hen parties have had a bad reputation in recent years. Increasingly expensive, time-consuming and either wildly trashy (hello, penis straws) or boring in taste (oh my, bohemian craftsmanship), who has the time or inclination to shell out hundreds of pounds for sharing a room with a stranger in Bath before playing Mr. and Mrs. and immediately wishing you didn’t know the groom’s favorite sex position was reverse cowgirl?
Me. I have the time. As one of the last remaining women on earth who still loudly admits to enjoying both a trashy chick and a stylish chick, you’d think Henpocalypse! – a sitcom about a hen, set during the end of the world – would be right up my street. I thought so too, until I saw it. Despite the show created by the usually funny Caroline Moran (Raised by wolves), the first episode of Henpocalypse! was a pink mess, strewn with penis accessories.
Five hens traveled from the West Midlands to a remote cottage in Wales to demand Zara’s special weekend. “I was pretty clear about wanting Lanzarote but I’m getting by,” the bride-to-be (Lucie Shorthouse) cried. En route in a fuchsia rental car, we learned a bit more about each gang member by watching how they reacted to a literal car crash. Bernadette (Elizabeth Berrington) was the loudmouthed mum, causing the crash by yelling at another driver not to judge her daughter for peeing in the parking lot. Shelly (Callie Cooke), Zara’s best friend and the leader of the hen group, was the maid-two-shoes because she looked mortified and kept apologizing, despite having also fled the scene so who knows how far his morals will go in the face of Armageddon.
There was also Jen (Kate O’Flynn), Zara’s cousin, whose insistence on ill-fitting heels caused her to bleed all over the furniture, and Veena (Lauren O’Rourke), the only woman capable to understand Bluetooth (it’s only sexist if men say so, okay?).
Things were briefly tense for a while when the police arrived, but Officer Drew (Ben McGregor) ripped his clothes off and started rubbing up on everyone in tight gold pants as they all spilled out of vodka and penis piñatas so all was well, even as they ignored the TV on in the corner as it announced the rapidly unfolding “crab measles” disaster.
There were crude references to a pandemic as a Chris Whitty guy died at the pulpit (I still feel like it might be too early for those jokes) after announcing that the UK population was quickly wiped out. It turned out that men were particularly at risk. Cut to eight weeks later, and poor Drew was chained to a radiator (“It’s the future of the human race!” exclaimed Shelly, after emptying her bed pan through the window), while the ladies were making lines of instant coffee and sniffing markers for breakfast.
When they finally decided to break quarantine and see what was out there, the response was neglected newsstands where the girls scoffed at cereal (“It’s a Birds Eye Graveyard,” Bernadette lamented as she examined long thawed fish sticks), a stranger engaged to do her morning Kegels, and Drew running away, still in those tiny gold pants.
The problem was that none of it was really very funny. So many girls behaving badly and yet not outrageous enough to collect Warm fuzz vibes, nor (at least not yet) engaged enough in relationships for that wholesome feel Intermediate even gave us as he increased the blowjob jokes.
Maybe that will change over the next five episodes. THE acting is awesome – it just needs better writing. I feel like somewhere behind the childish humor there’s a decent girlfriend story that’s been dying to get out.
Source link: https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/henpocalypse-bbc-two-review-comedy-2542449
