Outnumbered

Outnumbered, TV review

As Outnumbered (BBC One) creaks towards it finale next week, it's clear the show is long past its early peak and though some of its gags are written on fumes (Pete can't work out predictive texting; an IT man suggests turning a computer on and off again) it still has enough moments to raise a smile.

Outnumbered, episode four, BBC One, review

To be fair, Outnumbered (BBC One) has never made breakneck plotting or surprise twists a selling-point, and it's perhaps unfair to expect it to morph into Breaking Bad in its final series. It's become cosy, comfortable viewing - My Family with improv - and there's nothing wrong with that.

Radio Times review

Given the choice between going camping with Ben (it's on Pete's "50 things to do with your kids before they become teenagers" list) and almost anything else, you'd think the latter would be the preferable option. But although Ben catches some unfortunate doggers in the traps he's set, he does manage to bond with his dad while they're being Bear Grylls in the woods.

Sue has no such luck. She's alarmed that Karen has body issues fuelled by the skinny Stacey, who is happily oblivious to the effect rhapsodising about diets and plastic surgery has on a young girl. Makes a night in a tent with Ben seem downright attractive.

Outnumbered series 5 episode 4 review: The Gap Year

The Gap Year was a bit of a missed opportunity in some ways but it was still funny. Inferior to The Goddaughter last week, maybe, but it was good, packed with tongue-in-cheek humour (when is Outnumbered ever not?), some memorable scenes and stronger (yes, I'll be banging on about this for a while yet) characterisation.

Outnumbered review: The older kids just aren't as funny

It's right that the once brilliant BBC1 comedy about hapless parents and their naughty children is bidding farewell, says Ben Dowell.

Outnumbered series 5 episode 3 review: The Goddaughter

This last and regrettably final series of Outnumbered is just going from strength to strength.

Radio Times review

Teenage hormones are surging through the Brockman household while parents Pete and Sue desperately try, Canute-like, to stem the tide.

"Ben is only 13 and that's another one that I've lost to the testosterone express," wails Sue, as her younger son is rendered speechless and physically incapacitated by the sight of Pete's 21-year-old goddaughter wandering around in her underwear.

Meanwhile, a spot of babysitting leads Karen to ask awkward questions about the pain of childbirth and Jake argues the case for being allowed to have a girl stay overnight in his room. "He's good," Sue and Pete agree about his persuasive technique. Turns out his parents are better.

Nine more top parenting tips from the Brockmans

Here are nine more top parenting tips à la Brockman.

Outnumbered series 5 episode 2 review

After what can only be described as an underwhelming opening, Outnumbered continues this week with an episode that's back on form. There are more laughs, stronger characterisation and - above all - more of a focal point, something last week's subpar outing lacked.

Radio Times review

The Brockman household is rich in theories in this episode. Jake and Ben try out some of their ideas about human behaviour, and Karen continues following the cold, take-no-prisoners, 11-year-old logic that is putting her classmates off her. At swimming, she's graduated from sweet little kids' races to hardcore heats with sledging, instigated by her, at the poolside. Meanwhile, Pete is getting involved in his own inter-parental dispute with Fred out of Call the Midwife (aka Cliff Parisi).

Not surprisingly, now that the cast is older, this final series is calmer than previous ones, with the domestic chaos swapped for something closer to gentle unrest. But Ben can still be relied upon for some boyish levity, which this week comes from twin obsessions: psychology and Spartacus. He's got a net and he's not afraid to use it.