Armageddapocalypse: Threat Level Dead

To start with the the negatives: Armageddapocalypse: Threat Level Dead is wholly stupid. Taking a nerd's delight in farting around with the ludicrous tropes of action films and espionage novels to a defcon level for which there exists no colour, this is comedy at its daftest.  A show based around agent Jack Lang ("the renegadiest agent in the whole agency") and his attempt to defeat #1 terrorist Dragomir Volkov, it's a thick soup of terrible puns, outlandish stereotypes, and embarrassing bathos. There's a simple answer to the question of how seriously to treat an hour whose narrative arc culminates in a good, hard kick to the balls: not very seriously at all.

The thing is, it's also pretty funny. Helped by their wholehearted commitment to the ridiculous affair, the foursome from Cambridge sustain a tribute to the Hollywood monster which gets funnier by accretion. One bad pun isn't very funny; two are even worse. But 20 of the buggers will break down even the toughest resistence to a giggle. There's also some frankly delicious lines ("stop your Freudian mind games and give me a pint of mother") which benefit from being delivered as hammily as they are. Sure, the four students spend a little too much time making each other corpse, but it's forgivable insofar as it doesn't usually impinge upon the breakneck pace of this faux thriller. Armageddapocalylpse sets itself a target of driving an intelligent audience to laugh at a kick to the balls – and it largely hits its mark.