a particular song, convey a particular tune using only humming and table-top rythms, identify an aging and now obscure music figure from a identity parade-style line-up or just answer genearal pop-trivia questions.

The show has a very irksome mainstream 'indie' zeitgeist about it that I find difficult to endure, and is made even worse with the replacement of previous host Mark Lamaar with the incredibly irritating Simon Astell. Noel Fielding of Mighty Boosh fame has very recently taken over from Astell, but though intelligent and funny he comes across as a rather tiresome real-life parody of the character he plays in the aforementioned show.

Excellent musician/comedian Bill Bailey is an obvious choice for team captain, but even his tremendous comedic talents are somehow overpowered by the show's toothless, painfully-trendy and generally mediocre approach. Phil Jupitus meanwhile is as unfunny here as he is anywhere else, and the guest spots are frequently filled with interchangable pop starlets and unremarkable mainstream radio DJs.

Most importantly of all the show just isnt particularly funny, and though it very occasionally offers up something of interest, such as the christmas special a few years back in which Birmingham grindcore band Mistress performed their own crushing and brutal variations of numerous classic christmas songs in between rounds, by and large Never Mind The Buzzcocks is a tired and unoriginal show that serves as a handy gravy train for a whole pantheon of bland and uninspiring BBC-sponsored artists and comedians.

Summary: Toothless and dull