History Series / GarthMarenghisDarkplace

* PstandardPsychicPstance: Liz.

* RapidFireTyping: An episode showed Liz looking up data on a computer, with the typical rapid clicking sounds, but they clearly show her fingers which are barely moving.

* StayInTheKitchen: Despite Garth's claims to the contrary, it's clear he doesn't think very highly of women. This leaks into Dagless's character (such as hiring Liz as a doctor and telling her to scrub his coffee mug in the same breath), but also in how Liz Asher is written with a scattering of empty "strong female protagonist" tropes ("I aced every semester and I got an A".) but otherwise gets dumped on by every single character and event in the story.

* TooStupidToLive: In "Hell Hath Fury", Sanchez fights off the items coming to life with his pistol, which then comes to life. He then wrestles it to the ground. Only to pull out another pistol and shoot his pistol, and then that one comes to life as well and chases him down the hall.

* TwoWordsICantCount: Character splits "telekinesis" into two words.

* UnusualEuphemism: Thornton Reed is prone to making a lot of these. "My ass is grass and he's got a lawnmower dig?"

* YourMakeupIsRunning: Liz bursts into (offscreen) tears every time Rick says something remotely hurtful. Cut to panda eyes.

** Dean is (in his own words) "not an actor", and simply blurts out his lines with no understanding of what he's saying. He frequently stares off-camera at his lines, or glances down the barrel of the camera itself, and makes beginner mistakes such as turning towards the next person to speak before they start speaking. There are also lots of obvious edits in his scenes which make it clear he couldn't manage his longer speeches in one take, and his gestures and expressions are stiff, exaggerated, and completely without force or presence. (Making things even worse is how Thorton Reed is given some of the longest, most complicated, and most intensive monologues in the show.)

* BlackComedyRape: The eye-monster that rapes a man, causing him to birth another eyeball monster. The "behind the scenes" interview has Marenghi state that the giant puppet was operated by a man who the victim's actor "had previously trusted," indicating some EnforcedMethodActing there.

* HandWave: As part of Garth's poor writing, blatant plot holes will often have quick, lazy explanations thrown in. Reed only taking a tiny sip of the contaminated water is apparently enough to not be infected, [[FridgeLogic nevermind the fact that he apparently went the entire month Dagless was in a coma without drinking any water.]]

In August 2022, it was revealed that the series would get a follow-up of sorts, in the form of a book, namely: ''Garth Marenghi's [=TerrorTome=]'', which will be released on November 10 of the same year. And if that is not enough, the publication will also come out as an audio book, read by the visionary author himself.

* ILoveNuclearPower: The eye monster is apparently the result of a sex offender's eyeball falling into an experimental gamma-ray treatment for a cancer patient.

** Garth takes a SeriousBusiness approach, [[ChewingTheScenery milking every mundane line as if it's the most terrifying thing in the world.]]

... okay, so that's not actually true. ''Garth Marenghi's Darkplace'' is a straight-faced spoof of BMovie horror works and the whole idea of the CultClassic. Its true origins are Cambridge Footlights alumni Matthew Holness and Creator/RichardAyoade's low-budget comedy horror Edinburgh Festival Fringe shows ''Garth Marenghi's Fright Knight'' (2000) and ''Garth Marenghi's Netherhead'' (2001), in which Holness and Ayoade starred alongside fellow Cambridge graduate Alice Lowe in a parody of self-important horror writers and their work, with Holness as fictional writer Garth Marenghi and Ayoade as his partner in crime (in several senses), Dean Learner. Holness and Ayoade reprised their roles in the TV series alongside Lowe as Madeleine Wool and Matt Berry as Todd Rivers.

* EightiesHair: True to its premise as an obscure [=80=]s show.
* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Played with. Rick will ocassionally give his coworkers respect for a witty remark, but he says it so bluntly it comes off as though Garth can't resist praising his own bad jokes.

** If you have closed captioning turned on, when the intro music starts the subtitles display "CHEESY 80S SYNTHESISER MUSIC".

* {{Retraux}}: The feel of an 80s tv series is replicated, from synthesizers to audio pitch artifacting, to many of the effects, right down to an old iteration of the Channel 4 logo.

** Garth's showdown with the Scots is an homage to the finale in ''Film/TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly''. The soundtrack is a bagpipe cover of the films climactic score, "The Trio."

** The nurse and the patient who are about to make out in the forest in the opening of the fifth episode become MonsterMunch when the Scotch Mist befalls them.

* BritishBrevity: ''Darkplace'' ran for only one season with six episodes. (There would been more six-episode seasons, but the show was cancelled.)

* DawsonCasting: InUniverse Thornton Reed is pretty obviously supposed to be older than the rest of the cast, but Dean Learner looks to be a bit younger than Garth and Todd. (In real life Ayoade was the youngest of the main cast, so this was probably meant to be spoofed too.)

