Skip to content
Entertainment
Link copied to clipboard

Alas, 'Babylon' inpsires neither laughs nor thought

Is Babylon, Oscar-winner Danny Boyle's new comedy on SundanceTV, supposed to be Monty Python-funny or is it a savage Brechtian dialectic?

The unfunny police comedy "Babylon" features (from left) Jonny Sweet, Brit Marling, and James Nesbitt. (DEAN ROGERS)
The unfunny police comedy "Babylon" features (from left) Jonny Sweet, Brit Marling, and James Nesbitt. (DEAN ROGERS)Read more

Is Babylon, Oscar-winner Danny Boyle's new comedy on SundanceTV, supposed to be Monty Python-funny or is it a savage Brechtian dialectic?

It's not funny or serious enough to be either.

The half-hour series, which premieres at 10 p.m. Thursday, stars the superbly accomplished Brit Marling, 31, as Liz Garvey, an American public relations pro hired to clean up the image of London's Metropolitan Police.

As we see in rapidly edited clips, over-eager officers are shooting unarmed men and beating up teens (and journalists), while other cops ignore a prison riot that's live on national TV to avoid looking bad. They need help.

As does their supreme boss, Richard Miller, played by the incredible Irish thesp James Nesbitt. He's an old-school copper more comfortable using fists than words.

A show that gives Marling (Another Earth, I Origins) and Nesbitt (Cold Feet, Jekyll) room to strut their stuff, face off, and play off each other should be a riotous success.

Admittedly, the actors have a few terrific scenes. But the show - and I say this with much rue - just doesn't work. I haven't been so unamused since Andrew Dice Clay.

Babylon has a split personality. It tries to be a sophisticated edgy drama and a smash-your- ribs-to-oblivion comedy at the same time.

A highly fragmented mess, it jumps from scene fragment to scene fragment. There are no real stories here, just snatches of action - several armed officers taking down a burglar; Liz chewing out a subordinate; Miller stomping around, half-suicidal, half-homicidal.

The dialogue and editing are supersonic; one can barely figure out a scene before it's over.

It's a shame, because the series, which explores office politics, sexual politics, racial politics - and plain politics - has flashes of brilliance.

TV REVIEW

Babylon

Premieres 10 p.m. Thursday on SundanceTV

EndText

215-854-2736