Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy

Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy, known as Luxury Comedy 2: Tales from Painted Hawaii for series two, is a British surreal comedy television series written and directed by Noel Fielding and Nigel Coan. The initial format for the series changes after the first series, with series one being a surreal sketch show, and series two being a sitcom. The series stars Noel Fielding, his brother Michael Fielding, Tom Meeten, Dolly Wells, and occasionally Rich Fulcher, Dave Brown, and Richard Ayoade. The first episode premiered on 26 January 2012 on E4. The music for the first series was written by Noel Fielding and Kasabian's Sergio Pizzorno, a good friend of Fielding's, under the band name Loose Tapestries. The duo were joined for the second series by Kasabian touring member, Tim Carter.
It is described on the Channel 4 website as "a psychedelic character based comedy show half filmed and half animated". The first series started airing on 26 January 2012 and lasted for seven episodes. Channel 4 commissioned a second series, which started airing on E4 on 31 July 2014. The series format has switched from sketch show to sitcom, set mainly in a Hawaiian coffee shop. It features many new characters as well as the majority of characters from the first run. The series is given the subtitle Tales from Painted Hawaii.
Each episode is structured around a plot involving Noel and his friends, accompanied by sketches featuring strange characters who are usually not connected to the main story. The first series is set in Noel's treehouse in a red and blue jungle, while the second series Tales from Painted Hawaii is set on a fictional island in Hawaii, where Noel runs a coffee shop. There are fewer sketches in the second series than in the first, with most of the character sketches being set around the Hawaiian island. During the second series, most episodes revolve around the characters having to complete a task before the end of the show.
All characters listed are played by Noel Fielding, unless stated otherwise.
The show's soundtrack is provided by Fielding and close friend Sergio Pizzorno of rock band Kasabian, who formed the group Loose Tapestries to make music for the series. An album entitled Loose Tapestries Presents: the Luxury Comedy Tapes was released following the first series. Fielding and Pizzorno returned to create the soundtrack for series two with Kasabian guitarist, Tim Carter. The series one theme tune appears on the album as "Luxury Comedy" - a Hawaiian style variation of this theme tune is used for series two.
Series 1 received mixed reviews, offering both high praise and scathing criticism.
The Guardian described it as a "neo-psychedelic riot of mirth that regurgitates decades of memories of broad, Technicolor TV entertainment from The Banana Splits onwards." Stephen Armstrong wrote in The Sunday Times that "Fielding grins down like a fiendish blend of Peter Gabriel, Syd Barrett, Samuel Beckett and a TV-age Antonin Artaud, unsettling and hypnotising in equal measure. In these dreary times it's as subversive as Bowie appearing on Tops of The Pops in a dress." Andy Johnson at Purple Revolver said that "if someone wanted to make TV for Salvador Dalí and Rene Magritte then Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy would be it. The artwork, decadent use of colour and reckless abandonment of the rules of form is a delight to watch."
On the other hand, The Yorker said "The plots are too obscure to follow, so one is left with a lurid array of half-animated, half-real characters spouting phrases which seem to have been generated by flicking through the dictionary at random." The Scotsman said of Fielding: "as an absurdist comedian he's so painfully uninspired and laboured" and "I was left bewildered as to how anyone could ever fall for this charmless rubbish", and goes on to say "he patently thinks of himself as a mind-blowing surrealist bursting with astonishing ideas (A sentient chocolate finger! A Noo Yoik cop with a talking wound!). But in reality he's the tiresome equivalent of the unfunny office clown persistently proclaiming how mad he is."
Series 2 was rated 4/5 stars by the Daily Telegraph's Christopher Howse, who described it as "best watched drunk".
In Australia, the first season commenced airing on ABC2 each Thursday at 10:30pm from 5 April 2012.