So I’ve just heard the news that Psychoville got just over 600,000 viewers last night and that post I’ve been threatening you with has finally broken free. So allow me to put my blog on hold for a little while for a more serious post. There are slight spoilers for episode four in here. You have been warned.
I like Psychoville. It’s my favourite thing on television at the moment, possibly even ever. I try to be subjective, but it’s a little difficult. I have read as many reviews of the series as possible though and the views expressed in those reviews have given me a pretty good idea of what people do and don’t like about this new series.
The first series had average ratings of about 1.4million which isn’t bad, it also had an excellent critical reception and won a British Comedy award. When the Psychoville came back with the Halloween Special, ratings were at an all time high with nearly 1.8 million. Series 2 started with a disappointing 1.15million and it has been dropping since then, dropping as low as 660,000 viewers last night. So who can we blame for this rather alarming and disappointing drop?
It has been nearly two years since the first series was on. It’s entirely possibly that people just forgot about it or just didn’t care any more. The Halloween Special served as a decent reminder but that was seven months ago. The series was completed, why didn’t the BBC use the momentum of the excellent ratings of the Halloween special and jump straight into the series from there. The timeslot of 10.00 is fine, even on a Thursday so we can’t complain about scheduling. So next we look at publicity. If I remember correctly, Reece and Steve did four television interviews and one or two radio interviews and the shows they were on weren’t really very high profile. They are funny men, they could have easily been the staple ‘comedian guest’ on a chat show with a much higher profile, such as the Graham Norton show and if the Psychoville chat got boring, Reece has Betty Blue Eyes and Steve has Whitechapel and Benidorm to fall back on. Instead they were resigned to early morning breakfast news or Something for the Weekend, not exactly the best way to advertise a new series of a dark comedy show. The BBC seemed to play plenty of adverts for the show but something must have gone wrong because four weeks on there are still people surprised that it’s back. In the age of the internet and iPlayer is it easier for the BBC to ignore publicity and let people catch up with it in their own time. iPlayer is both a blessing and a curse in many ways. But that’s another essay.
But it would be harsh to blame everything on the BBC, instead let’s throw some blame on the writing. (Bear with me). Psychoville is smart, very smart. Perhaps too smart for it’s own good. I’m not going to use this post as a soapbox for airing my dislike for more popular comedies but there has been a disturbing trend in comedy recently, it doesn’t challenge the viewer, it doesn’t make them work for a laugh and can be watched and then forgotten about within 29 minutes. That is not Psychoville. It’s the not the sort of show that can be left on in the background, it demands the viewers attention and you are rewarded if you can be bothered and as a lot of the reviews I have read seem to imply, this is not working in Psychoville’s favour. Daring to think people may commit to the series and trust the writers appears to have been a mistake. In episode two there were complaints that there wasn’t a clear storyline or a reason for any of the characters to be involved. By episode three these complaints had centred on Hattie and Jeremy, saying that they were still unconnected to the locket and they shouldn’t be in the series at all. Those of us who trusted Reece and Steve and stuck with it were last night rewarded with several key plot developments and Hattie ‘has a place’ in the overarching storyline. But of course the series had lost 100,000 viewers since last week presumably because of impatience. Jeremy is still apparently unconnected, one review said that now he has been arrested, his storyline has been concluded and we won’t see him again. I’m going to give Reece and Steve a bit of credit and say we will and he’ll find his way into the main storyline too. Another review completely misunderstood the Mrs Wren assassination plot point, saying that Finney killed her before David could. This didn’t happen at all. That reviewer wasn’t paying attention and next week’s episode won’t make much sense to him when Mrs Wren is still alive and well. If someone paid to watch the show can’t pay attention properly, then what are the chances of anyone else.
Now this is starting to sound like I really am blaming the writing instead of the intelligence or patience of the viewer. Personally, I have had no trouble in understanding what was going on and the writing has been some of the best I’ve ever seen. The acting has also been universally excellent. Steve as David and Reece as Jeremy have been particular highlights and not just as comic performers, Jeremy’s scenes still give me chills even after watching them five or six times. Psychoville 2 was made on the same budget as every other BBC comedy and yet it looks so much more. When I complain about the show getting half a million viewers, I don’t do it because I want some sort of justification for watching it, I know it’s fantastic. I get angry because of the amount of work and care and love that has been put into it and it’s treated like dirt. The last episode has been rescheduled to Monday to make way for the new series of Mock The Week. I will be surprised if the ratings hit half a million for the last episode. I’ve talked a lot about ratings, you might say that ratings don’t matter, we know it’s good. Sadly though under a million viewers is nothing and the chances of a third series are extremely slim, unless it performs well on DVD. And I mean well.
Ultimately though there’s nothing I or anyone else can do about it. Even if it had been given all the publicity in the world you can’t make people watch and if that’s not what they want from comedy then they will turn off. It makes me wonder about the general state of comedy at the moment. The schedules are full of ratings winning panel shows and sitcoms that are either extremely bland or needlessly offensive. The one thing me and reviewers do agree on is that there is nothing like Psychoville on television and it saddens and pains me to say it, but it looks like there never will be again.
Is Psychoville too good for it’s own good?
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