Fresh Meat

While sometimes not quite the comic steak tartare the title promises, Fresh Meat still provides enough smirk-raising moments, and often some unintentionally moving ones. too. Mainly in the form of Josie and Kingsley, who are still in love with each other and pretending not to be. Even though Kingsley, who's spent the summer growing a "muff on his chin" and now quotes Buddhism For Beginners, is suddenly in demand for his "hot man meat".

But the episode belonged to braying posh boy JP (the quote-perfect Jack Whitehall) who suffered an existential crisis when his chum Giles, with whom he shared experimental "power showers" at Stowe, turns out to be gay. "To bum or not to bum," ponders JP, like a public school Hamlet in a gilet, now forced to question every "toga party", "bender" joke and doodle of a "cock cat". Whitehall hogs all the best lines and it just makes you wish there were more to go around. Hopefully, Giles and newbie "foreign" flatmate Sabine will refresh the comedy bong water in coming episodes.

I loved student flatshare comedy Fresh Meat last time: it was funny and filthy and Jack Whitehall stole the show as the posh berk, the bad advert for public schools you expect from Channel 4 at times like these. Unfortunately Whitehall then played another posh berk in Bad Education which, after a decent start, became quite tedious. It suggested Whitehall could be a one-trick pony (and no stranger to actual gymkhanas). And it's had the effect of diluting his contribution to Fresh Meat, like he's been stealing from his own stash of cheap plonk in the student fridge without realising, topping it up with water.

If the metaphor is extended, other characters are starting to resemble overfamiliar foodstuffs and curling round the edges. Howard, played by our own Greg McHugh, is just a bit more odd, Vod is just a bit more scary, Josie is just a bit more unconvincing about having got over Kingsley, and so on. Of course they're students: any kind of decisive action wouldn't ring true.

Fresh Meat 2.1: Taut, sharp and perfectly paced

Jack Whitehall and the gang returned for a second season, and the dysfunctional house is still as hilarious as ever...

Jack Whitehall, Joe Thomas, Greg McHugh interview

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Fresh Meat captures the classic signs of studenthood

Fresh Meat viewers could be forgiven for thinking its writers have run out of ideas as series two rolls in, but in some ways, staying the same is a good thing.

Review: second series opener was a witty sordid delight

Fresh Meat's characters may be a year older, but thankfully, JP, Kingsley et al are showing no signs of evolution.

One of the things that makes Fresh Meat work so well is that it's actually a soppy sitcom - with more than a hint of romcom - with the comedy stemming from the characters gauche attempts to project themselves as hard and knowing when the reality is they are anything but.

All the characters are much as we left them. Kingsley has grown an apology for a goatee, but otherwise his and Josie's on-off relationship is still on-off, Vod is still on the scrounge, Oregon is still trying not to be posh and JP is still ... Jack Whitehall. I'm not convinced there's a difference between Whitehall and any of the characters he plays, but for the time being that doesn't really matter as he is rather good at being whoever he is. Writers Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong also appear to have written out the show's major weakness - geology lecturer Dan - and introduced Giles and Sabine to make sure the meat stays fresh. A comedy that's actually funny. It could catch on.

Fresh Meat is back and celebrated its return with a magnificent running joke about old meat. Howard started working at the local abattoir and is jubilant at the main perk of the job: "It's spare meat.. from the loose meat bin... It's all right. It's from animals." Kingsley has reappeared sporting a soul patch he gamely tries to pretend is no big deal, Josie is still hankering hopelessly after Kingsley and JP is worrying about his sexuality after the discovery that his friend Giles, with whom he shared masturbatory fumbles in the Stowe dormitories, is actually gay and not just "gay". There's also a promising new tenant in the form of Sabine, who insisted on vetting the water pressure and smoke alarms before taking the room. I'm so looking forward to the new term.

Fresh Meat: Series 2, episode 1 review

With the acting and writing talent available I fully expect the show to pick up over future weeks so as to avoid a sophomore slump.

TV Review: Is Fresh Meat still fresh?

This boisterous comedy exploring the pleasures and pitfalls of university life enjoyed a rip-roaring first run - British Comedy Awards to boot - with its debut series, meaning the follow-up was always going to be a challenge. If it stays this good, I'll bed in for the term.