The Catherine Tate Show - The Complete Second Series (US Format, NTSC, Region 1)

Product Description Catherine Tate's ascension to fame has been rapid but definitely well-deserved. Her sketch show features an eclectic collection of comedy creations; from Cockney Nan to the rather outspoken schoolgirl, Lauren, Tate's characters are all the more funny because they remind US of people in everyday life. The second series of THE CATHERINE TATE SHOW improves upon the foundations laid out in the first, proving why the British comedienne ranks as one of the funniest people currently on television. Amazon.com Fans of Tracey Ullman should take a look at The Catherine Tate Show, starring British redheaded comedienne Tate (also known from Doctor Who) as a rogue's gallery of awkward oddballs. Tate immerses herself so deeply in her personae that she's unrecognizable, and not just because of the startlingly realistic makeup that transforms her into, to cite just a few, a snooty upper-class woman with a flatulence problem; an eternally aggrieved elderly lady; or an obnoxious teen girl. Though the sketches are sometimes flimsily developed and Tate has a tendency to milk catchphrases (teenager Lauren's response "Am I bovvered?", delivered whenever she's confronted, is particularly popular), the fullness of her commitment remains impressive. The strongest sketches are often those limited to a single episode of The Catherine Tate Shows--for example, a woman who's become engaged to an Egyptian man over the Internet and keeps sending him money; Tate not only vanishes into her character as per usual, but there's an edge of sadness and empathy that gives this sketch an added dimension. Oddly, over the course of the season, the repetition of the characters starts to work in Tate's favor. While some of her bits wear out their welcome (the laughing couple grow tiresome within their very first sketch), most of these arrested, oblivious people grow on you. You start to see the world through their obsessive perspective; what initially felt flippant becomes strangely humane and oddly charming. --Bret Fetzer P.when('A').execute(function(A) { A.on('a:expander:toggle_description:toggle:collapse', function(data) { window.scroll(0, data.expander.$expander[0].offsetTop-100); }); }); Review Until recently, the only way for an American to see Catherine Tate was to fly on Virgin Atlantic and access her shows as part of the in-flight entertainment. Finally last year, the BBC released her series' first season, and now the second season has come out on DVD. There are six episodes, clocking in at a generous three hours.The shows consist entirely of skits, in which Tate plays a series of characters -- each with a distinct look and most requiring extensive makeup. Some of the skits are pretty hysterical, such as D.I. Angie Barker, a working mother/forensics specialist who shows up at homicide scenes with her two kids. There's the Tactless Woman, who is always accidentally saying offensive things to her party guests, and Derek Faye, the obviously gay bachelor who becomes horribly offended when people assume he's gay.Then there's Sheila, the impeccably dressed, high-class, nitpicking perfectionist who is always correcting people and complaining about her environments -- even though she can't stop passing wind in explosive ways. The comic invention at work here is generous and fertile, with enough in a half-hour show to supply most comedians with two hours worth of material. With Tate it just keeps coming and coming. Indeed, any description can only hint at this series' contents: There are approximately 75 skits contained on this disc alone. --Mick LaSalle, Scripps News ServiceI'm mad for Catherine Tate. Standing Room Only Entertainment has released The Catherine Tate Show: Series Two, an absolutely hysterical collection of the 2005 season of one of Britain's funniest sketch comedies. Written (along with Derren Litten, Ash Ditta and other members of the cast) and performed by that amazing chameleon Catherine Tate, The Catherine Tate Show is a foul-mouthed, pointed satire that's brilliantly executed and paralyzingly funny. Successful enough in England for several of Tate's catch-phrases to have entered the popular vernacular, you won't soon forget Tate creations, such as Lauren Cooper, the ill-mannered school girl (Are you disrespecting me, miss?), or the couple Paul and Sam, who think the most mundane events in their lives are crushingly funny (I almost wet myself!), or especially, Nan Taylor, the cringingly vulgar, permanently outraged Cockney senior citizen (What a f*cking liberty!).The Catherine Tate Show is required viewing for anyone who loves British TV comedies. American viewers will of course be delighted by Tate's unreserved poor taste. No sacred cows are off limits, proving yet again that the funniest jokes and situations are the ones that are the most taboo, the most forbidden. Tate's penchant for vulgar, gross humor is probably best represented by her Sheila Carter character. An incredibly prim, locked-down Scottish woman, Sheila is unstinting in her condemnation of everyone else making noise...until, in the ensuing silence, she repulsively breaks wind. It's a cheap laugh (and naturally, the favorite sketch of my teenaged boys), but it's also a welcome one coming from a female comedian.As for P.C. concerns, they go right out the window with my particular favorite here in the The Catherine Tate Show: Nan Taylor, the crotchety, hideously vulgar and mean-spirited Cockney senior citizen. Deceptively kind at first, she seems the model of elderly sweetness when she greets her frequent visitor and helper, grandson Jamie (Mathew Horne). But very quickly, Tate pulls the rug out from under the viewer, having Nan revert to horrible prejudices and gutter language that, coming from this old dear, are breathtakingly funny. It's a tour de force performance by Tate, and clearly a favorite of Tate's and the audience (Nan gets the coveted wrap-up spot on all but one of the episodes here).In fact, tour de force is an apt description for all of Tate's characterizations here. Aided by some of the most convincing make-ups jobs I've ever seen on TV (her scary Derek Faye persona - who is outraged when everyone assumes he's gay, when he so obviously is - is a remarkable prosthetic creation), Tate totally submerges herself into her various comedic roles. Where I think she excels in comparison to other women comedians is in her abilities as a straight dramatic actress, as well. She's able to give these sketches a resonance and weight that might be missing if other performers attempted them. One of my favorite sketches in this second season of The Catherine Tate Show features Tate's Victoria Russel, a drunken bride lambasting her newly married husband in front of family and friends at the reception. As any actor will tell you, playing drunk may be the single hardest effect to achieve convincingly on camera, but Tate is dead-on believable, managing to make Victoria's truly angry tirades both hilarious and sad at the same time. As an actor, you really have to believe in a character like that to make it successful, which Tate does effortlessly. Highly recommended. --DVDTalk, Paul Mavis See more