Spitting Image (2020–2021) User Reviews

Meh

[harrisonevans-79068 · 6/10 · 17 October 2020]

A bit bland in my opinion, not as much passion and heart, and I know they're trying their best but it's got poor writing jokes that don't land and missed opportunities for good jokes in the scenes.

Lets face it, the only reason they've brought back the show after so long is because brit box obviously wasn't bringing in enough money for itv so they can now use spitting image as a marketing tool to get subscriptions.

To be honest the good bits in newzoids (which was a very good show when it got it right) are about the same level as this. It's frustrating too because I love spitting image and I see pottential in it but it just isn't delivering which is so sad to me considering it's already tarnished reputation from the 94/96 era.

Disappointing!

[mudonn · 5/10 · 4 October 2020]

The puppets were good but otherwise a dissapointment!

Halloween Special

[glenn-aylett · 5/10 · 31 October 2021]

Spitting Image was one of my favourite comedy shows from the eighties, a clever series with grotesque puppets of politicians and celebs of the day being voiced by professional voice artists and often being very amusing. I switched on the main ITV channel( the current series is on Britbox) to see what the Halloween special would be like.

I wasn't very impressed. The puppets are excellent and the show is very topical as ever, it was just the voices and the hunour were a big let down. Spitting Image did have some really funny moments, such as Adele being trick or treated and Nicola Sturgeon headbutting her political opponents, just the rest seemed laboured and the f word was used too much( this was never used in the original). The whole Elton John celebrity mystery was completely drawn out and boring, the Ronaldo in the cage sketch was bizarre, and the Daniel Craig impersonation was terrible. ( He's not an American).

I can see why ITV has limited Spitting Image to Britbox, it's just not good enough for their main channel and while they have tried really hard with the puppets, it's not enough to watch a whole series.

Not funny, not even good voice talent

[antony-1 · 3/10 · 22 November 2020]

Oh dear. I was so looking forward to its return. But it's just not that funny.

Sure the odd scene raises a bit of a smile, but that's few and far between.

The puppet work is spot on and amazing. All praise there.

But the voices aren't very good. Trump for example... there are SO MANY people that can do Trump well. And this is just substandard. Boris Johnson too.

Add to that it's not funny, it's not daring... it's sadly one to miss.

The fact that they wanted to sell subscriptions of this makes it particularly risible.

Brilliant!!

[Sleepin_Dragon · 10/10 · 3 October 2020]

Just wow!

I had hoped it was going to be good, I wasn't expecting it to be awesome, I was stunned by how good this was.

It was funny, it was relevant, it pushed the boundaries in ways I wasn't expecting it to, it was always a controversial show, it remains so.

Awesome puppets, decent voices, and a definite sense that they're not planning to hold back.

The stars, Boris, Donald and as always The Royals.

I thought the full series was going to be uploaded, but it's an episode a week, when you watch this one you'll see that it's bang up to date, more so than I had expected.

Loved it! 10/10

refreshing p**s take

[singleton-hugh · 7/10 · 7 October 2020]

Thought I'd give this a try with a free britbox subscription. Not seen the original series.

The show doesn't hold back, seems rather uncensored and raw at times but this is refreshing in my opinion. It cuts through the dire politics either side of the Atlantic.

The content is topical and there's some clever ideas though also some sketches that aren't effective. Lewis Hamilton is done well but Keir Starmer less so.

The voice acting isn't the best but with caricatures this isn't the focus.

It's not so much laugh out funny as some of the content is just cringe. It will offend but that's par for the course.

Judging from the first episode would giving it 7/10.

Utter Crap!!

[chris_p_batter · 1/10 · 6 October 2020]

The most unfunny thing I've watched in a very long time. If you're suffering from insomnia, this will probably help you sleep!! Other than that, it serves no purpose whatsoever. With this, they've totally trashed the Spitting Image legacy. It should have been left in the past, where it was fondly remembered, not dragged into the 21st Century with all the humour of public execution. Which is basically what they've done to the Spitting Image that we know and loved.

Don't bother watching this, go and watch some paint dry instead!!

