“I call Garth the Orson Welles of horror. And that’s not just because of his weight.”
There are literally fake actor names used for the fake characters who are being played by real actors in Richard Ayoade’s…umm… Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace: a cozy little retro TV show parody garnished by awkward, inflated dialogue and little background details that add to its intentionally terrible continuity. Demoralizing the inspiration of the artist by ego-stroking their incompetence, this is a satirical take on pseudo-intellectual complexes in the entertainment industry, as well as the media they put out about their supposed genius stars and creators. It does a pretty good job too at making 80s horror/sci-fi/drama aesthetics and tropes that were commonly taken seriously at the time into rather hilarious phenomenons. The concept here however leaves a lot more to be desired from me, but for what it’s worth, Ayoade and crew still did a decent job with the 6 episode limit.
Episode 4 in particular though sums up basically why I get so annoyed when writers treat their audiences like idiots. This show sees it as a joke to hack on classic media, yet it’s quite customary and noticeable in media still. Oh my, is me saying that an irony? Am I being a total pseudo-bitch now too?
Paul W.S. Anderson better answer to the “techie” joke too. If you know, you know. Yikes to that bulls**t…
Verdict: B-
“Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace” is now available to stream on Amazon Prime.
Burning the Celluloid 
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