The Mighty Boosh season 3 episode 2 review

The new series of The Mighty Boosh got into its stride this week with a return to form. They spent what seems to be an entire series’ worth of budget spent on some superb special effects, as the Boosh guys paid homage to ‘shrinky’ films like Innerspace and Fantastic Voyage.

Down to business, then. There has been some debate about Vince getting nastier, and this episode proves that there was a growing dark-side to his character. Gone are the days of attending to techno-mouse and the enjoyment of grain, with him in this episode embracing his angst and evolving into a punk – rancid safety pin and all. While it was great to watch Noel Fielding an hour earlier on Buzzcocks being all daft, funny and trading verbal jabs with Simon Amstell, seeing an ‘evil’ Vince is just not convincing.. where is the Electro-Boy, glitter or neon?… Nope I think that a return to lightning-bolt themed clothes is in order, and hopefully with the finale of this episode Vince’s turn to the dark side will be over.

Still, saying that things are all dark and moody would be wrong, as there was still so much on offer, and this episode was superb – a lot better that last week’s, even though (again) we may have seen some stuff before. This is once more a Vince-centric episode, however Howard’s contribution to matters should not be overlooked. From the comedy genius of Stationery Village and the loss of Pritt-Stick 3 to the ‘Luke I am your Father’ bit, Howard got more than his fair share of good bits, comedy and fun.

In an attempt to impress his new punk mates Vince bit into a rare and cursed be-bop jazz record, infecting him with an evil jazz curse, which unleashes a Jazz Beast into his blood stream. It is then up to Howard and his jazz companion Lester Corncrake (a Mr Miagi of Jazz!) to be shrunk down by Naboo and injected to destroy the beast.

And this is where everything gets expensive.. and blooming brilliant. From the homage to the Aquaphibians submarine from Stingray to the army of Vince defence system (and the Pancake song), through to the excellent effects used to show off the Jazz Beast/Virus thingy (who is a more monsterous version of the Spirit of Jazz from season one)  the whole episode seems to have had millions spent on it. And while obviously this isn’t the case, the use of sets, filters and a massive dollop of imagination shows that the cast and crew can produce shots that can outdo the original Proteus crew Fantastic Voyage, Irwin Allen, and an entire Hollywood special effects department, with just a couple of boxes, glitter and a missing Pritt-stick.

Added to this we also get to see a punk Bollo, a nod to Amy Winehouse, cartoon flashback special guests, Rev and Snell from Towers of London and Rich Fulcher getting spanners thrown at him… what more could you want? Roll on next week…