Had me rolling with laughter

[Sol3UK · 9/10 · 4 October 2020]

Just like the old Spitting Image, it had me rolling with laughter. It's not about the impressions but the satire and it's bang on. The creators do have a multituted of material to pick from and the inclusion of Greta Thunberg doing the weather was inspired.

worst tv show ever

[roger_2020 · 10 October 2020]

This show is terrible, I couldn't find one aspect or piece of the show that made it worthwhile or likable. I hope the ITV flushes the toilet on this show before it's stench starts spreading to other shows. It should be less than 1 star rated

Pleasant, good for a smirk or two...but the bite is not there.

[mcrocket-33814 · 7/10 · 22 June 2021]

I have seen many reviews and I think giving this updated series 1 or 2 out of ten is just being dramatic. No way it is that bad.

After seeing much of the original and much of this one?

I would say this one is more accessible to North Americans (like me). The original often had British characters I knew literally nothing about...so the jokes meant little to me.

But the world has changed since then and a LOT smaller. Pretty much everyone they mentioned this time - I knew of. Or could easily find out about.

So is it as biting as it was? Not even close.

But with PC drowning out every, original thought these days. It's still nice to see someone poking fun at things/people most people would never dare.

Like Greta Thunberg (whom I actually rather admire). They just tore her up and they were probably the funniest bits for me. Trump was okay...not bad. Though I would have liked a harsher ripping of the Royals.

Okay - it's not as vicious (or as hilarious) as the original could be.

But if you forget that and just enjoy a little un-PC comedy in a MEGA-PC world?

It's pleasant.

Very disappointing.

[philiptmoss · 2/10 · 14 October 2020]

Nowhere near the program that it was back in the 80's. If this is satirical comedy then sack the writers! Not a single laugh - not even a smile. Utter rubbish!!

Extremely funny ignore the critics

[guscommunications · 10/10 · 17 November 2020]

This is extremely funny Anyone who doesn't find it so is either but hurt because it Pokes fun at their political idols (and it pokes fun at people on all sides of our. Riduculusly divided and fanatical politics) or they slimy have no sense of humour. I grew up with it. And it's anarchic humour has not been dulled one whit.

Awesome! Just not for everone

[woeterman_94 · 7/10 · 20 October 2020]

This show is awesome. Don't let others tell you otherwise.

Satire that placates the court

[samitchell-30496 · 1/10 · 17 October 2020]

Dreadful writing, dreadful voice acting, incredibly slow and awkwardly paced. What happened to satire poking fun at the establishment.

Not even a shadow of it's former self.

[john-m-madsen · 3/10 · 3 November 2020]

The original Spitting Image was far and away the best satirical program on TV in the eighties, as evidenced by it's near world-wide popularity and the plethora of international adaptations.

This thing, not so much. It seems the writers has taken little to no inspiration from the biting political satire which made the original such a hit. Instead they have substituted it with largely toothless and bland humor and apparently rely on the (admittedly excellent) puppets to provide the laughs. Add in the shoddy, sometimes awful, impressions and you end up with a real dog's dinner of a show.

In general it seems that proper satire, political or not, is now a dead or dying art amongst today's writers. Or maybe the fault lies with the executives and their lack of spine. Who knows.

Anyway, I suppose there's still a glimmer of hope. The first season of the original series also fell flat and it wasn't until Rob Grant and Doug Naylor were brought in that it took off and became the jewel we all know and love. Fingers crossed then that the writers and voice actors are booted out post hase and some decent ones located.

Absolutely brilliant, and that it is pissing off right-wingnuts is the icing on the cake!

[greg-goremykin · 10/10 · 4 October 2020]

Absolutely loved it! I never missed a single episode of the original series when I was 14 to 26 years old, and now at 50 this is like the greatest birthday gift ever. It is true to the incisive satire and biting wit (see what I did there?) of the original in every sense of the word.

I suspect the "1" votes (c'mon, really, a 1??) are butt-hurt Brexit Tories and Trumpists that are wondering how this new show can just be so horrible compared to the first series they so love back in uni in the late 80s... wll guess what?? Neither the show or the humour or the puppets have changed, YOU have!

