I liked it last week, this week didn't make me laugh.
Life Of Riley - Series 1 Page 7
There are some good bits in it, though in the main most of the gags are crap, and the funny bits are in the main far too contrived for me to really get into it- in a way, as a sitcom writer, I found it more useful watching this than more solid sitcoms as it helps highlight the traps you can fall into as a writer which could mess up what could potentially be a good script.
Although he is a bit like Tony from Skins the teenage son is probably the funniest parts of the show, also Caroline Quentin is brilliant.
Ok, I'm quite liking this show on the whole, but suggesting that a cat is a) banging its head against a drainpipe, and that this is b) due to it getting depressed when its favourite bean bag cover is washed, takes British sitcom to a whole new low.
Oh dear. A joke about working in Woolworths. How unfortunate for them.
Well that was baaaaaad. And yet, still, something strangely satisfying about it. :/
Quote: Aaron @ January 29 2009, 8:31 PM GMTWell that was baaaaaad. And yet, still, something strangely satisfying about it. :/
You just have to accept you have a bit of a fetish for that sort of thing Aaron! By which I mean seemingly bad/mediocre sitcoms!
Loooong accepted!
I gave this another go tonight and I just can't see the point of it. The idea of two families 'merging' is OK as that can bring up some interesting situations but it just seems to be a series of half-gags shoehorned into a structure of a 30 minute episode using the weakest of plot lines.
The acting is poor to say the least with the dad needing a kick up the arse just for being such an inept and woolly parent. There are very few redeeming features I can see.
I think that this and The Green Green Grass are just clinging to the coat tails of OFAH and Men Behaving Badly because you just see how poor these shows are in relation to the actors earlier work.
To be fair there are some funny lines in it but then some real predictable jokes and set pieces. I guess that's the same for a lot of mainstream.
IMO it has got better over the weeks but cannot see the Beeb giving it a 2nd series. Mind you, The Green Green Grass is shocking and that has gone on for a bit now.
Although at present it is crap. I think that maybe it could be given another series. It'd be good if there could be another Dad's Army, OFAH and think that all of these dreadful attempts at family viewing type sitcoms by the BBC they should give them two series to see if they can develop and they are still shit they should get rid of them. I know that it didn't work with After You've Gone and that The Green Green Grass is as shit as ever but I think that if they drastically change the characters of the father and daugther and kill off that little kid with the glasses then it could work quite well.
I am pretty sure that apart from The IT Crowd the only real family viewing sitcoms that will work are ones attempting, at least, to portray realism such as Gavin & Stacey.
Edited by Aaron - capitalisation.
Fact fans: It's getting an average of 4 million viewers every week, a little more than TGGG, but it does have the EastEnders lead-in.
I have long since resigned myself to the fact that there will always be family sitcoms and I will probably always find them deeply unfunny.
Life Of Riley is a perfect case.
Life Of Riley is why The Green Green Grass's viewing figures are down. Millions watch EastEnders see this and turn over. Switch them round - quick!
But seriously, it's alright but it's not great.
I have seen every episode of this and find myself thinking very little of it, yet, it keeps me mildly entertained every week! I can't quite put my finger on what it is that I like about it but I still find myself making the effort to watch it every week! The acting is terrible (apart from Ted), in my opinion, which was suprising regarding Caroline Quentin. I think the biggest problem, for me, is that I don't care about the characters and their relationships. This has resulted in me finding many of the more humourous lines less funny than I would have if they had been muttered by characters I care about from other sitcoms. I kind of hope they do get a second series as I would be interested to see if/how it would develop but if it didn't get recommisioned, I wouldn't be devastated!
I watched some of last Thursday's episode out of curiousity and it's as if the writers and actors of the show aren't even trying to be funny.