A mockumentary is a hard thing to get right. If the documentary aspect of it is too intrusive or contrived, it can weigh too heavy on the suspension of disbelief aspect, as you have to remember at all times that there is a camera crew following these people.
Why would they say and do the things they do if they know they are being filmed? It worked in The Office because David Brent is vain and ridiculous, the same goes for Spinal Tap. In This Country it works because Kerry and Kurtan Mucklowe are bored out of their (often tiny) minds. It is exactly because the idea of filming the lives of people in a small rural village in the Cotswolds seems so dull that we find it hilarious.
First shown on BBC3 in February 2017, after the conclusion of season 3 it looks as if this wonderful little joke has come to as natural end, like The Office whilst it is very much at its creative peak. Leave them wanting more, as they say.
I also don’t doubt for a minute that real life brother and sister team Daisy May and Charlie Cooper, who play the leads as cousins bound together by tedium and village politics, have something else up their sleeves after the BAFTA winning success of this show. That is only a matter of time.
The beauty of it for me is the throw away lines that are so marvelously odd that it takes a second to take it in, so that I often laugh at something long after the fact – because the more you think about it the funnier it gets. There are also the moments where nothing happens at all and there is just a silence or a look as they ponder their own philosophies on life.
The supporting characters are great too. The overly nice, pushover vicar, who is largely bullied or abused. The bedsick mother who only ever screams down the stairs at Kerry. The butch, tattooed, bulldog walking psycho woman across the street. And so on. Each one of them is as pathetic and trapped as the next, but they are not bad people, just very strange.
As with much nuanced comedy, it is extremely difficult to describe what is so funny about it. You just have to watch it, let it sink in and grow on you. Which definitely had to happen for me. At first I was wary, but couldn’t help a chuckle. Then I found myself looking forward to a new episode. Then by season three I absorbed it in a day, just wiping tears of joy from my eyes.
Destined to grow in appreciation as even more time goes on. Eventually everyone will come across it in the same way you can’t avoid any of the greats. It’s all about the writing.
8.5/10
The Wasteland 