Mongrels – Definitely not the Muppets
Reminiscent of one of the all-time great movies, The Player, there are times that you’d like to be a fly on the wall in a pitch meeting trying to convince studio heads that your idea is the next Seinfeld, ER or Desperate Housewives. Imagine your pitch to the BBC commissioners for a series called Mongrels.
Ok, imagine. It’s Rocky Horror meets Shaun of the Dead, starring the greatness of Richard O’Brien
The decidedly adult-humor, puppet-comedy series centers around the lives of five animals that hang around the back of a pub called The Lord Nelson on the Isle of Dogs in the East End of London. The series ‘stars’ Nelson, a metrosexual fox, Destiny, a self-centered Afghan hound, Marion, a borderline cat, Kali, a grudge-bearing pigeon, and Vince, a sociopathic foul-mouthed fox. Sounds innocent enough, right?
While it’s been called Avenue Q meets Family Guy, the more lofty goal of creator/producer/head puppeteer, Adam Miller, in creating the series, was to try and do for puppetry what shows like The Simpsons have done for animation. It’s a bit crass at times and definitely not for kids, but the series, which just began transmission of the second season this past week on BBC 3, is well worth a look if you haven’t seen.
FYI, episode 2 is tonight at 2230 on BBC3. Check it out.
In: Comedy
