Quote: Anorak @ January 11 2011, 12:36 PM GMTTrouble is you lot all have too much inside knowledge to judge this dispassionately. Watched this with the wife (who's not in the biz) and she loved it.
So to get maximum enjoyment from Episodes, a show ABOUT the TV industry, it's best if you don't know too much about the, er, TV industry. Excellent.
To be fair that is true of most workplace sitcoms. The problem is more that the TV industry is endlessly written about, discussed, and indeed satirised, so with the possible exception of Anorak's wife, no-one is going to be gobsamacked by the revelations.
I liked it. It wasn't totally hilarious, but it was sharp and funny. Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig are always watchable - especially Greig in this case.
Quote: Godot Taxis @ January 12 2011, 3:22 AM GMTWhat, the Dream On?
Quote: Mark W @ January 12 2011, 5:29 AM GMTYes.
Quote: Tony Cowards @ January 11 2011, 4:04 PM GMTHow about something like this?
SCENE - A couple are in bed
SFX - Phone rings
WIFE (answering phone groggily) - Hello? Yes, this is she, do you know what time it is? 3pm? I don't think so it's 2 o'clock in the morning... oh you're phoning from LA...(long pause) so let me get this straight, you want to do an American version of our sitcom, "Limon's Boys" and you want us to fly out to America to sort out the details?
HUSBAND - Who is it?
WIFE - Shut up and go back to sleep, we've got an early start.
WIFE (to the phone) - We'll be on the first flight tomorrow.
END SCENE
OPENING TITLES
NEXT SCENE IN L.A.
I suspect it may have started with this (obviously with Taxi's additions), then they thought 'Hang on, our American audiences need a bit more exposition, they don't really get irony and subtley, like in those dramas 30 Rock, Modern Family and Arrested Development'. So they expanded it a bit. Then a bit more. Then a lot more. And had a new episode one. Hence the seven in the run rather than just the six.
It was alright, I thought. There was a *long* time between laughs, was the main issue and I hope my theory above is true so that the next six are just a standard sitcom. I thought Tamsin Greig had the best lines with her very British dryness but the American producer characters were far too annoying in their 'yes, we'll do that obviously, but we won't do it too' attitudes.
I agree with Anorak about us all probably having too much 'insider' knowledge (yeah, we *wish*) and if you're not die-hard sitcom fan/writer, more oblivious to the ways of TV, it was probably more interesting. That said, my wife (who has no interest in writing nor much in sitcom) watched it with me and laughed less than I did.
I'll watch it again. In fact, I'll probably watch it all. That said, something has to be *really* bad for me not to watch again. Like that new Adrian Chiles show on Sunday nights. It was bad enough already, without them talking about the bollocks that is cricket...
Dan
Quote: don rushmore @ January 12 2011, 1:01 PM GMTSo to get maximum enjoyment from Episodes, a show ABOUT the TV industry, it's best if you don't know too much about the, er, TV industry. Excellent.
In a similar vein, to get maximum enjoyment from Coming Of Age it's best if you don't know too much about sex or teenagers or comedy or... well, essentially, it's best if you know f**k-all about pretty much everything.
Quote: Anorak @ January 11 2011, 12:36 PM GMTWatched this with the wife (who's not in the biz) and she loved it.
Quote: swerytd @ January 13 2011, 8:54 AM GMTThat said, my wife (who has no interest in writing nor much in sitcom) watched it with me and laughed less than I did.
Maybe from now on we could start describing the target demographics of every new sitcom in terms of whether it's a "Mrs Anorak kind of show" or a "Mrs Swerytd kind of show"?
Quote: Kevin Murphy @ January 12 2011, 2:00 AM GMTSince everybody ignored me when I said this last time:
DAISY HAGGARD SO FAR IS PWNING THIS PIECE OF SHIT SITCOM.
Yeah, I did that. I went caps, bitch.
I'd say Daisy Haggard was the only thing worth watching in this, even though she had little to do.
Whether Episodes was good or bad is not the point. The important thing, maybe THE ONLY important thing that we have to all remember is this:
Tamsin Greig was standing there in her frickin' bra.
Aw, does shaggy wuv Tamsin?
Don't know what you're talking about, zooo.
She did look rather lovely in her lovely bra.
Not really the point of the show, but I think she looks all stringy and sinewy like a piece of cheap beef. Her face is nice though.
