TV Review: Jamie Demetriou isn't afraid to take risks in A Whole Lifetime
A Whole Lifetime with Jamie Demetriou, Netflix
was among the great underrated sitcoms of the past several years. It won a few awards and was acclaimed by other comedians — but Jamie Demetriou’s bonkers workplace comedy about a London letting agent never really punched through with a mainstream audience.
Now, it’s just a fading memory. Having called time on the show after three seasons, its writer/star has moved on from Channel 4 and Netflix for a new one-hour special, .
It’s a big jump for the 35-year-old Londoner. Where operated within the framework of a traditional sitcom — albeit with an emphasis on slapstick and surreal comedy — this new production is far less orthodox.
The basic formula is sketch-based humour. The sketch format has in recent years because a launch-pad for all sorts of wacky and even deranged TV. Most notably, there is , a Netflix series that cheerfully bridges the divide between Monty Python and HP Lovecraft: it is both funny and existentially terrifying.
There’s something unsettling, too, about , which places Demetriou at the centre of a cavalcade of increasingly maniacal sketches. He’s trying to tickle your funny bone. But perhaps he is also making a commentary about the unassailable loneliness of the human condition. You’ll laugh. Maybe you’ll stare into the dark and shudder, as well.
The loose 'theme' is that Demetriou is a baby about to be born and is receiving a crash-course in life. There’s a skit where two teenagers are in bed too obsessed with their devices to do anything of which their parents might disapprove. Another gag features a desperate best man trying to attune to the toxic masculinity of a stag weekend. Demetriou parodies in a piece called 'Kiss Villa'. It’s nearly as absurd as the real thing.
Sketch comedy is, by its nature, hit and miss. In fact, if it was all hits it wouldn’t work. You need a few unfunny scenes to pad out and provide relief from the hilarious stuff.
Otherwise, it would be too much. In that respect hits the target.
It is far too slight to become a sensation along the lines of . But it’s bristling with ideas and it is encouraging that Demetriou is willing to take risks, even if that means occasionally tripping on his shoes and landing on his face. Netflix subscribers craving humour with a twist will be intrigued, to say the least.
