Liam Williams

Review: Pls Like, BBC Three, YouTube, Episode Two

It becomes all the more clear how capable YouTube as a platform is in capturing and sustaining your attention - just as the newly evolved BBC Three wants to do. I'd prefer not to think about how YouTube might be harvesting my data as I watch, because I can't wait to find out what the Music challenge will have in store for Williams.

Review: Pls Like, BBC Three, YouTube, Episode Three

Williams redeems himself through the clever way he has Liam and Millipede unite against the formidable power of James Wirm. Through the musical dimension of this strange, strange vlogging sphere, William manages to balance his 'on-brand' cynicism with a genuine sense of enquiry and engagement.

Pls Like is a wonderful find. No matter that vloggers, with their kickably infuriating perfect lives and immaculate optimism and terribly healthy sponsorship deals, are overripe for ridicule: the real discovery is Liam Williams. The young comedian, who describes himself winningly as "a 51-year-old grumpy technophobe in the body of a 28-year-old grumpy technophobe", likes to mock all matters relating to video-logging and its absurdly perky proponents, until he gets the chance to win £10,000 by successfully passing vlogging "challenges" - the beauty tips, the fitness, the "pranks" - oh God, the pranks. Cue much ill-willed raising of Liam's eyebrow as he must undergo mentoring in the art of solipsistic indulgence by soft minds with hard bodies and too many followers. My favourite exchange, in the "health and beauty" episode:

Peppy vlogger Millipede and bestie Chloe: "Can you take a selfie of us?"

(Liam tries awkwardly to get into shot)

"No, can you? Take a selfie? Of us?"

Liam, after tired pause: "You mean... a photo."

But in truth, every passage fizzes with real wit. Over the series minds are changed, and not just those of the characters. It's subtle, bright and hilarious, which makes it all the more astonishing it's being hidden, although This Country, their mockumentary anthem to doomed Cotswold youth also showcases the digital channel's new gift for brilliance.

Review: Pls Like, BBC Three, YouTube, Episode One

The show balances a subtle undoing of the phenomenon with unabashed digs in the narration and cuts to acerbic 'facts' about vlogging. In asking some important questions as we enter a new dawn of television-slash-content consumption, Pls Like is a pretty good starting point.

Liam Williams on new BBC show Pls Like

All the characters were partly based really vloggers or (a sort of composite of various vloggers) but through the writing and improv they all became quite distinct from the original sources.

Pls Like: a brutal new mockumentary satirising YouTube

With comedian Liam Williams at the helm, this short series skewers the sinister product placements and creepy insincerity of the world of vlogging.

Liam Williams: The trouble with satirising Zoella & co

If you're anything like me (a pale and bitter person, grown snobby before time) you've likely watched more parodies of vlogs than you have the real thing.

Live Review: Ricky Whittington & His Cat

The result is a clever up-to-the-minute adult version of a traditional theatrical form with lots of good knowing lines, good subversive humour and good catchy tunes.