The Mighty Boosh season three episode three review
'The Power of the Crimp', the third episode of Boosh's third season, sent out some loud warning bells for Rob...
Oh dear.. Things are going downhill very quickly. You can tell that the series budget was all spent on last week’s classic, as this episode had absolutely no fantasy elements to it and instead relied on the power of the ‘Crimp’.
To sum up this episode you would have to go with the ‘evil-twin’ theme (think Star Trek Mirror Mirror…only without evil goatees) as the Flighty Zeus made an appearance. Copying Vince and Howard at everything, Harold Boom and Lance Dior are the style usurpers and upstarts to the Boosh’s crown of cool. And while this could have been a genius idea, the whole thing looked and felt like a swipe at tthe Boosh‘s own huge popularity. Even with another cartoon featuring Peacocks and Magpies, a humorous Squint Off and even a cameo by Gary Numan, the entire thing fell flat due to the fact that it seemed that the boys were well…taking the piss a bit.
The Boosh has become hugely popular, with venues around the UK selling out, crammed up with people dressed as Mod-Wolves, Old Greg and the various other weird and wonderful characters of the Boosh. And as such the guys involved have become popular, famous and sort of TV rock-stars, and for me who has loved the show since the beginning that’s all great. But it seems that rock-stardom has gone to the their heads. Perhaps the reality of Noel Fielding’s cult, fashion icon and female lust object status has gone a little far, and much as it’s cool to occasionally have your popular mates in the show, this reality filtering into the surreal world of the Boosh is putting fans like me off.
And this my friends is exactly what is wrong with this episode. With self referencing speeches about putting a show on BBC Three to getting on the cover of magazines (the Boosh guys recently ‘edited’ a copy of NME) it’s all a bit too much and self-congratulatory.
Not being completely negative, there is still room for a few new Vince action figures for our suggested series of collectables, with a Vince and Howard Future Sailor twin set going along nicely with 80s Office Guy Vince, Bollywood Lollypop Man and WW2 Transexual Vince!
We also get a treat with the return of Bob Fossil, who has moved from running the Zooniverse to becoming the manager of The Velvet Onion nightclub. And it’s great to see Rich Fulcher once again squeezing into the two piece safari suit, but again as I have mentioned before this is all stuff we have seen before. Much as it’s great to see good old Bob again, some new ideas are in order.
With the finale of the Crimp Off, Vince’s insistence that Lenny Kravitz invented jazz and an impostor moon, there was some stuff to smile about, but on the whole this is a step backwards for the guys. Maybe I am expecting too much, but this really is a drop in form for a series teetering on the edge of very well losing its cool.
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