Something that's always irked me - slightly - about Chaos is how realistic parts of it are.

Whilst the end result is still some excellent comedy the animal lab security gates aren't particularly convincing and leaving the security guard with made up bruises that wouldn't stand up to an examination doesn't ring right.

Should comedy programs strive to be realistic or doesn't it really matter?

I think it shouldn't matter.... as long as it's funny it's fine by me.

And if it's got Simon Pegg looking extremely hot then that's ok too
(As if he ever doesn't look hot hee hee)

I think the security gates were a little fake looking due to budget constraints, although it must be said that virtually everything else, set wise, looks very professionally done. I guess you just need to suspended disbelief for the bruises bit although it is a very good gag.

That is true. But i can see where Raven is coming from. Also, if he'd been beaten up, would his galsses still be in such good shape.

I don't think it matters one jot about the realism. Although the Spaced universe is full of identifiable characters, situations and locations, it is of course imbued with whimsical fantasy, dream-like imagery, science fiction references and so on, all of which serve to detach it from our reality.

It always strikes me as odd that they decide to adopt codenames to avoid being identified, yet Mike has his name written in big white letters on his chest.

I think Spaced gets away with it, since all the bizarre action is grounded in the realities of life as a twentysomething in a North London flat.

british comedys just lower budget ,look at red dwarf.. its hella funny but the ''futuristic'' set is made 'o' cardboard.

but isn't it things like that, that add to the overall classic-ness (?) of the show. I mean, would you having broken into an animal lab then preceed to smoke on the step outside....I think not my friend!

No, but then again I don't smoke. But if I did it would be something that I would do since I'm not the most professional person when it comes to, well, anything, and anyone who doesn't usually break into places would get bored on lookout so I've always considered that bit to be quite true to life since it's something that real people might do, plus it does fit in with Daisy as a character.

As far as the gates go, they aren't really 'gates', they're just your common construction site fencing and I've never considered them to be all that much of a problem, especially since my thinking about them goes something like this; ''It's a clandestine animal research facility, it wouldn't want to draw attention to itself so wouldn't have big fences or anything and noone would look twice at a place with crappy fencing''.

Yes... if they had been knocked off at the beginning of the fight!

I don't think the realism matters where the make-up/beating up is concerned as it's a great pay-off for Twist giving her character something to contribute rather than merely being Daisy's bitchy friend and therefore bringing them together as a group alot more. Also the ending reminds me of a Scooby Doo ending where everything is resloved a bit too neatly.

Simon and Jess spoof this type of over-convenient and sentimental resolution by adding a big dollop of irony. For example the dialogue with the security guard-

Guard- I've always been a bit of a 'yes-man'
All- Have you?
Guard- Yes

Is just a tad too sincere in order to make it funny, and the way they laugh for too long at the 'there we go WE BEAT YOU UP!!' line all makes the viewer aware that the writers are acknowledging that they're not really taking this ending seriously. It has the same effect as the dialogue at the end of 2.1- 'Funny day wasn't it? Yeah sort of slightly unbelievable.' They are not trying to convince us that these events are real but inviting us into Tim and Daisy's world where odd things just happen.

The gates bit on the other hand is merely set/budget related and it slightly annoys me each time, well when I say 'annoys' I mean that I notice the fact that it's not convincing rather than just accepting it. This small detail doesn't spoil one of the best episodes of the series.

On another note-I've just realised quite how much STUFF happens in Chaos- it's choc-full of fried gold! More of this in another post I think!

I've never really seen the gate thing as a problem. A lot of laboratories don't have high tech security gates, just guards in booths at the entrance. The actual building would prove a lot harder to get into, but as we know this particular laboratory is not exactly being run legitimately, so I guess anything can go.