Quote: chipolata @ February 21 2011, 11:44 PM GMT*splutters in his pants*
That's Chip!
Episodes - Series 1 Page 29
Watched 6 & 7 last night and now it's all done (for now anyway - the content on the red button suggests a second series will happen) I have to say that, for me, I enjoyed this show.
I like comedy that is given time to grow and develop (and before anybody wheels out the oh yeah comedy without jokes ...very funny...not, argument) but not exclusively. I also like joke-led material too. I just feel that the stick this got for its comedy pacing wasn't particularly relevant. Surely not all shows must follow the exact same pre-set laws handed down from on-high by the *big echoing voice* Gods of Comedy. If that were the case we'd have to watch shows like According to Bex ad infinitum wouldn't we?
Yeah, OK so it wasn't laugh a minute and probably not a traditional sitcom as such - more of a comedy drama - but I enjoyed it all from soup to nuts, so it's yes from me.
Quote: Blenkinsop @ February 22 2011, 10:27 AM GMTI just feel that the stick this got for its comedy pacing wasn't particularly relevant.
Well, it kind of is relevant. They had some decent material that didn't seem to be spread very evenly over the episodes. So that episodes 6 and 7 seemed to have a lot going on in them, whist others seemed to be idling in neutral. By all means shows should beat their own path, but that shouldn't mean wilfully forgetting the rules of good storytelling.
Quote: chipolata @ February 22 2011, 10:48 AM GMTWell, it kind of is relevant. They had some decent material that didn't seem to be spread very evenly over the episodes. So that episodes 6 and 7 seemed to have a lot going on in them, whist others seemed to be idling in neutral. By all means shows should beat their own path, but that shouldn't mean wilfully forgetting the rules of good storytelling.
Each to their own I guess. But for me I never felt myself saying "Come on! get on with it!" once. Of course very little amuses me. 
*Plays with some string*
I enjoyed last night's episode, eventually. I feel a little cheated though, because if every episode had just one really funny scene like last night's one, the whole series would have been worth it.
I'm yet to watch the last two episodes. I felt the first three were poor and didn't offer anything in terms of laughs. I felt Stephen Mangan (who I think is great) wasn't a proper character, he just felt like a bloke saying the lines. As the series progressed everything got better though. Not sure why this was.
I watched the final one yesterday. On the whole I enjoyed this series. I started to watch it 'in company' but the company's verdict was 'It's shite', so I've been a secret Episodes watcher since.
The last episode was the only one where Mangan's character came to life, the whole scene in Matt Le Blanc's pad was excellent. For a split second just after the initial scrap I thought that the two guys were going to kiss and end up cementing their bromance with a good hard shag. I suppose that would have been a little too much for American audiences but I would've thought that it provided lots of story opportunities for a next series.
Matt Le Blanc was surprisingly good, however, I've never watched Friends so have nothing to compare it with.
I may be risking condemnation, but I really don't see why there was so much praise heaped on Daisy Haggard earlier on in this thread. She was absolutely awful in the last episode and hadn't done or said anything in the earlier episodes either. I'm assuming that the tight-knit world of comedy means that some people may know her personally. I'm only saying, like.
Also,
That theme music is definitely the same as the incidental music in that PoS 'Benidorm'
Watched the last couple last night. The fight scene was hilarious -- really good last couple of episodes, I thought. It finally found its mark, and I didn't expect it to after the dismal first episode.
Yeah, I've enjoyed it. It could have been a lot better, granted, but it had its moments and I did laugh quite a bit during the series.
A word about Merc. Yes, he was thoroughly dislikeable but the way he was mean about his wife's blindness was very funny. In the restaurant when he doesn't want her to know he was there: 'It's one of the benefits...'. I didn't get him the rest of the time though. And what exactly was the point of Daisy Haggard's character (and the other 'fired' guy)? Both wasted in not-even-cameos.
