Stath Lets Flats

The new one from Robert Popper (Friday Night Dinner) and newishbie Jamie Demetriou
debuted last night on C4

I'm a fan of Friday Night Dinner and Jamie Demetriou has been in a lot of decent shows as a fledgling actor and I was rooting for him.
But this was just poor. I can barely see any positives.
I'd seen the trailer and was pretty hyped for it but turns out they'd just condensed all the comedy into one snippet and the rest of the show limped on.

One particular aspect of comedy I detest - one that is regularly employed by the lower brow ones - was used and it really sealed the deal for me. At one point, he really needed to answer the phone to prove something. The phone rings in the office about every 7 seconds during that scene. It barely rings at all for the rest of the episode. I am capable of suspending reality for the sake of a joke but this type of gag just feels overly and weakly contrived. Not a fan at all.

I'm watching it again and it's painful and cringey. Some of the dialogue/gags/characters are thick without any endearing qualities. This could easily have been a PhoneShop-esque decent (but not great) time-passer with a few memorable moments (a owl) and gaining some traction with the non-comedy contingent, but instead this will limp into obscurity soon enough.

Giving it a rewatch and will persist with the series. But that comments more on the void of emptiness that envelops my life rather than the show itself. I'm its target audience and I so wanted to be a fan of this show but it's a real let down for me. And given the calibre of people involved, I feel it's substandard for their talents. That's what's most disappointing - they had potential, instead they wasted scarce resources of a C4 commission on this crap.
4 out of 10. There were about 3 laughs but each one was offset by ridiculous bits like the dopey sister locating A&E in the non hospital.

I got the impression that the bits in the flats were improvised.

Was slightly mulling over watching this

Not anymore

This was silly but funny, as in I laughed at the silliness. It's not a masterpiece so far, it's not even great and calling it good is stretching a bit. But if it was aiming to be silly-fun, it certainly achieved that.

I quite liked the subplot between the sister and the colleague and will be interested to see where it goes from here, although I won't get my hopes up too much.

That had potential had they not made them both excessively stupid and dull.
Last night's offering was dire, worse than the opening, for the same reasons derailed above. Except the gardeners, they were legendary.

It surely can't beat The Estate Agents, can it?

I try to remember that comedy is subjective but I truly didn't even sense it in this at all. As someone who is trying to write scripts I watch all sitcoms with the subtitles on as it helps me to gauge the pace and the realism of the dialogue in relation to the action. I saw nothing at all and that is in all honesty.
Like most writers on here I would give my left arm to have a sitcom and when I see ones like these it knocks me sick as it is clear that the writers' work has not been held up to the type of standard they expect from the rest us.
In fact I am stating here and now that I could write a better estate agent sitcom than that in less than a day and I'll bet anyone on here 20 quid. If you want the bet let me know as I'm off on Saturday so I could bang it out before my cornflakes, as could most writers on here.

It's not *that* awful, With a bit of tweaking it has potential. The Radio Times seem to think that it has legs.

The Radio Times endorsed Hitler (Total Lie)
It just annoys me that you can watch six or seven minutes that are clearly bereft of humour in any shape or form. Surely that can be detected at script level and amended as it must represent at least 5-6 A4 pages in the reading of it?

It's a strange one this, I do actually like it but I don't know why? I feel like it could be a lot tighter because there are bits that make me laugh but they are few and far between.

I understand Teddy's frustration, especially when you compare this to the very best most deserving of a "prime time slot", this doesn't fit there at all.

Lee I may have gone over the top criticising it to be fair, but your point is mine. It's sloppy and lazy and I can't understand how this wasn't blatantly apparent at script level?
Most writers would have poured over that ensuring there was stuff that was at least an attempt at being funny.
None of us hit a coconut every time and I have written more than my fair share of howlers, but I spot it in the re-read and then do my best to amend it.
So they either did that and it's piss poor or they didn't and it's been allowed to go through on the nod.
Either way we have all been held up to a higher account when we have posted stuff on here than this has been subjected to. I am convinced of that as the errors are soooo apparent.

"Stath Lets Flats" is one of the best sitcoms I've seen for a long time. Why? Simply because it's funny and it's intelligent. Slightly less simply, because it's well-written-and-acted character-based comedy with some great dialogue. Katy Wix (as Carole) does and says little but she does and says it beautifully. Even when she is doing and saying nothing, she is giving a comedy-acting masterclass in the art of being funny while doing and saying nothing. Jamie Demetriou (as Stath) is continually funny and infinitely lovable as everything he does turns to you-know-what. Analysing comedy is, some say, a pointless task, and very often it's a thankless task too. Enough analysis, then - this is quality stuff, and I like it!

Comedy is subjective Rood Eye as I don't see it at all, that doesn't mean its not there its just well hidden from me . So as long as you enjoy it thats all that counts .

Awful.

Quote: Rood Eye @ 14th July 2018, 4:12 PM

"Stath Lets Flats" is one of the best sitcoms I've seen for a long time. Why? Simply because it's funny and it's intelligent. Slightly less simply, because it's well-written-and-acted character-based comedy with some great dialogue. Katy Wix (as Carole) does and says little but she does and says it beautifully. Even when she is doing and saying nothing, she is giving a comedy-acting masterclass in the art of being funny while doing and saying nothing. Jamie Demetriou (as Stath) is continually funny and infinitely lovable as everything he does turns to you-know-what. Analysing comedy is, some say, a pointless task, and very often it's a thankless task too. Enough analysis, then - this is quality stuff, and I like it!

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I failed to spot anything "funny or intelligent" in the most recent episode where the protagonist briefly worked for smethicks!