The Reluctant Landlord - Series 1 Page 3

Quote: Paul Wimsett @ 8th November 2018, 5:58 PM

Clive Dunn and Bill Pertwee did the equivalent of stand up. Kenneth Williams did International Cabaret.

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I think it's fair to say that Mssrs Dunn, Pertwee and Williams spent far more of their working lives as actors rather than as anything resembling stand-up comedians.

Quote: Paul Wimsett @ 8th November 2018, 5:58 PM

Comedians have always done sitcoms, Hancock and Harry H Corbett/Wilfred Brambell were the exception.

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I think you'll find Hancock was a stand-up comedian before he ever became involved in radio/TV sitcom.

Quote: beaky @ 9th November 2018, 9:25 AM

I finally watched the first episode yesterday and found it weak and disappointing, with a very slight plot that could barely carry it along. And as for all those hashtag jokes...

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Romesh is not a good actor by any stretch of the imagination.

As if that were not bad enough, he isn't a good scriptwriter either.

Accordingly, he seems far from the ideal candidate when a TV company is looking for somebody to write and star in their own sitcom.

The strange thing, however, is that "The Reluctant Landlord" remains watchable and entertaining despite Romesh's very obvious shortcomings.

Most TV viewers in Britain will have seen Romesh either performing a stand-up routine or being interviewed on a chat show or doing something else of a televisual nature and will, I think, have come to the conclusion that he is a likeable guy. It is that likeability that got this sitcom commissioned and it's that likeability that is keeping it afloat.

He wasn't even the credited writer, it was Will Smith. Not THE Will Smith, presumably.

Yes, the Will Smith. The one in The Thick of It.

Quote: beaky @ 9th November 2018, 7:09 PM

He wasn't even the credited writer, it was Will Smith.

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My impression was that Will Smith was on board as a script editor and that Romesh himself was going to write the scripts.

If Will Smith is playing either of those roles, unless he's suffered serious brain damage since leaving "The Thick of It", I can only assume his sole duty on that show was to run errands and make tea and sandwiches for Armando Iannucci, Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Tony Roche, Ian Martin, Sean Gray and Roger Drew while they were doing the actual writing.

I've had a bit of experience of how things can go wrong when writing a sitcom, but the script for the first episode - which should have been the strongest or second strongest to kick off the series - was pretty woeful. The subplot about eating healthily dominated the first five minutes, then just fizzled out without any resolution, as if they'd forgotten about it. And talk about miscasting the baddie! How would anyone be frightened of a small man in his sixties? They should have had a big, ugly guy. The whole thing seemed completely unbalanced to me.

Quote: beaky @ 10th November 2018, 10:07 AM

And talk about miscasting the baddie! How would anyone be frightened of a small man in his sixties? They should have had a big, ugly guy. The whole thing seemed completely unbalanced to me.

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I see your point, but the purpose of the character wasn't to be physically intimidating, it was to show how it can be hard to confront racism because of the social factors, even though it would be the right thing to do. The focus is more on Romesh overcoming the situation rather than just the character itself.

As for my thoughts on it, I liked how ambitious it was. I don't think Romesh has much experience screenwriting or acting but it sort of works regardless as has been pointed out. At points it feels a bit ropey but I enjoyed it overall and that's nothing to be ashamed of from a work as ambitious as this is. It will probably be more seamless in the second series as they know what they're working with more but I don't think I'll be disappointed either way

I thouroughly enjoyed episode 1 - first scene made me genuinely laugh aloud. However, epsiode 2 a little disappointing.

Why is it modern sitcoms lack funny supporting characters.

Romesh, playing Romesh, is just....well, Romesh.

The scruffy old bully guy is simply there to make Romesh look a wimp and thus, scenes can be funny with him involved however the rest of the cast are shite. The bearded loser and the random bald bloke who talks funny - just ain't funny!

A Fools and Horses, Fawlty Towers, Porridge, Blackadder all had hilarious supporting characters.

I guess they just don't make 'em like they did.

Quote: Rood Eye @ 9th November 2018, 3:52 PM

Romesh is not a good actor by any stretch of the imagination.

As if that were not bad enough, he isn't a good scriptwriter either.

Accordingly, he seems far from the ideal candidate when a TV company is looking for somebody to write and star in their own sitcom.

The strange thing, however, is that "The Reluctant Landlord" remains watchable and entertaining despite Romesh's very obvious shortcomings.

Most TV viewers in Britain will have seen Romesh either performing a stand-up routine or being interviewed on a chat show or doing something else of a televisual nature and will, I think, have come to the conclusion that he is a likeable guy. It is that likeability that got this sitcom commissioned and it's that likeability that is keeping it afloat.

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He's funny but you just know that his default go-to insult is "prick".

To be fair, he does deliver that simplistic and old-school word quite amusingly.

Feels like it's been put together very quickly, comedians bantering the script the night before. No depth, simple jokes born out of comedians thinking all they need is simple jokes because they are already famous.

Definitely recommissioned because of Romesh, let's not pretend otherwise. A commissioner's job is to attract viewers, Romesh will do this - that's probably not right but it's the media world we live in.

Quote: curtis patrick @ 14th November 2018, 10:51 AM

Feels like it's been put together very quickly, Definitely recommissioned because of Romesh.

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Agreed. Romesh does have pulling power. Hes very approachable and relatable (to the youth). An anglophile with the right to talk about racism. His comedy is effortless, bit like this sitcom by the sounds of it. Sounds low budget, is it ?

Quote: Firkin @ 14th November 2018, 12:08 PM

His comedy is effortless, bit like this sitcom by the sounds of it. Sounds low budget, is it ?

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Great point, he's naturally funny, very funny but process that effortlessness into sitcom and it doesn't work, it's just panel show/documentary him which is funny in those formats, and yes low budget which shows they are focused on the names.

In episode three, Romesh finds Lemon's mum Debbie (Alison Steadman) reading a story to his young son and using a Jamaican accent for one of the characters. He informs her that it's unacceptable to use an accent other than one's own when voicing a character.

That philosophy will, I'm sure, come as something of a surprise to every actor in the world, as well as to everybody else in the world who has any connection with theatre, television, radio drama, film-making or in fact anything other than sitting at home being politically correct.

You are right Rood it does look odd on the face of it. But surely it's led by the audience?

Character acts like Borat upset a whole country but play well in America. Bruno was Austrian (small country) not German (big market). I read one Hollywood blockbuster had to reshoot many scenes because China objected to a Chinese villain. Yet we Brits are often the Hollywood villain.

Live stand-up comedy relies on a young audience, students, it's not really family viewing. That audience wants it to be PC. I guess this is why you don't get many character actors or stand-ups doing accents outside their own culture. That said, I would very interested in knowing any that do. If you want old style un-PC act there's always Chubby Brown. He's 73 and still touring. Ken Dodd's act was timeless and didn't exclude anyone. I'm guessing he made more money, but we'll never know.

I bet the producer would be alarmed to learn people think this show is "low budget".

Gave the first episode 15 minutes. Not impressed.