Blog: To Me, My Hairdressers!

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Feared and scorned by a world they have sworn to cut the hair of, BBC1 presents, CUTTING IT!

Yes! I watched one of my TWO favourite programmes last night, "Cutting It". Cutting it is BLOODY GRATE, and I'll tell you why - it's the closest thing telly has ever got to real proper Superhero Comics. The thing i LOVE about, for instance, Grant Morrison's X-Men, or The Fantastic Four (pretty much any time), or anything by Alan Moore, is that they're so full of IDEAS. At no point, i think, does Alan Moore ever think "Hang on, am i sure i really want to do this? Should i not perhaps tone it down a bit?" NO. Instead they go FULL TILT into IDEA SPACE (yes) and write down whatever GRATE ideas they come up with. I already banged on about the "Here Comes Tomorrow" ending of X-Men the other month, it's a perfect example of the free flowing RUSH of new idea after new idea, unrestricted and FANTASTIC.

Well, it seems to me that Cutting It is the same sort of thing. Every episode is a DERANGED cavalcade of GRATE new ideas and plot twists, you can practically HEAR the writers in the pub (and don't tell me this series is not at least partly written in the pub) saying "Hang on! What if she pushes him in the canal? And then steals the baby? And then climbs a tower block? BRILLIANT!" as they thrust on from GRATE idea to GRATE idea. I LOVE it!

In fact, swap the word "Hairdresser" for "Mutant" and it IS the X-Men. Look at the salon team - they ALL have different super-powers (some more useful than others - Syd is never going to defeat Doctor Doom by doing his nails... he wears metal gloves, for a start), they wear fantastic costumes, they have complex continuity with each other which DOESN'T interfere with the current story (otherwise why would Eugene still be there at ALL?), and they have super hero NAMES! This last bit is ESPECIALLY true for the Super Villains, like Beauregard Smee the Civil War Looney, or Dulcima Goodrush, the Nanny From Hell.

In fact, i would go so far as to say it passes The Dinosaur Test. This is The Dinosaur Test: "If a Gigantic DINOSAUR suddenly appeared, would the film/television programme/idle daydream suddenly become silly and rubbish? Or will it be EVEN BETTER?" Cutting It, of course, passes with flying colours - you can just see FINN, unable to save ALLIE from the jaws of the TYRANNOSAUR can't you? Even as GAVIN is clinging on to its tale, as EUGENE pledges his love for DARCY with his dying, GORED, breath!

BBC1! You can have that one for free!

posted 26/5/2004 by MJ Hibbett

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