Steve Coogan appears alongside Rob Brydon in The Trip
The Trip, starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon aired its final episode on Monday night and went out on a brilliant high. The premise is simple, Steve and Rob play themselves as they travel around the North of England reviewing restaurants. Controversial British director Michael Winterbottom directed this largely improvised comedy. It's the second time he's worked with the pairing, after they appeared together on A Cock and Bull Story and the on-screen chemistry they have, or haven't, as they appear to make out is such a joy to watch. Both Coogan and Brydon play loose versions of themselves, the series began with Coogan calling Brydon to ask him to accompany him around the North, as he reviews restaurants for The Observer Magazine. The beginning shows the cracks in Coogan as he has to turn to his friend instead of his girlfriend to review the restaurants and the simple differences between Brydon's family life and Coogan's lonely life make for the central theme for the series. It's the improvised comedy which takes this apart from the rest and somewhat brings it to a higher level than anything else that's on TV at the moment. Sometimes it makes it seem slow, but it feels natural. They have arguments, they get on each others nerves and they do a lot of impressions. From Michael Caine, to Al Pacino, to Ronnie Corbett, they're always doing impressions and Steve Coogan's mocking of Rob Brydon only masks his jealousy for how successful his life seems, whilst Coogan is still trying to break into American films. The comedy isn't always laugh out loud but the great thing about The Trip is it's accessibility, it's such easy viewing that it's hard not to like it. In the final episode, it really brings everything together. The only criticism is that each episode retreads the same kind of scenarios and they talk about fairly similar things aside from anything that moves the series along. The final episode draws things to a close and in all honesty, nothing on TV at the moment is as fresh and so enjoyable to watch. Along with the new webisodes of Alan Partridge that are airing every Friday on the Fosters Funny site, might we see a return of Steve Coogan to British television? We can only hope. FemaleFirst - James Butlin
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