Funland Review
Like a great many others my initial attraction to BBC comedy-drama Funland was for one reason: Jeremy Dyson. Though he never appears on screen Dyson is one of the driving forces behind the brilliant League of Gentlemen, the unseen fourth member who - along with Mark Gatiss - has proven to be one of the busiest and most vital forces working outside of the group. Since the League has lapsed into a dormant state both Gatiss and Dyson have written books -- good ones, too -- and while Gatiss has been much in demand writing for and performing in a variety of other shows, most notably penning a pair of stellar Doctor Who episodes, Dyson focused his energy into the creation of Funland -- a task he shared with EastEnders creator Simon Ashdown. Many League fans hoped Funland would be a second coming, a return of their favorite show under a new name, and so many were perplexed and disappointed when it turned out to be entirely its own animal. Dyson has clearly moved on and those willing to move with him found a new creation with every bit as much wit and invention as its predecessor.
A dark and surreal show Funland openly lifted a genre mashing style from Twin Peaks and other shows like it, shows that blended dark edged mystery with surreal humor and gritty drama. Though marketed as a comedy Funland is worlds away from what you normally see that tag applied to, a punch line free zone that seldom goes for the easy laugh, preferring to leave viewers wondering "Did I really see that?" With an undertone of transgressive sexuality, the constant threat of violence and an absurdist wit, this is the sitcom as filtered through Godot. It is that rarest of things, a true original. There is nothing else quite like Funland and there likely never will be.
To even begin discussing Funland you must first address its setting, the seaside holiday town of Blackpool -- portrayed here as a seedy amoral pit that barely even bothers to gloss over its own depravity. Blackpool is a poor man's Vegas, an island of legalized gambling, a town where everyone has a hidden past and secret agenda, where everyone is concerned only with making a quick buck, a town where even the churches have been converted to peeler bars. In a very real sense Blackpool is Funland, the town is by far the most important character of the show, it could not occur anywhere else.
And in this town we have a collision of multiple story lines, a mesh of seemingly unconnected people who prove to be tied together so tightly it's a miracle they can move at all. There is the feeble Dudley and his sexually frigid wife Lola, in town for a weekend getaway to try and salvage their floundering marriage. There is Carter, driven by the memories of his mother's savage killing, trying to solve the mystery of the key and name she passed to him as her final act. There is the sinister and unseen Bridewell, seemingly pulling the strings on everything that occurs in the town. And there is the Woolf clan -- cold blooded, wheelchair bound matriarch Mercy holed up in the office of her lap dance club; thuggish Shirley, estranged from his mother and trying to launch a rival club of his own while dealing with his shrewish wife; Shirley's wannabe rock star son Liam, and marriage obsessed daughter Ruby. Also thrown into the mix are the effete and clearly corrupt mayor who nonetheless trumpets himself as a champion of family values, the stuttering independent reporter, Gatiss' turn as a perpetually naked Swedish taxidermist, the oily proprietor of Dudley and Lola's bed and breakfast, the latex glove wearing 'photographer', and a host of gorilla suits. Gorillas, gorillas, you can't turn around in this town without tripping over a gorilla.
Intricately plotted and densely layered trying to talk about Funland's storyline is a chump's game. The twists and turns come so fast that virtually anything you would say about the show would constitute some sort of spoiler. What you really need to know is that the characters are detailed, the cast is strong and the writing never disappoints.
The upcoming DVD release is very strong. The transfers are crisp and anamorphic and the extra features are excellent. On top of the eleven hour long episodes you get five commentaries from writer-creators Dyson and Ashdown, a thirty minute behind the scenes feature, seven minutes on the development of the show, a blooper reel, deleted scenes and one titled aptly enough "Colleen Sings". You'll understand when you see it.
Too dark and unusual by far to generate more than a cult audience Funland is, nevertheless, more than deserving of that cult. It doesn't strike me at all as the sort of thing likely to travel widely -- if at all - outside the UK, meaning if that cult is to spread beyond British shores it'll have to be through this release. Very much worth a look for fans of the unusual.