Dan
After a luke warm first episode I stuck with this show and I soon got into the swing of Episodes and I must say I really enjoyed it. I'd go as far to say as one of the better things I've seen on TV in recent times.
Def.
Quote: swerytd @ February 23 2011, 10:43 AM GMTA word about Merc. Yes, he was thoroughly dislikeable but the way he was mean about his wife's blindness was very funny. In the restaurant when he doesn't want her to know he was there: 'It's one of the benefits...'. I didn't get him the rest of the time though.
Ah yes, Merc. I actually forgot about him; agree with all you say. Some very funny aspects to his attitude, but he just didn't really make any consistent sense - beyond being objectionable. I kept expecting him to say or do something to reveal an ulterior motive of some kind, but it just never came.
To me Merc was very much like a child. Ocassionally charming, ocassionally stroppy, and with a very short attention span.
Quote: Sound of Spinach @ February 21 2011, 11:29 PM GMTIf this is going down well over in the US then I'm not surprised, the people behind it can brag how the Brits just didn't get it, but maybe that was the plan all along and the US will want to love it and proclaim it the best new comedy ever.
It had 589,000 viewers for the finale in the US, the highest since the premiere which was seen by 768,000. Overall it average around half a million across the whole series. That is only slightly worse than.
Californication and a 100,000-or-so less than Nurse Jackie and United States of Tara got last season.
Not a hit then, but not awful. Presumably as a co-production they could live with the lower rating anyway, so its future could be decided by the BBC.
Quote: Sound of Spinach @ February 21 2011, 11:29 PM GMTOut of interest, should this show become a huge hit anywhere who would benefit the most? Would the BBC see anything or would the bulk go stateside?
Hat Trick, surely?
Quote: Griff @ February 22 2011, 9:16 PM GMTJust watched Ep 7. Enjoyable stuff. Although overall I'm with Aaron on this - if it comes back I'll watch it, if it doesn't, I won't miss it.
That's how I feel too. Watched Ep6 last night. Thought it went back to being unfunny. Shame.
Flipping flamingos, did that cactus fight remind anyone else of that final fight in Kurosawa's Rashomon?
I YouTubed it, with the intend of linking to it here (for comparison), but figured that the fight is probably not as epic and amazing for anyone only seeing the fight and not the whole build up to it. So. Kurosawa's Rashomon. I recommend it for anyone who liked that cactus fight.
As the final episode progressed, and after that whole "you never know, we still haven't screened the pilot" conversation, I felt that Beverly's infidelity was rather calculated, you know, so there'd be something new to provide the comedic tension in case there'd be a second series, and yes, that red button material seemed to confirm that.
Quote: zooo @ February 15 2011, 10:45 PM GMTYeah, of course (on TV, anyway). But they've written it wrong in my opinion.
They seem to have written it as though she's not purely into his power or money, but genuinely likes him emotionally. But there's nothing there to like. All they had to do was give him ONE redeeming feature, in one scene. But they haven't.
It's funny you should say that. I always thought it worked because she is written as a VERY insecure person, especially in that episode where she "bonds with Beverly".
To me it felt like she was supposed to be tired of the relationship with Merc, but still cared about him, you know, stuck in a rut kind of thing... or simply afraid of ending it, I mean, he IS her boss and she might be tired of him but afraid of losing her job and everything associated with it, not perks per say, just that whole world she was so entangled in, all those things she felt were important, but were, at the end of the day just.. moot.
But that's just how I saw it, I'm not saying it is better or righter than your way
As for Merc being too much of a jerk... I dunno, do characters like that HAVE to be a bit likeable to be allowed a place in the story? Jerks like that exist. Surely I've met a few (men and women alike) Yes, possibly a slightly exaggerated character for comedic purposes, but it didn't strike me as being overly out of tune.
Quote: Michael in London @ February 24 2011, 9:46 AM GMTNot a hit then, but not awful. Presumably as a co-production they could live with the lower rating anyway, so its future could be decided by the BBC.
(Not sure whether this really was "a critical smash" in the US... 
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