Green Wing - Critical Reaction

Critical Reaction

The show has received generally very positive reviews. The Evening Standard said that it was "a comedy as physically adroit as it was verbally sharp", and The Guardian said that "Channel 4’s hospital sitcom is the most innovative comedy since, well, The Office." In a review of television in 2006, Kathryn Flett in The Observer voted it one of the top ten TV programmes of the year. In Broadcast magazine, the second series was voted joint-second best comedy series in 2006. In South Africa, where Green Wing is broadcast on BBC Prime, The Sunday Times of South Africa voted the show the best DStv programme of 2007. Composer Daniel Pemberton wrote that the soundtrack to Green Wing was, "One of the most innovative TV soundtracks in recent years." Famous fans of Green Wing include novelist Ian Rankin and comedian Catherine Tate.

Criticisms of Green Wing include the lazzi methods of filming and the overall length of the episodes, claiming that hour-long episodes are too long. The show won the 2005 and 2006 Comedy Tumbleweed Awards for "Worst Camerawork". Some were also critical of what was seen as a decline in quality when the second series began. Cathy Pryor in The Independent on Sunday said that, "Sadly, though, since I'm something of a fan, I have to report that the first episode of the second series is, disappointingly, rather flat. To be fair, there were a couple of laugh-out-loud moments - Dr Statham banging his head and falling down being one of them - but the whole didn't quite gel. Or should that be coagulate? I'll stop making bad jokes now since I'm still not as funny as anyone in the show. But I sincerely hope that the opener is a one- off and not a sign that Green Wing is going down the pan."

Similar comments were made by A. A. Gill. When the first series was broadcast, he praised the cast and characters, but commented negatively on the filming style and dramatic qualities. He also said:

"...it was one of the most freshly funny and crisply innovative comedies for years. The humour was all based in the character, not the situation. The story lines were negligible; there were no catch phrases; it was surreal in a way we hadn’t seen since Monty Python; and the cast were actors being funny from inside a characterization, not stand-up comics bolting a cartoon persona onto the back of gags."

Subsequently, Gill attacked the first episode of series two, in particular the use of a dream sequence at the beginning of the episode. He wrote,

"Now, every 11-year-old knows dream sequences are the lowest form of plotting solution, lower than unexplained superpowers such as the ability to stop time or become invisible; even lower than a magic get-better potion. Within two minutes, Green Wing had destroyed itself, lost its assured grip on the cliff of comedy and tumbled into the abyss of embarrassing overacting, formless gurning and pointless repetition. What had once looked Dada-ishly brilliant now looked like stoned improv from a show-off's drama school. The lack of plot and coherent narrative that previously had been a blessed freedom was revealed to be a formless free-for-all, brilliant performances as silly mannerisms. Nothing I've seen this year has disappointed me as sharply as the second series of Green Wing. As Tom Paine so poignantly pointed out, only a step separates the sublime from the ridiculous."

The rest of the series received some praise and, in a 2009 article, Gill - writing about the current comedy output at the time - said: "Show me a funny indigenous comedy series; show me one that has been made in the past five years, other than Green Wing."