I thought this was a sitcom as well, it was to farcical(sp?) to be drama. Unfortunately it was neither particulary funny nor dramatic. Although like someone else said it was the first episode and may get better as it goes on, I'll give it a chance.
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Quote: ContainsNuts @ September 15 2009, 3:20 PM BSTI would say it's a sitcom - it even says it on the BBC website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00mx9yr
That's why I couldn't find this thread.
Bugger knows. Mark's categorised it as Comedy Drama - but then I notice that the series synopsis says it's a sitcom. (And the BBC have been known to mis-label their own shows so I'm reluctant to take that one as evidence.) But the first episode didn't have the feel of a sitcom at all. Far too slow and ploddy dramatic.
Wasn't that impressed. The fact that Philip Jackson is in it is a good sign. He is good at comedy, best comedy part I've seen him in was Compo's nephew in Last Of The Summer Wine.
Firstly, it's definitely a sitcom. Even the worst written drama (Doctors?), wouldn't have a scene in which everybody in a street, including a burglar and policeman, says hello to somebody. And there were plenty of other moments - the mother pretending to be Irish, the Union Jack dress, the stand-in friend - which screamed sitcom.
As for the show, pretty poor. The main character was wet beond belief, despite being hot in a cadaverous corpse kind of way. And friendship between women - with desperate lives going nowhere - was dealt with infinitely better in Pulling.
Overall, weak.
Quote: peter gazzard @ September 15 2009, 10:17 PM BSTWasn't that impressed. The fact that Philip Jackson is in it is a good sign. He is good at comedy, best comedy part I've seen him in was Compo's nephew in Last Of The Summer Wine.
Philip Jackson's funniest role was in the Mike Leigh film High Hopes (1988), where he played the vile Martin. (He was not quite so funny in Scum as well.) High Hopes also had the brilliant Phil Davis in the lead.
First thing is that I would definitely class this as a sitcom rather than a comedy-drama (if only not to curse it by attaching that traditionally stigmatising label).
Very well written first episode. Beautifully filmed. Very good performances, especially from the lead whom I thought was excellent. Yes, it was very much an expositionary 1st episode, but there were a lot of nice observational touches along the way (for some reason I particularly liked her Dad's comment about the road re-surfacing, a good "what was unspoken rather than spoken" moment).
Thought it was a nice way to start the show, with her waking-up in bed as though she was the teenager who has been asleep for 12 years. There were some gently funny moments, such as the reveal that her Mum was on the phone to a telesales rep. Also the reveal of her mate as the babysitter (rather than the mother) was done very nicely.
I hope that now we've got the premise established, we move on fairly quickly to learn some details of what Gaynor's been up to in the last 12 years; rather than leaving it as some kind of mystery (and simply focusing on the "back to home" adjustment). I think it will be hard to retain interest in her as a character if we have to constantly play the guessing game. Fairly sure this will not happen though. (Also, I hope the 90s references start to fade as the series progresses. Nostalgia jokes can only be funny for so long. Though I really liked the shot of Gaynor's face next to Brian Harvey's on the bedroom door, I wasn't so keen on the Spice Girls reference.)
I'm interested to see where the story goes and will definitely follow this series.
Am glad there is someone else who appreciates this. This is the sort of stuff that I aspire to write, a comedy which focused heavily on drama, and see no reason why it can't be classed as a sitcom.
It is admirable how they were able to go quite long without a joke, if anything I felt there were too many jokes in this. I think the sense of reality would have been kept stronger if they'd cut out the scene where she's walking down the street and if she hadn't dressed as Ginger spice.
Quote: Ronnie Anderson @ September 17 2009, 2:38 AM BSTAm glad there is someone else who appreciates this.
Quote: Matthew Stott @ September 14 2009, 10:50 PM BSTI kind of liked it. I'll tune in next week. It definitely seemed to be finding its legs over the last ten minutes, with the introduction of her circle of friends.
Quote: Ronnie Anderson @ September 17 2009, 2:38 AM BSTif anything I felt there were too many jokes in this.
Can't agree there though. I liked it, a good first episode, looking forward to what comes next, but it certainly wouldn't have hurt to have had one or two more tentpole funny moments.
Ronnie, what is your definition of "sitcom"? I have a feeling it may be one shared by you and...
"How long has Mum had an Irish accent?" is a line that would *never* be used in a comedy-drama.
I watched this last night. I agree that there were long periods of 'scene-setting' with not many jokes in places, but I suspect that will change in the subsequent episodes.
I liked it though. It was very entertaining and it seems quite an original idea. There were a lot of laughs in it, some quite subtle, and Kerry Godliman was stand-out in this opener. Emma Fryer is very good at this pathos thing, having done similar in that BBC Three pilot Torn-Up Tales (the beauty and the beast one, in the cafe). Mind you, she did co-write, so should know the character well, and she did very well too.
I'll certainly keep watching.
Dan
I didn't get to watch it properly as I was distracted at the time, but if I correctly recall, I see it was co-written by Neil Edmond. He once gave some very helpful feedback and admired my superhero boots, so I hope it was good. 
In episode 6 the lead character will be torn between buggering off to London again without telling her friends. It's that predictable.
Quote: chipolata @ September 21 2009, 11:02 AM BSTIn episode 6 the lead character will be torn between buggering off to London again without telling her friends. It's that predictable.
In comedy it doesn't matter if the plot is predictable its whether the jokes/set pieces are, or even just making sure the jokes are funny. That you can certainly question here.
Shouldn't this be under the British sitcoms category or am I missing something?
What did people think of the second episode. I thought it was a bit better this week, though I really enjoyed it last week anyhow. The humour seemed a little less forced, I also find it refreshing that there is little plot in it and it is really dialogue and character driven.
For some reason I really really loved the scene where they are singing along to champagne supernova it was sweet and funny.
Aslo, I have a huge television crush on the actress playing the lead.