07-25-2014, 02:21 PM
I had been looking forward to seeing this all week. I would have seen the actual live broadcast, but I was on a plane returning from DallASS, so I waited for last night's final replay, which was supposed to be showing downtown.
Only it wasn't. It showed on Wednesday night downtown and was listed on some of the Cruz entertainment pages on the web (the ones that I looked at unfortunately) but the Royal decided not to show it again due to construction. I had rushed home ahead of the commute and was crushed to discover that the nearest theater that was showing it was the one at Auto Mall, one exit away from my office.
Fortunately, there was a showing in Monterey, and T was into making the trek, so we braved the rush hour on HWY 1, and made it just as the replay was starting.
NOTE: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS
It was bittersweet. The show opened with Chapman and a title card that said "One down, five to go". There were many moments honoring Chapman, even his birth year and death year at the end, followed by the same for Monty Python (died 2014) and another title card that said "piss off". The dead parrot was said to be seeing Dr. Chapman. Overall, it was great to see Python reunited, although the show was uneven and relied way too much on clips from the original show. We've seen all that. They used it to cover the costume and set changes, but they also had big Broadway-style dance numbers to do that (heavy Idle influence there), so the repeated clips were a waste of time - easily half an hour was dedicated to them. They opened with Four Yorkshiremen, which was really fitting and stood out as one of the best skits of the show. The rest of the skits relied heavily on Cleese/Palin routines (Argument Clinic, Dead Parrot, Cheese Shop) but that was fine as those are some of my favs. Cleese's voice seemed ragged from ten shows and he lost his place twice, asking "Where are we?" to great comedic effect. He seemed tired, but still hit his timing marks. Idle was the most vibrant, singing and dancing like an old Vegas showman. Apart from his lined face, he hardly seems to have aged. Gilliam was boorish and crass, very 'murican like usual (it was really his animation that got him in, not his sketch comedy work). Jones looked out of it and was clearly reading cue cards (Cleese even took over for him during Crunchy Frog) but he retained much of his outrageous expressions. The lines on Palin's face has given him more range for his funny faces, and the mischievous sparkle in his eyes is as bright as ever. Carol Cleveland was there too - tough for her to play the hottie foil at her age, but she did so as gracefully as she could. There was a lot of music, mostly the most offensive songs. And there was some updating of the routines. The Penis Song is now three verses, the new two being The Vagina Song and The Butt Song. The Gay Barristers sketch poked fun at Cleese's divorces. There was some major ribbing of Palin's travel show during Death of Mary Queen of Scots/Penguin on the Teley. Cleese and Palin got sidetracked with a rant against some negative reviews during Dead Parrot. "That's Japanese" was added into I Like Chinese after the line "tiny little trees". There were odd cameos from Mike Myers and Stephen Hawking. It was sad to see them all so old and clearly ready to put Python to bed. But at the same time, it was great to see them reunited. Even though the show fell a little below the mark and was expensive ($18! and not even in 3D or IMAX), I enjoyed watching it. It's PYTHON. I worship them.
T enjoyed it even though she hasn't seen that much Python. It was a little awkward during some of the bawdier numbers like Sit on My Face, but she's old enough now.
Only it wasn't. It showed on Wednesday night downtown and was listed on some of the Cruz entertainment pages on the web (the ones that I looked at unfortunately) but the Royal decided not to show it again due to construction. I had rushed home ahead of the commute and was crushed to discover that the nearest theater that was showing it was the one at Auto Mall, one exit away from my office.
Fortunately, there was a showing in Monterey, and T was into making the trek, so we braved the rush hour on HWY 1, and made it just as the replay was starting.
NOTE: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS
It was bittersweet. The show opened with Chapman and a title card that said "One down, five to go". There were many moments honoring Chapman, even his birth year and death year at the end, followed by the same for Monty Python (died 2014) and another title card that said "piss off". The dead parrot was said to be seeing Dr. Chapman. Overall, it was great to see Python reunited, although the show was uneven and relied way too much on clips from the original show. We've seen all that. They used it to cover the costume and set changes, but they also had big Broadway-style dance numbers to do that (heavy Idle influence there), so the repeated clips were a waste of time - easily half an hour was dedicated to them. They opened with Four Yorkshiremen, which was really fitting and stood out as one of the best skits of the show. The rest of the skits relied heavily on Cleese/Palin routines (Argument Clinic, Dead Parrot, Cheese Shop) but that was fine as those are some of my favs. Cleese's voice seemed ragged from ten shows and he lost his place twice, asking "Where are we?" to great comedic effect. He seemed tired, but still hit his timing marks. Idle was the most vibrant, singing and dancing like an old Vegas showman. Apart from his lined face, he hardly seems to have aged. Gilliam was boorish and crass, very 'murican like usual (it was really his animation that got him in, not his sketch comedy work). Jones looked out of it and was clearly reading cue cards (Cleese even took over for him during Crunchy Frog) but he retained much of his outrageous expressions. The lines on Palin's face has given him more range for his funny faces, and the mischievous sparkle in his eyes is as bright as ever. Carol Cleveland was there too - tough for her to play the hottie foil at her age, but she did so as gracefully as she could. There was a lot of music, mostly the most offensive songs. And there was some updating of the routines. The Penis Song is now three verses, the new two being The Vagina Song and The Butt Song. The Gay Barristers sketch poked fun at Cleese's divorces. There was some major ribbing of Palin's travel show during Death of Mary Queen of Scots/Penguin on the Teley. Cleese and Palin got sidetracked with a rant against some negative reviews during Dead Parrot. "That's Japanese" was added into I Like Chinese after the line "tiny little trees". There were odd cameos from Mike Myers and Stephen Hawking. It was sad to see them all so old and clearly ready to put Python to bed. But at the same time, it was great to see them reunited. Even though the show fell a little below the mark and was expensive ($18! and not even in 3D or IMAX), I enjoyed watching it. It's PYTHON. I worship them.
T enjoyed it even though she hasn't seen that much Python. It was a little awkward during some of the bawdier numbers like Sit on My Face, but she's old enough now.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse