Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps: When Janet Killed Jonny
The “Two Pints” team have done it again. As with the musical special, I had no idea this (a horror special, if the title doesn’t give it away) was coming as the series finale. The musical special (“When Janet Met Jonny”) remains one of the most amazing, hilarious, I even say beautiful, things I’ve ever seen on TV, and I’ve gotta admit that while it was a pleasant surprise when the announcer said the words “horror special”, the idea didn’t appeal to me as instantly as the musical idea.
The great thing is that, like the musical special, the team hardly ever resort to the more obvious parodies. Here, Jonny’s demise resembles a Freddy Krueger nightmare, and the ending is also a direct rip from the first of those movies, but that’s about it. Oh, they also pay a nice homage to the musical special itself, too, in a direct copy of the “jammy dodger rolls away from Jonny” shot which will amuse more the fans who have seen the outtakes show too (in which they insanely try to make a dodger – that’s a biscuit to the unaware – roll with precision to stop on the edge of a step). (update 1st May ‘06: oops, it seems my memory’s been warped by the out-takes show, I just watched the musical again and that shot isn’t there – I guess the out-takes show, which aired weeks ago, included out-takes from the new series, even unaired eps – I was sure that dodger shot appeared in the musical though, lol).
Again, as with the musical special, they bring everything the genre in question is about into the fray without losing the central comedy that the show should be – something I was a little worried as the episode began might be allowed to slide, especially in the absence of a laugh track. In the musical, it was the occasional glitz and the emotion that came in; here, it’s the gore (the “curse” makes all the characters doomed to die at the hands of the thing they love the most … consider that one character, Louise, loves herself more than anything …), the bizarre eroticism (Donna’s body is severed at the waist – Gaz loves Donna’s legs …), and the quite genuinely creepy atmosphere.
An amazing end to what has been a brilliant, not to mention unexpected from the very start (I only heard there was a new series days before the first episode went out, I really thought it was over since the team went on to make “Grown Ups”), series of easily one of my favourite sitcoms.