"Hyperdrive" Convoy (2007)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

John Henderson

Writers:

Kevin Cecil (writer)
Andy Riley (writer)

TV Series:

"Hyperdrive" (2006)

Original Air Date:

16 August 2007 (Season 2, Episode 6)

Genre:

Comedy | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Cast

Dan Antopolski	...	Jeffers
Kevin Eldon	...	York
Stephen Evans	...	Vine
Nick Frost	...	Commander Henderson
Miranda Hart	...	Teal
Paterson Joseph	...	Space Marshal Clarke
Petra Massey	...	Sandstrom
Waen Shepherd	...	Captain Helix
Thaila Zucchi	...	Commander Gulati

Season 2: Not bad, not good just quite mediocre throughout

Despite it all, the crew of Camden Lock are still together, continuing to spread the message of Britain to a mostly disinterested universe. Somehow or other Commander Henderson has remained at the helm, despite the unveiled contempt that Space Commander Clarke has for him and his crew. First Officer York appears more control hungry than ever, Teal is just as dipsy as before while Jeffers has yet to find any reason to get excited about the drudgery of his job.

When I wrote my review of season 1 of Hyperdrive, I did not write it about "season 1" because I really did not think that there would be any other seasons to make this be called the "first season". So I was surprised when I saw Hyperdrive back on the screen and did have to wonder who had recommissioned it and why. Did they think that this was a cult hit and was just a matter of time? Maybe it has sold loads on DVD and abroad so financially it made sense, I don't know. However what I can say is that surely nobody looked at the proposed script for season 2 and said "yes, it keeps getting better". Why am I so sure of this, well, because I cannot imagine that anyone would look at this and think that it was better than the first time round.

The comments on this site do rather seem to swing from "hilarious" to "rubbish" but the truth is that the majority of it is squarely in the middle of these two and is actually pretty mediocre stuff. It isn't "bad" because it is professionally made and has some amusing bits but the only thing it is consistent about is its inconsistency. Here and there it is funny but mostly it is just lack-lustre and lacks imagination and wit, doing easy targets and obvious humour throughout. At best I found myself amused slightly by it but never really laughed out loud at any point. Given that it was more or less like this in season 1, again I say I'm not sure why anyone decided that more of the same was a good way to invest money.

The cast pretty much matches the level of the material. Frost continues to do a Brent-lite turn which is amusing but nothing more than that. Eldon needs more imaginative material to make the most of his character but he doesn't get it. Hart, Antopolski, Evans and others don't have a lot to do around the edges. Paterson Joseph is the only one I really enjoyed but that was only because he was similar to his wonderful Peep Show character.

Overall this is a fairly bland situation comedy that I cannot really understand why it got to have two bites of BBC2 prime time. To further confound my confusion over this let me illustrate it with this – Hyperdrive is being screened at 2130 on Thursday evenings on BBC2, while at the same time BBC2 are currently screening season 1 of the infinitely better Arrested Development at about 2am in a slot that changes each night. Like the Americans say – "go figure".