1.1 Money The working title for Badults was ‘The Secret Dude Society’. Though it may seem like an innocuous assortment of words, it also hints at the flaws running through the first episode. It’s a collusion of funny sounding words strung together with no rhyme or reason. A series of punchlines without build ups. And that’s the underlying problem with Badults so far. From the off there’s a jumble of cheap puns thrown around liberally and too often a gag will overstay its welcome or be clunkily explained away. Another problem is the lack of any recognisable characters within the three main leads. Ben, Matthew and Tom all play the same wide eyed idiot jostling for space and shouting to be heard. Emer Kenny is a stand-out performer here, alongside a nice guest spot from Jack Docherty, previously of recently reunited and still brilliant Scottish sketch group, Absolutely (all episodes available on 4oD and DVD by the way). There’s the seed of something great in here but it’s only been half-realised. In their live shows, Pappy’s get by with ramshackle charm and enthusiasm, but so far, this hasn’t translated well to TV. The Goodies had sequences inspired by the silent slapstick of Buster Keaton and the cartoons of Tex Avery. The Young Ones pushed through with sheer force of will and an incredibly dense number of gags and non-sequiturs. Badults, however, doesn’t maintain tonal consistency, as seen in a prolonged scene with heavy use of the word ‘shitting’ that seems out of place with the world of man-children they’ve built here. There are flashes of what this show could be. There’s a great visual joke featuring the signers who haunt late night TV. A great plot that revolves around an old family favourite board game and certain revolutionary musical. But these elements don’t come into play until six minutes from the end which leads to the episode feeling like it’s rushing to the finale. Please, if you can, buy our charity horror stories ebook, Den Of Eek!, raising money for Geeks Vs Cancer. Details here.
