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Really interesting to listen, just to hear how much these 3 missed the point of the Renford Rejects. Missed all it’s glory, amongst its mess. It’s charm in it’s quirks, whilst failing to be aware of just how boring it is to listen to their negative grumbling. A thread.
It’s weird to listen to 3 grown men tear into a show that was loved by so many globally. There’s the odd valid point but generally it’s just an onslaught of negs. Which would just be ‘whatever’ if it wasn’t entirely ignorant of the show’s ideas, creativity, or just TV in general.
So here’s a run down of the counter-points & the weirdest moments I couldn’t quite grasp or agree with about this podcast. Maybe it’s something we need more of these days... the critique of the critic. Anything that stops 40-something men make yet ANOTHER podcast!
So there’s a section where they talk about the Rejects, as if they are aware they’re on TV & how it’s weird it is that they think they’re famous, not understanding that each reject was deluded or insane in some way. The STANDARD format for any comedy - Insane, in a sane world.
They talk about how weird it is that a man is obsessed with Elvis is in a kid’s show, or that there are older cameos, like 66 World Cup team. Not understanding the common model in the 90s, which Pixar went on to adopt, which is ‘you get the kids, you get the adults’.
These people/characters weren’t there for the kids. Omitting also from their discussion the use of Stan Bowles, David Baddiel, Tony Slattery, Brian Sewell, Alexi Sayle, Bob Wilson & Jim Rosenthal. All of which support this idea of hooking adults. Talk about missing an open goal.
The 3 stooges, whilst talking about how hot a 16 year old girl is (yup, odd as hell) talk about how weird it is that there’s no character development, or romantic stories in the show. Failing to realise that kids shows of this style of the period, never had linear timelines.
This is because it was about presenting what was essentially a cartoon with actors(hence all the colours). This was so that episodes could be watched in various orders because that’s how content was ordered in the 90s. Ref: The Simpsons. Another lack of episodic TV understanding.
Plus young boys who like football, don’t generally care about who is going to end up with who. Romantic storylines historically, were added to ‘hook’ female audiences. It’s often predominantly the hook of adult or teen shows but not children’s. It also doesn’t exist in cartoons.
The guys never talk about the camera work on Renford Rejects, which is still studied in film & tv schools. The show used crane shots & single camera single takes, to present scenes. Something practically unheard of for kids TV and largely borrowed from cinema.
Incidentally, Pierre Boffety who was the cinematographer on the show had won the equivalent of an Academy Award in France. A classy addition to its tech side.
They somehow avoid talking about the BAFTA nomination the show received on two occasions. They trash the writing, hate it. Despite how the show’s scripts are still used TODAY in uni writing courses across the U.K. to observe the structure of children’s comedy-dramas.
At one point, one of the guys explains how they don’t understand the joke of Stoker saying to Ben in ep 1 “Goalkeeper, goal-sleeper more like...” as shots fly past him, adding they don’t know what a ‘goal sleeper’ is. I’m not going to explain this one to them...
One of the presenters, who has a voice that sounds like it’s spent it’s life strained, at the level of moaning it’s had to do, then goes on to say how he doesn’t like to moan about things generally. I’ve never heard a more negative, monotonous tone, so comfy in its happy place.
Worth adding, that he literally says nothing positive the whole interview. But he doesn’t like moaning generally. I guarantee that if you listen to any other episode of this podcast, you’ll find this miserable sod moaning so emphatically, you’ll fall asleep with predictability.
None of the trio discuss the success of the talent, such as Lucy Punch from currently in BAFTA nominated Motherland, or Matthew Leitch for that matter - ending up in Band Of Brothers, which is still one of the greatest shows of all time. Not to mention his Dark Knight appearance.
“I recognised one from a little show Him & Her...” Him & Her won a BAFTA in 2014, & Martin Delaney has appeared in numerous British & American award winning projects from Oscar winning Zero Dark Thirty to Emmy nominated Catch 22, by George Clooney. Awks.
Roger Davies was recently in JJ Abrams’ Cloverfield Paradox.
Oh & apparently Alex Norton “was in Taggart for a bit”. Alex played the lead in Taggart for years & has over 100 screen credits to his name. He’s also currently in Two Doors Down, winning best comedy at NTAs in 2017.
Oh & apparently Alex Norton “was in Taggart for a bit”. Alex played the lead in Taggart for years & has over 100 screen credits to his name. He’s also currently in Two Doors Down, winning best comedy at NTAs in 2017.
They’re so caught up in their own distain, that they can’t even bare to mention that the music is one of the best sound tracks EVER USED in a TV show, let alone a kid’s show. The company had a deal with Sony at the time & had access to a solid catalogue of absolute *chunes!!!
There’s no notice that often when looking back at TV it rarely ages well. It’s always a sign of the times it’s made in. Nostalgia is a powerful thing. They fail to name a better kids show about football in their attack but for some reason keep talking about Saved By The Bell. 
And lastly then there’s the final trope which is often painful to observe when looking at a show like Rejects. It’s the reason why it was dubbed into many languages sold to over 100 countries but NOT to the USA: shows about losers are hard to make cool.
Even today, fans of the show are often embarrassed to like it. Or find it hard to say they liked a show about ‘Rejects‘. You can hear presenter Seb painfully trying to tread a line where he’s afraid to say what he liked about it as a kid, because his other ‘cool’ friends hate it.
This has been something we’ve seen from fans time & time again. It wasn’t ever cool to like the Rejects when full puberty hit. And that’s where the message has been lost, on the journey to adulthood. It’s ok to be weird. It’s ok to be different, or odd.
It’s ok to root for the underdog. To stick up for the misfits. Especially for the little guy. It’s what Rejects taught us, but we forgot. You don’t have to be good. Or cool. You can be whatever you are in the world, as long as you’re nice to each other. And the Rejects were.
That’s why we loved them, they showed us the best of us, in them at their worst. They showed us to be ourselves, whatever we are. Turns out these guys doing the podcast - ironically - are just the Razors. Critical bully boys, too ignorant to even notice their own clumsy flaws.