[[caption-width-right:350: Be very, very afraid.[[note]] Left to right: Todd Rivers as Lucien Sanchez, Dean Learner as Thornton Reed, Garth Marenghi as Dr. Rick Dagless, M.D., and Madeleine Wool as Liz Asher.[[/note]]]]

* ShamelessSelfPromotion: Parodied when Dagless [[CelebrityParadox picks up a Marenghi novel]] and spouts off several lines of dialogue concerning how he had "misjudged the genre".

* BreakingTheFourthWall: On the DVD commentaries, Todd remarks on the Avalon VanityPlate and wonders why he never had any interaction with the real-world production company (Dean Learner produced the show in-universe).

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: [[AmbiguousSituation While this could just be chalked up to misremembering,]] Dean Learner mentions that upon reading the script for the pilot[[note]]and remember, ''Darkplace'' was "made" in the mid 1980s[[/note]], he openly stated it would be "the most significant, cultural event since ''Series/QuantumLeap''", a show that ''premiered'' in 1989.

* {{Overcrank}}: {{Lampshaded}} when it was explained that the excessive use of slow-motion in one episode was because they hadn't shot enough footage for a half-hour episode and needed to [[{{Padding}} pad it out]].

In August 2022, it was revealed that the series would get a follow-up of sorts, in the form of a book, namely: ''Garth Marenghi's [=TerrorTome=]'', which will release on November 10 of the same year. And if that is not enough, the publication will also come out as an audio book, read by the visionary author himself.

* DaChief: As part of Garth's ineptitude as a writer, he frequently writes the hospital staff as though they are detectives in an urban police station instead of doctors, with Thornton Reed as their cantankerous boss, regularly berating CowboyCop Dagless for not doing things by the book and under constant pressure from the mysterious "Won Ton" to produce results. Because Dean Learner is such a terrible actor, this fails utterly to come across in his performance.

** Sanch when shaking hands with Liz in the opener.

... okay, so that's not actually true. ''Garth Marenghi's Darkplace'' is a straight-faced spoof of BMovie horror works and the whole idea of the CultClassic. Its true origins are Cambridge Footlights alumni Matthew Holness and Creator/RichardAyoade's low-budget comedy horror stage shows ''Garth Marenghi's Fright Knight'' and ''Garth Marenghi's Netherhead'', in which Holness and Ayoade starred alongside fellow Cambridge graduate Alice Lowe in a parody of self-important horror writers and their work, with Holness as fictional writer Garth Marenghi and Ayoade as his partner in crime (in several senses), Dean Learner. Holness and Ayoade reprised their roles in the TV series alongside Lowe as Madeleine Wool and Matt Berry as Todd Rivers.

[[caption-width-right:350: Be very, very afraid.]]

... okay, so that's not actually true. ''Garth Marenghi's Darkplace'' is a straight-faced spoof of BMovie horror works and the whole idea of the CultClassic. It's a rare example of an ''entire show'' deliberately composed of StylisticSuck tropes, featuring [[BadBadActing terrible acting]] and [[ThatMakesMeFeelAngry dialogue]], cheesy plots with {{Anvilicious}} and [[ValuesDissonance dubious morals]] (including AttackOfTheKillerWhatever), many a SpecialEffectFailure, and atrocious camerawork, editing, and audio mixing. Along with the "[[ShowWithinAShow original footage]]", each episode is accompanied by present-day interviews with the fictional Garth Marenghi and his co-stars, who cluelessly praise the ShowWithinAShow as ahead of its time, and offer insights into its production and (rather warped) meaning.

* SpiritualSuccessor: ''Series/ManToManWithDeanLearner'', a chat show using many of the same characters. Also, ''Series/SnuffBox'', which starred Matt Berry, had Alice Loewe in a cameo (as Music/DavidBowie, of all people), and had Dean Learner show up a few times.
** The short film [[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1975105/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 "A Gun For George"]], written/directed by and starring Matthew Holness, is a much DarkerAndEdgier take on the "conceited hack writer creates idealized AuthorAvatar" concept.
** ''Darkplace'' itself bears something of a resemblance to the Gelliant Gutfright sketches from ''Series/ABitOfFryAndLaurie'' such as "The Red Hat of Pat Ferrick".
** ''Series/TheSpoilsOfBabylon'', the TransAtlanticEquivalent that's also about a VanityProject TV series made by [[SmallNameBigEgo a narcissistic author]], has actors playing actors playing characters and takes a similar StylisticSuck approach.

* CharacterShilling: It'd be easier to list the times Rick Dagless ''isn't'' being shilled to the audience. In the final episode, a line from the Padre seems to suggest that he's a better person than '''[[ExaggeratedTrope God]]'''.

* CharacterShilling: It'd be easier to list the times Rick Dagless ''isn't'' being shilled to the audience. In the final episode, a line from the Padre seems to suggest that he's a better person than '''[[ExaggeratedTrope GOD]]'''.

In the UK the series ran on Creator/ChannelFour. In America, the series first ran on the [[Creator/{{Syfy}} Sci-Fi Channel]], then moved to Creator/AdultSwim. Currently can be seen on Creator/PrimeVideo.