I was enjoying this until I felt myself falling asleep. Think it was the 5 o'clock wake ups from our 4 year old, a lovely steak and chips in the pub and a bottle of wine that did for me, rather than the show.
I thought Dawn French's performance was restrained and quite subtle, better than I was expecting.
Would be good if it was funny.
Disappointing 
Being in a long term relationship, it hit very close to home. I found it charming, truthful, and alarmingly effective.
Both performances were fantastic and anyone griping that it wasn't funny enough simply didn't get the humour. It was hilarious and subtle and I'm looking forward to 5 more weeks of this gem!
I liked parts of it. I loved it when she suddenly started talking about the woman she knew who always had the right coat.
Quote: Leevil @ July 30 2010, 7:48 PM BSTDawn French hasn't done anything interesting since...
The Comic Strip Presents...
There's nowt wrong with "a provincial theatre two hander"!
I found the middle-aged-married nuances very well observed. Molina and French certainly delivered (I thought Alfred was John Alderton at first!). OK, I'm early fifties and married, so perhaps that explains my identification with most of it.
I did zone out for a couple of minutes during the extended Big Drawer scene, but I'd rate this well above "The Great Outdoors" and "The Inn Mates" even if it was more slice of life than laff oriented sitcom. Looking forward to seeing where they go with it.
I enjoyed this. Loved the bit with the phone and Roger's moments cringing about it. I see it's written by the ladies who wrote Dog Town. I didn't see much of that, but this seems a very different style and tone.
Some nicely observed moments, but occasions where the writing resorted to having the characters make unrealistic decisions in order to pad out the runtime. "The Royle Family" feels so much more accomplished at this kind of 'slice of life' vignette approach.
I absolutely loved this. Just my type of comedy. Subtle and well observed. I look forward to next week's episode. I've already spoke to a few people who said they found it boring but I felt it was something quite special.
I imagine the writers have a checklist of 'everyday things that viewers will recognise in their own lives, and for some reason find that amusing seeing actors talk about'. I found it damn boring, and I do have a big drawer with lots of paperwork in.
I thought Dawn French's 'comedy performance' clashed horribly with the supposed realism of everything else. It's a shame because she was brilliant in Psychoville . . .
Couldn't get grip on this at all although I'll give it another try. I thought I was missing something as this was not aimed at me but I remember really enjoying the Hugo Blix/Joanna Lumley collaborations which occupied the same baby boomer marriage territory.
Not too bad, I'll give it another go next week, it's something you watch as a change from the norm, and in that frame of mind. It's nice to have something different and it looks like it does reflect the inanity of marriage in middle age. It's hardly going to be a laugh filled extravanganza, but I like that it's been made. It has a style about it.
But I don't see a future for it, and I think it could get savaged for not being sitcommy and funny enough, sitcomedy is an unforgiving market really, I can't see many having the time for this as a favourite 'sitcom', which is bit of a shame here maybe, because I thought it was well written and well made.
Enjoyable. Very well scripted, lovely performances. Not the funniest show in the world, obviously, but a good slice-of-life comedy-drama.
It's hard to know what the motivation behind making and showing this was.
I have to say I did give up after 15 minutes. I watch a comedy to have a laugh & this didnt even reach a smile. Nicely written drama but very obviously written by women I am afraid to say. Such a shame. I like both the actors.
