Sam Campbell’s Make That Movie hailed as the year’s funniest television
The series, airing on Channel 4 in the UK and HBO Max in Australia, follows a former director helping people create bizarre low-budget films.
The Guardian has published a review of Sam Campbell’s new mockumentary sitcom, Make That Movie, describing it as the funniest television show of the entire year. The series, which airs on Channel 4 in the UK and HBO Max in Australia, follows Campbell as a former film director who now helps individuals create bizarre, low-budget productions. The review contrasts the show’s ostentatiously silly nature with recent television trends that prioritised trauma-based narratives.
Campbell is known for his roles in The Last One Laughing and Taskmaster, formats he reportedly destroyed and rebuilt in his image. The review positions the show against a decade-long tailspin in television comedy where creators felt compelled to justify humour through trauma or psychological dissociation. Campbell is identified as Australian-born, currently working in the UK entertainment industry.
The show is described as a high-concept mockumentary lacking identifiable human emotion. Specific plot points mentioned include a Da Vinci Code-style thriller involving snakes and a cyber-thriller where pensioners enter computers by singing and inserting USB cables into their mouths. The show features visual gags such as CGI snakes, animated feet, and an AI chatbot named Superbreast.
The review suggests Campbell is likely familiar with the cult film Birdemic: Shock and Terror, noting Make That Movie worships the kind of fascinatingly bad outsider art that film represents. The reviewer notes Campbell’s Australian perspective creates comedic confusion regarding British culture, specifically regarding children’s book characters and football hooliganism films.
The review expresses hope that the show will continue, while cautioning that it risks lapsing into formula if it runs for too long. The review states the reasons for Campbell’s character’s fall from grace as a director are never made fully clear, leaving the narrative motivation ambiguous. The reviewer’s claim that Campbell knows Birdemic inside out is speculative interpretation rather than confirmed fact. The assertion that this is the funniest TV show of the entire year is a subjective critical opinion, not an objective metric.