Beaver Falls

Beaver Falls (E4) is a slick-looking comedy about three recent graduates from Oxford Brookes University, teaching at an American summer camp. It took me ages to unpick: was it an American idealisation of British culture? Or an English idealisation of American culture? Finally, I worked it out: this is a British look at the US, based on a premise with which you may or may not agree; that American summer camps are inherently, Lord-of-the-Flies-ly fascinating.

But there's a sting in the tail: somewhere near the end of the first episode, it turns into plucky, UK underdog spirit, standing up for the American underdogs against the improbable sadism of their jocks. It is a frankly pretty weird attempt to interpolate our own sensibility into an American combative trope - jock v nerd - that we don't even fully understand, that we've just picked up off the telly. I would like to see a bit of psychoanalysis on the writing team: it's like a child's impulse to wriggle between warring parents. It's none of our business, mate! We don't have jocks or nerds, we don't have people who are strong or people who are good at stuff. We're irrelevant to this dyad. And it's irrelevant to us.

Well, of course that wouldn't matter if the writing were good, which it isn't, or if the situations were tickling, which they aren't (one of the major events is someone wanking on to a flip-flop: I don't want to be tediously pragmatic here, but it's a wipe-clean surface. Semen, on a wipe-clean surface: where is the drama?). I'm sorry to say, though, that I was won over by the acting in the end. Arsher Ali, memorable in Four Lions, is even more striking here, with no competition from the script or the other actors. Although, if I'm honest, I ended up warming to the other two (Samuel Robertson and John Dagleish) as well.

Show wasn't so much an American Pie as a British turkey

Beaver Falls aimed to be a cross between every US teen comedy ever made and The Inbetweeners. The results were bad - not so-bad-it's-good - just plain bad.

Last night's TV: Beaver Falls/E4

The cruelty of the jock faction is also so overblown and nasty that it is simultaneously unpleasant and unbelievable - a definite lose-lose. Flynn and A-Rab both have back stories that may allow for something a little less coarse and cocky, but I won't be holding my breath.

Beaver Falls review

OK, let's face it: you can pretty much guess what you're going to get when you sit down to watch a teen comedy-drama called Beaver Falls, can't you? There's no point tuning in expecting to see something that rivals Mad Men or The Sopranos. After all, it's set in a US summer camp and it's played for cheap laughs. The clue's in the word "beaver", folks.

'Beaver Falls' opens with 370k on E4

E4's Beaver Falls premiered with almost 370k on Wednesday night, while a repeat of Sherlock interested more than 3m, the latest audience data has revealed.

I couldn't help be skeptical about this program before watching it. The title of it, the plot and the fact it is on E4 don't scream class but hey, The Inbetweeners worked out so I gave it a chance.

In the first ten minutes or so the show offered all the depth of a paddling pool. It seemed to confirm and even surpass my skepticism but the truly one-dimensional start faded away as it went on. It remained somewhat adolescent in theme but I thought the attempts at humour worked. I don't feel proud for laughing at any of this show but the kid being hit on the head with the football did make me giggle. So did the flipper thing. Again, not proud.

The characters of Flynn and A-Rab were given some depth as it went on. For example Flynn's phone message, which made things feel a bit more credible. If the show can continue to not go too far into the one-dimensional realm and build the characters then I may be able to continue not disliking this. I am going to take a leap of faith with it.

This is a mix of The Inbetweeners and American Pie. It is on probation but I think it could become another PhoneShop.

If you have to look at a press release to work out whether what you're watching is supposed to be a comedy or a drama, something has gone ­seriously wrong somewhere.

Samuel Robertson (Adam Barlow from Corrie), John Dalgleish (Lark Rise to ­Candleford) and Arsher Ali star as best friends from uni who land what they think is their dream job in the USA as summer camp counsellors for the kids of the West Coast wealthy.

A cross-cultural mash-up of The Inbetweeners and movies like American Pie - British lads trying to have sex in California - isn't the worst idea we've ever heard, but from this first episode, it's more a case of "oh dear" than The OC.

We won't write it off just yet, though. Any show that manages to reference Braveheart and Baywatch in the space of an hour deserves a second chance.

In this unthinking cross between The Inbetweeners and US geek/jock movies, three randy Brits have just graduated and blagged jobs in California at a summer camp for rich older teens. The trio's aim is to have sex with everyone, which slightly dubiously seems to include the people they're supervising. Thankfully, in episode one our lads stick to chasing their fellow staff. Even more offensive, it uses every possible cliché, from meat-headed bullies to fat kids who keep being given wedgies. Generic lines that most writers would be embarrassed to consider for a first draft have made it to the screen. So kudos to the three leads - Samuel Robertson, Arsher Ali and John Dagleish - who somehow manage to charm.

E4's limited outings of home-produced shows are capable of greatness - Misfits and Inbetweeners. So, even allowing for the cheap joke of the hilarious title, you've got to give BF a bit of leeway. The set-up is that three chancers blag jobs at a Californian summer camp - the hilariously titled Beaver Falls - and try to get on with jocks and off with girls. The leads are interesting. After all, who would cast Corrie's Adam Barlowe, Hassan from Four Lions and the wimpy love interest from Lark Rise together in a Porky's meets Auf Wiedersehen Pet?

They're excellent, easily the best thing about the show. The writing is as heavy-handed as the hilarious title. It's filmed in South Africa pretending to be California and has a curiously empty feel. Nothing rings true - from the accents to the overt Americanisms. The funny lines have a lot of empty space behind them where a laughter track might help and the set-up drama doesn't really work. But it does feel that if they worked at it, it could be really good.

Beaver Falls review: Playing it safe for fun

E4's new comedy ticks just about every box ever invented for teen-comedies, a low-brow and slightly predictable piece of easy-going entertainment which oozes high school Americana, Beaver Falls is of guilty of being unadventurous rather than rubbish.