Brass Eye
Brass Eye
| 29 January 1997 (USA)
SEASON & EPISODES
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  • Reviews
    TinsHeadline

    Touches You

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    Stometer

    Save your money for something good and enjoyable

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    Beanbioca

    As Good As It Gets

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    Numerootno

    A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

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    movieman_kev

    Yet ANOTHER reason that English comedies are mostly leaps and bounds ahead pretty much a good deal of the 'comedy' on the television of my homeland, America, is this 6 episode satire of TV news. The shows are separated into 6 subjects: Animals, drugs, science, sex, crime, and moral decline, all of them taking a tongue firmly in cheek, yet total deadpan approach. While some of the material falls flat (the sex episode, while still amusing, had some dreary parts), most of it is amazingly brilliant and a great deal of fun to watch to boot. I keep hearing how "American are too dumbed down", how "we wouldn't get it" if Brass Eye was on in the states. This is of course, total nonsense, for I, as an American love this show.This was followed by a special that didn't really live up to the series.My Grade: A

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    jodyraggo

    What can be said about Christopher Morris that has not already been said. He is one of the most talked about comedians and satirists to come out of these shores in a long, long time. Everyone has an opinion on him, whether it be good or bad. Whatever it is he is doing his job. He is making people talk about the issues of media manipulation and sensationalism and the power of celebrity.With his Brass Eye shows, not only did he cover a diverse range of subjects (everything from animal cruelty, paedophilia, sex and drugs) but also mimicked and mocked a wide range of media (such as the talk show, investigative reporting made famous by Roger Cook and his Cook Report and the CrimeWatch appeal shows seen within the 2001 controversial special. But as with any comedian, he has to be funny and he certainly is that. Whether it be a 25 ft wicker phallus or the Virgin Mary driving a car, you just can't help but laugh. The subject may be deadly serious but the subject matter certainly is not. Morris does not mock the subject itself but the media's handling of the subject and what lengths B-list celebrities will go to get into the spotlight. You can't help but laugh at Phil Collins wearing a Nonce Sence T-shirt or NIck Owen talking about fake electricity. How these people don't realise they are talking rubbish is anyone's guess.Whether he is doing television, radio or writing Christopher Morris will always be etched on the minds of the British public in one way or another. Who said British television was dead when we can produce programmes as innovative as Brass Eye.

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    BStalker

    Brass Eye is a quite awesome achievement. As I write this review, most of Britain's press is up in arms over the recent one-off episode which satirised the particularly sensitive subject of paedophilia. The majority of people claim that it is simply sick to even attempt to make a comedy based on such a theme. However, while not for the easily offended, Chris Morris' style has always been to approach serious issues using interesting methods. This particular episode managed to make some very interesting points, often highlighting the gross inconsistencies in the way in which crime and taboo subjects are dealt with.A great deal of the humour comes from Morris managing to get celebrities to say the stupidest things. The fact that they are so easily convinced to speak such nonsense, highlights the ignorance and paranoia surrounding the whole subject. Amongst other things, we are told that paedophiles can feel children's faces via computer screens, that they occupy an area of internet the size of Ireland, that they can make toxic fumes rise from keyboards to make children more suggestible, that, genetically, they have more in common with crabs than people. At one stage, Kate Thornton tells us with utter seriousness that HOECS games are used by paedophiles to interact with children. It is quite incredible to see these people saying such things with such belief.Other highlights include the Eminem spoof, JL B8; a story about a cheeky cockney ex-paedophile who does bus tours of his 'old haunts' - a brilliant spoof of the way the press treats the old east-end London gangsters these days; and an on-going news report showing a crowd lynching a paedophile when released from prison and burning him in a wicker phallus: scarily reminiscent of the mobs that ran wild in Britain in summer 2000.To dismiss this or any other episode in the '97 series as sick and utterly unamusing, is to display an ignorance or unwillingness to address the very serious issues being dealt with. Just because there is humour involved, does not mean the issues are being sanitised - it actually makes them more poignant.

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    Ted Maul-2

    Chris Morris returned with Brass Eye after a long televisual gap, the first show since The Day Today.It's biting satire caused much offense in the UK, with leading newspapers calling for sketches to be removed, and last minute editing before shows went out. It mocked the British news documentary covering such dangerous issues as Sex, Drugs, Animal Cruelty and Crime.Those who did not understand the depth of the satire (the most complex since Swift perhaps) were often offended, leading to the Indpendant Television Commission investigating. It was found to be acceptable but was told to be careful.The genuis mind behind the whole creation, Chris Morris, perhaps went one stept too far when he put a subliminal message lasting 1/25 of a second into the final episode saying "Grade Is A C**t" refering to the then chief executive of Channel 4 who had ordered the cuts.This programme would never be shown in the US, breaking probably every rule of US broasdcasting with swearing, sexual and violent content, making so -called American satirists look as scary and dangerous as some wet cheese.It remains one of the greatest pieces of television ever created, funny yet disturbing, thought-provoking and ground-breaking.

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