I love Crapston Villas

I'm in love with Crapston Villas, Sarah Ann Kennedy's extremely grimy stop-motion comedy series from the mid-90s. It's hard to believe a show this chaotic and nasty was ever allowed to exist, but I'm so glad it does. It's loud and abrasive but also honest and hilarious. I only discovered it last week, but it's now one of my favourite shows ever. I burned through the two series of 10x10 episodes quickly, despite knowing it would end on an unresolved cliffhanger (maybe the only fitting way to end a soap opera satire) and I'm currently experiencing post-Crapston withdrawals.

The visceral, tactile nature of stop-motion is perfect for this show. It amplifies how upsetting everything is.

The pacing feels so unique & unencumbered by TV comedy conventions/expectations. There aren't always hard punchlines or buttons, it's more about bathing you in the squalid atmosphere and a constant barrage of funny weirdness.

The show makes great use of real-world imagery like magazine covers and t-shirts.

I'm impressed by the casual female nudity throughout the series, bare breasts are never a big deal or even acknowledged. Somehow even two decades later on Tuca & Bertie, we were still fighting for that.

Crapston breaks all the rules of TV animation and feels like a vital shock to the system, even all these years later. It's currently all on youtube (and on 4 on Demand if you're in the UK) so go check it out. It's definitely and aggressively not for everyone, by design, but I think even if you don't enjoy it yourself you can appreciate how special it is that something so weird, specific and unique was created.