The cast changes have done no favours, but this is still the BBC's best effort at a comedy about a family (as opposed to a family comedy) since 2point4 Children.
In With The Flynns - Series 2
The cast changes have been utterly bizarre. I've moaned about this elsewhere, but they deleted a whole scene introducing the new brother character and explaining the change. I thought editing was supposed to be where you remove stuff that's NOT crucial to understanding what's going on in the episode.
Quote: Tursiops @ September 3 2012, 11:20 PM BSTThe cast changes have done no favours, but this is still the BBC's best effort at a comedy about a family (as opposed to a family comedy) since 2point4 Children.
I watched only one episode of this show so far and it was average at best imo...plus: I absolutely hate that main actor (as I wrote elsewhere), but that has nothing to do with the scripts so that's not an argument. But the whole thing was bland and predictable; shame because I like the actor who plays the grandfather (wasn't he Oliver Cromwell in Blackadder : The Cavalier Years?).
So my question to the people who know this show better than me: Is it really better than...let's say..."After You've Gone"? I mean, that show was bland and predictable too but being a OFAH fan my sympathy towards Nicholas Lyndhurst made me watch more than one episode. Should I give "In With The Flynns" another go?
On the other hand: Comedies about families don't seem to be my favourites. "2Point4 Children" was ok, even likeable but nothing to write home about or buying a DVD set of.
Interesting Note: They show "After You've Gone" on Swiss television original with subtitles although no sod knows OFAH here and "AYG" wasn't a big hit in Britain as far as I know. Normally here in Switzerland they only show "the big ones" as "Fawlty Towers" or "Little Britain".
Quote: Gordon Bennett @ September 4 2012, 1:11 PM BSTI like the actor who plays the grandfather (wasn't he Oliver Cromwell in Blackadder : The Cavalier Years?).
Yes.
Quote: Gordon Bennett @ September 4 2012, 1:11 PM BSTSo my question to the people who know this show better than me: Is it really better than...let's say..."After You've Gone"?
No.
Quote: Gordon Bennett @ September 4 2012, 1:11 PM BSTShould I give "In With The Flynns" another go?
Eh. It's alright, but if I wasn't in the country I doubt I'd be going out of my way to keep up with it. I don't - personally - find anything in In With The Flynns to outright object to, it just doesn't do anything that special either. Pity, because there are a few individual great one-line gags (it is written now by Simon Nye, after all).
Quote: Gordon Bennett @ September 4 2012, 1:11 PM BSTOn the other hand: Comedies about families don't seem to be my favourites. "2Point4 Children" was ok, even likeable but nothing to write home about or buying a DVD set of.
A wonderful and much misunderstood series. Very clever, and oh-so deceptively dark.
Quote: Gordon Bennett @ September 4 2012, 1:11 PM BSTIIs it really better than...let's say..."After You've Gone"?
Yes.
(But still not worth making an effort for.)
I can just about tolerate this show, it's fairly inoffensive. However, why the frig do they employ the shaky camera routine? Buy a tripod for chrissake.
That is all.
The best thing I can say about this show is that it makes Mrs. Brown's Boys (which comes right afterwards on Gridays) much more tolerable to me.
Glad to see someone else comment on the shaky camerawork. I felt carsick from it after the first episode. I've not watched any more because of it.
Quote: Geffers @ September 17 2012, 1:08 PM BSTGlad to see someone else comment on the shaky camerawork. I felt carsick from it after the first episode. I've not watched any more because of it.
The shaky camera work made perfect sense for The Blair Witch Project or things like NYPD Blue. I doesn't make sense for Driving Miss Daisy or The Cosby Show.
So it made sense with The Office...but it is taking the piss for such a broad and mundane shite as In With The Flynns.
I thought the first series was OK. Nothing brilliant but it passed half an hour well enough. The second was really poor though. The kids aren't funny, the parents aren't funny and the brother isn't funny. The Grandad is only funny in small doses and they generally use any reasonable gag three times until they've squeezed any life out of it. My Family in its dying days was better than this.
I only caught one episode of series 2 and saw about half of it. I wouldn't say I forced 15 minutes of this on myself because like all really bad things it has a morbid fascination factor for a while. I was actually thinking it must be this bad on purpose, it was that bad. It's made by the BBC for God's sake, they cannot surely make something this bad without really meaning to!?
The idea of a rare working class famcom was good, they probably did need one because nearly all their famcoms have been roundly middle class. The problem with making a definite wc famcom I think, must be the risk of it being condescending to many wc families. And I'm not sure the average wc family really has that many members sitting round a table at tea time, tbh. Why do they always throw in a grandad or uncle/auntie as living there, and friends always there as if they haven't got a place of their own?
It's an outdated, partly fictional view of the wc like EastEnders is. (I thought I'd add something different to the stream of 'badly written and acted crap with nauseatingly shaky camerawork' reviews, which are absolutely right, but say little of the concept behind it.) So IWTF, a bit like the equally appalling Bread, has done more harm to the idea of having wc famcoms than good, imo. Well done again to the BBC!
I quite like it; it is decently plotted and has decent jokes with actors who know how to deliver them.
And decent working class nuclear families do still exist. Not all the working class are chavs.
And the dad and the brother do not live in the same house as the family. And I am not sure we have ever seen the family sitting round the table at tea time.
If you want a working class family sitcom, look forward to Hebburn.
Glad to see the back of this "sit-com", but cancelled because of poor ratings? 3 million viewers, and we still get Hebburn (1.44 million), Harry and Paul (1.48m), The Thick Of It (750k) and Me and Mrs Jones (2.72m)!
It shows how much trust you can give to channel statements about reasoning behind decisions.
Also that it's not really fair to compare different timeslots and channels in the way we sometimes do.