Deano’s After Dark
Pornographic publisher Dean Learner, and his most prolific, and horrific, writer, Garth Marenghi, have returned to the small screen with a new show called “Man to Man with Dean Learner.” The geniuses behind Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace have resurrected the characters and placed them in the world of the late night talk show. England’s Channel 4 recently started airing the 6 episode series last week. You can download the first episode here.
Man to Man is broadcast from Learner’s palatial penthouse apartment, and features Learner having a sit-down chat with a different guest each week in front of a live studio audience. For the first episode, Dean tapped the man who he “fell in like” with at first sight, Garth Marenghi.
Dean and Garth spend the episode reminiscing about the ups and downs of their long friendship, as well as Garth’s belief that the Dutch will pose the next world threat, and the hardships of a party with too few toilets. Garth takes the opportunity to plug his new book, “The Oeuvre,” a hardback collection of every novel he’s ever written, all in one easy-to-read volume.
And it turns out Garth has recently embraced his nascent painting abilities, as evidenced by a piece entitled “My Family Without Skin”:
The visual jokes on the show are clever, and some of the dialogue between host and guest is quite witty and enjoyable, but I can’t shake the feeling that a talk show isn’t the right format for these guys. While it does allow the actors to showcase their improv abilities, the show is marred by the raucous studio laughter, which seems especially high in the mix. The laughter is from an audience clearly in on the joke, as they’re laughing at Dean and Garth, not with them. This is in stark contrast to “Darkplace’s” laugh-track free audio.
“Darkplace’s” greatest strengths were the wooden acting, horrible dubbing, scandalously cheap special effects, and some of the most stilted and cliche-ridden dialogue to ever be put on film. “Man to Man’s” format precludes the use of any of these elements. That’s why it’s telling that the funniest moment of the show comes not from anything on “Man to Man,” but from a clip of Garth’s new film, “War of the Wasps,” which features all of the above mentioned attributes:
when i found out about this show, i ran straight for the nearest torrents. unfortunately, they hit the sweet spot with dark place and fell waaaaaaaay short of the mark with man to man. it gets a bit funnier a few episodes in, but it’s a bit of a struggle to actually try and laugh at.
After viewing the whole series I agree completely. It’s too bad they didn’t just do another season of Darkplace instead of wasting their considerable talent on Man to Man.