And some reviews I've run online are such obvious Russian FSB/GRU troll puppet accounts that it adds just an extra surreal element to puppets falsely critiquing puppets! You can't write stuff that good!

Boomer Humour

[owen-watts · 30 November 2020]

This belated and tired revival of Spitting Image is exactly what it shouldn't be, completely safe and quite boring - despite a wealth of ex-Futurama (!) voice/writing talent and some clever puppetry the whole series comes across as flaccid, dated, cheap and nowhere near the sharp satire we desperately crave. There are rare glimmers of potential in there - the Cummings-as-alien-overlord shtick was routinely very good and most of the UK cabinet bashing was semi-cathartic but generally it was more spinelessly preoccupied with celebrity egos and desperate slapstick than anything really meaningful or... well, funny. It wasn't funny. Fundamentally it should have at least had that. Existentially there were issues as well, in that it was relegated to a subscription service rather than on "normal" television - so barely anybody even saw it. Satire really should be available to everyone but when it's this tired and crass perhaps obscurity is a kindness.

With another series commissioned they need to do a serious re-think. Get some more talented impressionists (no offence to the bafflingly sidelined veteran US voice talent of Billy West, John DiMaggio and Phil LaMarr but full offence intended for the over-used Forde who can only really do Boris well), go after some hard targets, stop chasing the easy gags and REALLY don't feel like you need to do a song an episode. It's not really a modern satirical show but a lazy nostalgia project for people who half-remember what mainstream satire used to look like.

Better than expected

[pcs17071978 · 6/10 · 22 October 2020]

I like it, a lot of people don't but I do so there.

Puppets Where Really Good but The Show was Not Funny.

[pitabread-332-717370 · 2/10 · 5 October 2020]

The puppets where really good and the voices on the hole where mostly ok, the odd sketch was funny but after about 10 to 15 minutes I was bored and lost interest, my wife didn't find any of it funny. I was really looking forward to this program especially with all the adverts and the hipe over the last few weeks but don't think I will be watching anymore, unless there is absolutely nothing else to watch, overall it was disappointing and poor.

It didn't disappoint! I'm so happy!

[bronaghbop · 10/10 · 6 October 2020]

I've been looking forward to this so much I was scared it was going to be a letdown but I needn't have worried. As a deaf person, I was initially gutted when the subtitles didn't work on Chromecast but I was watching with my son and his partner and they were cracking up laughing. Just tried it again and the subtitles have been sorted now (thank you, much appreciated) and I absolutely loved it! Well done to all concerned, as a massive fan of the original, you didn't let me down at all. Hilarious! 🤣🤣🤣

Good for characters

[tikke · 7/10 · 25 April 2022]

This is great at creating the puppets but scripting is bad. It deserves a 7 just for having most of the clowns running the world casted here :) We need this back to add more of the clowns missing from first 2 seasons.

Omg..so bad

[slap2 · 1/10 · 6 October 2020]

Was looking forward to this and watched the original, with all that talent.

Watched this one, the impressions are just bad bad bad are awful, the sketches not good and even the Boris puppet lacked flair.

Left me feeling slightly nauseous with how bad it was!

Had a laugh

[biochill · 9/10 · 16 October 2020]

I had many laughs while watching the pilot so this show works for me! Please keep making episodes.

I thought it was well done and timely

[MajBlade2 · 7/10 · 26 September 2021]

This is hilarious and should be watched big time in the US but of course it wont they go after everyone here and some of it is just outrageously fun

I know we have had shows like this before right before the election we had one here in the US called Lets Be Real same exact concept only went 4 epiosodes becasuse it skewered some powerful people on the right and left . Some of the skits were hit or miss like most shows like this but overall I found it funny and would watch it again.

ABSOLOUTLY, SHOCKINGLY BAD

[JUICEZ-49ers · 1/10 · 24 October 2020]

Signed up to britbox for this. Did not even finish the first episode. Not funny at all. So so bad I honestly don't know what the writers are on. GARBAGE