Peep Show

To be honest, this has been a rather uneven fifth series of the Croydon flat-mate sitcom. At its best - in the second and fifth episodes - it's been bang on form and hilarious, but it's often been middling, verging on average. There's been the odd great line here and there, but nothing to write home about.

At the end of it all, you're left wondering if a fifth series was really for the best. Perhaps nipping things in the bud at the end of the fourth season - when things had reached a suitable moment to exit - would have been for the best. Ten out of ten for effort, though.

It is the texture of the writing that excels. Has anyone rendered the thought-processes of neurotic perpetual-adolescent males with more hilarious precision?

Jessie Armstrong and Sam Bain's sitcom continues to plumb the darker depths of the human condition with blisteringly funny results.

Radio Times Blog

Peep Show is wonderful, a model of edgy comedy perfection, with sharply brilliant, misanthropic, literate scripts from writers Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong and perfectly deadpan performances by David Mitchell and Robert Webb].

Unlike the patchy That Mitchell and Webb Look, Peep Show draws on the strengths of writers Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain.

Mark and Jez's theatre visit produced some great lines - I can't believe coming here costs more than a film and If this was on television, nobody would be watching. There was a spot-on realism here that perhaps got lost in the outrageous antics of the last season.

The only question is: five series in, where is there for the characters to go? On the evidence of the opener, it should be fun finding out.

It was Peep Show business as usual, with Mark trying to pass off his fearfulness as moral principle, Jez having no principles at all and almost every line proving quotably great.

Admittedly, the plot did get a bit bogged down in the second half. Even so, now that both Have I Got News for You and Peep Show have returned, Friday nights are back the way they should be.

Peep Show returned on Friday evening to further explore the almost limitless sleaziness - moral, physical and intellectual - of Jeremy and Mark.

This week, they found themselves locked into a double date at the theatre, a prospect that appalled Mark. Relax, Jeremy reassured him. It's all different now... they've moved on. They use proper actors, you know, Americans, and people off the telly, and they're all based on films, so its fine.. Scabrous slapstick and base motives are the core of the comedy, but that kind of leftfield detail is what gilds it.

As always, the writers Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain have got our thought-processes exactly right. Not many people would vocalise these particular thoughts like Mark and Jez do on this occcasion, but, let's face it, we've all thought something similar. And that, above all else, is Peep Show's enduring success.

Things improved radically on Friday with the return of Channel 4's best comedy in the history of laughter. Yes! Peep Show's back!! I only discovered this gem last year but the complete DVD collection now sits proudly displayed on my shelf and I'm reliably informed that makes me immediately cool so way hey!

Most shows entering their fifth series would be showing signs of aging and losing the edge that made them so intriguing but that's not so here. Thanks to the surreal brains of writers Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain and the always wonderful performances from David Mitchell and Robert Webb, Peep Show appears to be going from strength to strength at a stage when other shows wilt under the pressure.

The world of Peep Show is surreal, of course, but the scripts and acting draw you into the world of Mark and Jez so well you don't want to leave. David Mitchell recently said he'd like Peep Show to carry on for years and, if this is the standard they can keep it to, I'd be happy about that too.

Perhaps the most consistently funny British sitcom since The Office