Quote: Chickenellie @ August 21 2012, 3:22 PM BSTP.S. I agree it's a good thing people have different tastes but it's interesting to discuss the whys and wherefores.
I think that's exactly what we're doing here! And that is a good thing.
Nighty Night Page 6
I heard good things about Nighty Night over Christmas from loved ones who seemed as disgusted as they were surprised I had never seen it and after reading about the general theme I'm looking forward to checking it out. My local CEX had series 1 and series 2 for 50p each but when I went there today they only had series 2 and after reading this thread I don't think I want to watch series 2 and definitely not watch it before experiencing series 1.
Well over a year later and I finally ordered series 1 from CEX and watched the first two episodes last night. Love it and lots of laugh out loud moments. Julia Davis is brilliant and can't wait for another instalment tonight. Love the theme tune as well.
Jill: Linda, you know my feelings on asthma. Take a deep breath and get over it. 
There's one episode in which Jill (Julia Davis) is seated opposite Glenn (Mark Gattis) at a restaurant table.
The conversation is hilarious but their faces are absolutely deadpan.
I've seen the outtakes for that scene and they obviously thought it was as funny as I did.
Marvellous, marvellous comedy acting - and writing.
It took me until now to get round to watching series 2, after loving series one years ago. I've seen everything Julia Davis has done since, but never series 2 for some reason. First impressions? I'm not easily shocked, but Davis goes to places I'm not sure I've seen any other comedy writer go. The suspension of disbelief is much, much harder this time, particularly with Cathy and her passiveness, something I also remember thinking about Sally in Sally4Ever given the astonishingly cruel things that happen to them both. But with Nighty Night I can forgive it because the world of the show is heightened. Mark Gatiss steals every scene he's in and Ruth Jones' and Julia Davis' comic chemistry is amazing. It's not surprising there are so many outtakes, how they ever got through some of these scenes with a straight face beggars belief.
Is it better than Human Remains? Taken as a whole, I would say no. Maybe because Human Remains only has one series and the quality remains high throughout, whereas Nighty Night had a wonderful first series followed by this series that fluctuates wildly in quality. That said, I laughed out loud a lot and I will regularly revisit Nighty Night (the next test is whether I can convince anybody else to watch it, it's definitely a litmus test for a certain sense of humour!)
I've still never watched Human Remains but I loved Nighty Night.
However I've never been able to watch this again.
I watched it properly for the first time quite recently. Series 2 has a few funny moments, but it doesn't have as good a story as the first series, and it suffers as a result. Julia Davis doesn't seem to write anything with more than one series in mind.
Quote: jsg @ 20th April 2021, 10:38 PMJulia Davis doesn't seem to write anything with more than one series in mind.
I've sort of noticed this although I've not watched NN yet, but still intend to at some point. But that Pilot 'spoof take' on Thelma & Louise she did which I liked clearly wasn't going any further. It does make you wonder how she gets her things on TV when we're told in no uncertain terms as wannabe sitcom creators our projects must have legs! This obviously doesn't apply to commissioned regulars. 
On the dark comedy stuff of which there's been a bit of a trend post 2000 from her and Brooker and TLOG lot and maybe others, my take on it is it's been used as an easy bypass option to purely funny sitcoms. They may have been good and/or popular and more entertaining than the sub soap dramady rubbish that's been forced on us but it's taken us yet further away from the pre millennium era of sitcoms made to make us laugh. 
There he is.
Happened to notice BBC4 were repeating this from the start, so gave it a look and am now hooked!
What a cow!!!
Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 2nd April 2023, 11:08 PMHappened to notice BBC4 were repeating this from the start, so gave it a look and am now hooked!
What a cow!!!
Indeed. Jill Tyrell is the most sociopathic narcissist ever to grace our TV screens. I think Series 1 is pretty much perfect, I wasn't so keen on Series 2, but even then it's Julia Davis so it's still screamingly funny.
And brilliant performances from Ruth Jones.