Nathan 'Barley' Sugar

Friday Nights-Monday Mornings, I don't know what it is!

When I first saw Nathan Barley as part of Channel 4's Friday night line-up I really didn't like it.

I have now come to reailse that this wasn't dislike but a manifestation of confusion.


Program Concept
This Chris Morris comedy drags the world of 'new-media' through the digital gutter. Filled with self-obsessed style freaks and talentless socialities this portrayal of the industry we hope to enter one day is an alarming wake up call. The program focuses around 3 central characters; Nathan Barley, Dan Ashcroft and his younger sister Claire, who are all at different heights of the corporate media ladder.

Nathan Barley is a 'self facilitating media node'. His site trashbat.co.ck, which is registered to the Cook Islands, and is the web-portal for him and sidekick (kick literally), Pingu. The content is all created by the penguin producer while Nathan lives the 'new-media' dream, riding little bikes, buying pointless gadgets and suffering huge-ego problems.
All this is starting to sound vaguely familiar!

Dan Ashcroft is Nathan ten years on. He has left the world of gimmicks and pretence, and is now looking for something more meaningful. Unfortunately, this cannot be found at sugaRAPE magazine, where Ashcroft is surrounded by Barley-esque characters who have no grip on reality. Deciding that he doesn't want to be at SugaRAPE anymore Ashcroft decides to stick two fingers up to his past manifestations and move on - to the Weekend on Sunday.

Claire Ashcroft finds herself in the position that many of us surely will. She has something to say, but no way of showing it to the people who count. No Guerilla Television, or lovely Steve Fossey, but there is a willing Barley to help Claire out. He offers to let Claire use trashbat editing resources free of charge, but clearly his motivations are to impress Dan, or was it to get a bit of sister action?

During the episode some interesting points have come up about the media industry, so I have documented using the following headings:

Roles - Nathan's role is self-promotion and public appearance. Without Pingu however he wouldn't have a content to show, but without Nathan, Pingu's work would never been seen. Dan sees himself as someone who has 'been there-done that' and come through the other side, and this is echoed by others seeing him as a media messiah. He seems to be someone that others look upto, the top of the tree before you enter the world of management. In contrast little sister Claire has no outlet for her work therefore roles within the industry have not be established.

Organisation - Nathan's renegade multimedia setup is totally anti-establishment, but still shares similarities with both sugaRAPE and the TV production company Claire visits. All have a hierarchry of command which is visually obvious but difficult to penetrate.

Motivations - There is a clear split between the reasons for the characters motivations, but all seem to revolve around egos, reputation and public persecption. Barley wants 'pure-glory', he doesn't care how he gets it or who he hurts along the way. These are similar to Claire's, but she has morals that stop her from exploiting and therefore gets exploited in the process. Dan on the other hand just wants to write about something he is interested in and will make an impact. He has already had the admiration and acilade, unfortunately it comes from all the wrong people.

Skills - Claire's can be seen to have storytelling skills, and editing and production proficiency. Nathan is a self-promotionalist which is a good skill to have as long as you have good work to back up all your blah blah blah...Dan is obviously a skilled writer to with people can relate with. He just can't find the best outlet for this talent, maybe the three should work together and help each other out. I suppose we will have to wait for episode 2 for find out....

Woolofsky