12 May '11

“Tempting as it might have been to have marital agonies filtered through the medium of a Plasticine anteater, the gravity of the source material here pretty much ruled out anything that could be accused of flippancy. The style did allow for comedy, as when a lonely client called Dave mentioned Peter Andre and Katie Price to clarify his predicament, and discovered that his therapist had no idea who they were.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“There was also an occasional tendency to animate the metaphor rather than the emotion – showing two people literally drifting apart, on separate ice floes – but for the most part the cartoon played it straight, and the simple, almost static drawings gave a real sense of couples imprisoned by an inability to communicate.”
Tim Dowling, The Guardian

“For reasons I cannot fully explain but doubtless redound to the credit of Sherbet, the animators, the technique brought us extraordinarily close to them [the people receiving counselling].”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“It was intriguing to see animation paired up with such a heavy subject. At the same time, however, a cartoon always adds a note of humour. It exaggerates features, turning people literally into caricatures.”
Matt Baylis, The Express

“The raw material is familiar enough, though presented here with an unusual degree of candour (a wall-mounted camera, permanently on, never alerts its subjects to the fact that they’ve just started doing something “filmable”). But the real art comes in the selection of footage.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“Professional, charming and dedicated to the point of obsession, Malcolm was the undisputed star of this first instalment of the series, which traced events at King’s College Hospital’s resuscitation unit from one lunchtime to the next. To be fair, most of his co-stars were either unconscious or unable to recall what day it was.”
Tim Dowling, The Guardian

“There was some terrific film making in it, Channel 4’s latest entry into rig doc, the forma in which a workplace is covered by fixed cameras a la Big Brother.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“The conceit of the new series is that Lee was only allowed another go if he promised to put more jokes in and be more accessible. The idea that Series 2, which started last week, is Lee at his most accessible is itself part of the joke.”
Tim Dowling, The Guardian

“A propaganda vehicle for the Australian government to encourage more Britons to move Down Under or a propaganda vehicle for our government to stop people going? It depends, I suppose, on your definition of paradise.”
Matt Baylis, The Express