If Stewart Lee wrote a joke about the difference between a zucchini and a post-Brexit courgette, I'm inclined to believe the punchline would have something to do with the VAT, but Stewart Lee chooses not to.
I have just finished most of Content Provider, the fourth program I purchased from the lovely folks at The Media Garage, but the only one that did not work. I tried the DVD and got the legalese and production company logo, but it froze up immediately. I tried it multiple times, using the controls to circumvent the logo and go straight to menus, but to no avail. Living as I do, I have no other devices that would play a disc of any format. So I wrote to the Garage team and explained the situation, hoping I could return the disc and get a refund, but they insisted on sending me a replacement, a second disc, in the hopes that the first one was defective somehow, though none of us considered that, perhaps, the way that particular program was coded en masse would be the main issue here. I received the second disc, and like the first, it stopped after the legalese and the production logo. I could not circumvent the logo and go straight to menus. And I wrote again asking if I could return the discs, as I now felt doubly uncomfortable at having received two discs for the cost of one, and yet as a consumer felt doubly uncomfortable at having paid for something that did not function as promised, even once. The Garage team told me I didn’t need to return the discs, but instead to perhaps find a friend I could give them to, an imaginary friend who might have more and/or better devices upon which the disc would successfully play. I appreciate their kindness and speedy responses, but this is an answer that will not work, as I have no friends. Only ex-wives, family members who wouldn't sufficiently appreciate Stewart Lee’s humor, and co-workers I will never again loan DVDs to, as the last time I did this my copy of McDonagh’s The Guard went into some nebulous black hole, never to be seen again in this reality, or at least, the reality of my apartment.
I have since watched most of Content Provider on YouTube, in brief, easily segmented portions. I quite liked the show and am very pleased that I discovered Lee’s work earlier this year. It has been an absolute joy, even when I do not grasp certain societal, cultural, political, or cartographical references. But, having never lived in or studied the United Kingdom, I can’t say that this is not unrealistic. My knowledge of the United Kingdon comes largely from films, and of those, largely from crime scenarios. So I know a great deal about Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins and where their adversaries’ bodies are buried. But general handy knowledge, no.
So, if you were in the market for a copy of Stewart Lee’s Content Provider, message me and we can probably come to an arrangement. I can accommodate two of you.
