Whites

Once and a while you find a show that is amazing but is cut short. This is the case for BBC's comedy Whites starring Alan Davies which aired in 2010. Davies stars as Roland White a washed up chef who's rather cranky and doesn't like to do much work. Katherine Parkinson, from The IT Crowd  plays the restaurant manager Caroline who has just the right about of sassyness to her. Isy Suttie, a comedy newcomer plays the stupid girl with a heart but she has some funny moments. 

Yes, I am obsessed with Alan Davies but I also love shows about kitchens. I watch cooking reality shows; Hells Kitchen and Masterchef, instructional cooking shows; America's Test Kitchen and John and Capril's Kitchen and non-reality shows such as Chef! Having experience working in kitchens it gives me something to identify with. 

I do have to say Davies in kitchen whites not a bad look. His look was a bit different from what I'm used to. (Of course I just watch his early stand up so I was jumping over a decade of time) It was quite a shot to see the greying hair, the added weight and facial hair. For the first few episodes he reminded me of someone else but I couldn't put my finger on it and then it dawned on me, and unlikely as it sounds he reminded me of Leonardo DeCaprio. Although the picture doesn't show it well while watching Davies in action I couldn't stop thinking of Leo, it's the facial hair I think.

Really it's such a different role from Davies' usual stuff. Roland's not quite a villain but he's well on his way to becoming one. He's a horrible person, rude to everyone and there is no question as to why he's divorced but despite all of that there's a likability to him. There is a vulnerable side to him that he covers by being an asshole and taking the credit for everything good. The fact that Roland dismisses vegetarians and goes on a rant against them, while Davies is a vegetarian added an extra layer of comedy, just a little icing on the cake. If the show would have gone on there was an interesting relationship brewing between Roland and Caroline. Katherine Parkinson did a good job as Caroline although it she seemed to be just a tamer version of her character in The IT Crowd. 

 

The style of the show like some of the more recent comedies, most notably The Office has no laugh track and really lacks much of a soundtrack completely which gives it a darker tone but it's still laugh out loud funny. The comedy though is through words and not slap stick forcing the audience to pay attention and not just sit back and absorb it. Skoose is super annoying and you really just want to strangle him throughout the whole series especially when he gets the better of Bib. It adds a fun tension to the show. Overall the series is full of witty zingers making it definitely my brand of comedy. The cast worked really well together, very well casted and brilliantly acted.