Watchification » sitcom

Outnumbered

jemstone — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 10:02:19 +0000

I don’t agree with Rod Liddle about much but his views of the the first series of Outnumbered

“An exquisitely middle-class, middle-aged domestic situation comedy set in north London – maybe Crouch End or Tufnell Park – and starring one of those bloody stand-up comics who now festoons every network, it really should be hated before it is even seen…but Outnumbered is very funny indeed: despite its current bout of self-flagellation, the BBC still knows how to make people laugh”

pretty much nails it. Just look at the screen grab above for confirmation of the former.

The set up for this episode which is about parents struggling with the outcomes of banning their kids from using the TV and computers on a Sunday. “Spongebob is educational because it tells you how to make crabby patties and what goes on under the seas” pleads the youngest daughter when its taken away wasn’t far off my ludicrous attempts to impose a weekday Wii ban. I mean what’s the bloody point ?

The kids especially Daniel Roche who plays 8 year old Ben are astonishing, I can’t quite bring myself to take my eyes of Clare Skinner (Life is Sweet scarred me for life), and incredibly you might even warm to the sympathetic portrait of a confused 40something parent by Hugh “Now Show” Dennis.

Best sitcom of the year, alongside the underrated The Cup and Gavin and Stacey of course.

* This is one of those “stacked” series on iPlayer so if you’ve missed em you can go back and watch episodes 1 and 2 as they’re available longer than just yer 7 days.

Ideal

Steve Bowbrick — Fri, 16 May 2008 22:38:02 +0000

Graham Duff’s Ideal is a kind of hermetically-sealed sitcom. It’s all about the four walls of drug dealer Moz’s nasty flat. It’s claustrophobic and quite dark. I mean literally dark. No natural light (not even the simulated kind) shall fall on these sticky carpets and collapsing armchairs. It reminds me of Eraserhead—which sounds like a bit of a stretch I know—but also Hancock: studiobound comic miserabilism. In fact it’s like Samuel Beckett: bleak, purposeless and very funny. Really.

Love Soup: Whose God is it Anyway?

Steve Bowbrick — Mon, 05 May 2008 09:41:09 +0000

I should start by saying that the best comedy on British telly at the moment is toe-curlingly rude secondary school sitcom The Inbetweeners. It’s on Channel 4, though, which means I can’t embed it here. So here’s episode 10 of Love Soup series two instead: also brilliant (and pretty rude too). Love Soup’s quite difficult to describe. I suppose it’s quite gentle, from the old-time Jazz theme tune to the undemonstrative presence of Tamsin “The Archers, Green Wing, Black Books” Greig and the clever, slightly meandering plotlines that sort of fade out rather than coming to an end. This one’s got Stacey from Gavin & Stacey too, doing wonders for her career by playing three different characters and doing a posh accent. The whole thing feels impeccable: cast, script, direction. Lovely.

Gavin and Stacey, Season 2, Episode 4

anne — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:19:57 +0000

The second series of Gavin and Stacey has already had a mention here, but last night’s episode deserves another plug for being particularly fine. The characters live in a wonderful place, somewhere between surreal and utterly mundane. The wonderful oven glove scene seemed familiar and yet extraordinary.

Gavin and Stacey – Season 2, Episode 1

jemstone — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:56:34 +0000

Well this is effectively a modern “Bob and Thelma” following the same classic UK sitcom wedding arc. Smiffy and Gavin (and Bryn) explore male friendship just as effectively as Bob and Terry. James Corden and Ruth Jones get all the best lines, probably because they wrote them. However, jokes about badminton lessons, the Elm Lodge housing estate and proto Thatcherite/aspirational middle/working class tensions mysteriously absent.

Episode 2 has the funniest gag about Hear’Say I’ve ever heard mind.

Nathan Barley

roo — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 00:15:27 +0000

Nathan Barley first aired on Channel 4 in February 2005, meaning it recently celebrated its third glorious year of existence. Even longer, in fact, if you include the time Nathan Barley was imagined in the form of fake TV listings in TV Go Home. If you’ve ever worked in (or even walked through) Shoreditch, you’ll either love or resent Chris Morris and Charlie Brooker’s creation.

Nathan Barley (“aka as trashbat dot co.ck”) is played by Nicholas Burns. He has a mobile phone with a “massive number 5 cos it’s the most common number” and embodies many of the things Charlie Brooker hates about the world. On the other side of the idiot spectrum is the thoughtful, frustrated Dan Ashcroft (Julian Barratt), a misunderstood hero railing against the world. That includes not just Barley, but Ashcroft’s boss Jonatton Yeah? (the ? was added by deed poll) and the rest of the staff (including Ned, played by the excellent Richard Ayoade) of the uber-hip SugarApe culture magazine at which Ashcroft finds himself working.

Here’s just the first chunk of the first episode. Parts two and three of episode one are on YouTube too, and although you’ll find the rest of the series online pretty easily you’ll probably end up wanting to buy the DVD or something. The first part below might well be enough to get you hooked, since it contains some amazing moments. Look out for Nathan Barley describing himself as a “self-facilitating media node” and Dan’s increasingly prophetic description of idiots using their “hand-held twit machines”.

Totally jackson.