10 TV Shows Literally One Step From Perfection
7. The Trip - Drop The Kidnapping Plot
Michael Winterbottom’s cult comedy is a firm favourite among aficionados of British comedy. A deliciously meta and conversational slice-of-life, the series delights in showcasing beautiful scenery throughout Italy and Spain whilst Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon exchange hilarious and often improv’d bon mots and banter.
Despite the very English humour, the show proved popular enough with audiences to translate into a hit stateside, joining only a handful of British comedies in receiving the honour. It’s all thanks to Brydon and Coogan’s easy, charming chemistry and the meandering, sometimes melancholy but always funny shaggy dog story of the plotting.
That is, until the end of season three (so far the final episode of the series).
After being left by a contented Brydon, Coogan travels to North Africa to fulfil his literary ambitions (read: pretensions) and author a travelogue of his life experience comparable to his heroes Hemingway and Orwell.
He soon awakens from a dream to find himself in good stead to start such an adventure - as a jeep of hollering militia men approach him fast. Winterbottom defended the scene as a riposte to the Coogan’s character pretension, but the image of masked men hunting down our hero is… It’s not the funniest corker to end on and it doesn't even fit the rest of the scene.