Homepage News Reviews - Acts - Shows - Screen - Radio - Books - Clubs Interviews Awards 2006 Edinburgh 2005 - Reviews - Blog - Previews Features Archive Awards 2005 Edinburgh 2004: - Previews - Shows - Diary Guestbook Forum © Emporium Of Mirth 2004 Editor: Lauren Murphy Reporters: Fiona Wilkie Natalie Joanne	Emporium of Mirth The Smoking Room The Smoking Room is nowhere near as good as its trailers would have you believe. While at first glance, the concept and format seems flawless- several characters interacting in one room, providing insight into their working lives- the way it is executed is somehow lacking in something. Perhaps it’s the overacting from certain members of the cast (and there’s a difference between portraying a zealous character and not being able to act). Or perhaps it’s the unnecessary emphasis and clarification of some of the jokes (for example, the office technician pointing to the broken drinks machine and saying, “someone should take a look at that”, followed by the completely redundant line, “yeah, you, it’s your job”). Or perhaps it is simply that choosing to create a sitcom using the same format as The Office is highly dangerous, and the likelihood of a favourable comparison is very slim. That’s not to say that there aren’t some extremely funny bits- the cleverly repeated desire of Robin to find the theme tune to Little House on the Prairie, for example. Ooh, and they use The Cure’s “Close to Me” as a theme tune, which can only be a good thing. Am I scraping the barrel a bit?! Still, I won’t be as harsh (or as illogical) as my father, who refused point blank to watch it because “they’re smoking all the time” (I didn’t understand either); all I’ll say is, give it a try, but make sure there’s nothing better on first. The Smoking Room is on BBC3, Tuesdays, 9pm For more information, go to the official site Reviewed by Nat, summer 2004 RSS  Printable version	Visit our Siamese Twin Sister Site!