Peep Show (now with added Mitchell & Webb Look)

High expectations, anyone?

I must say I rated it very highly last time; only caveat being the obtrusively 'edgy', malcontented camera work. The material needed a more classic sitcom approach in this way; while I accept a lot was based around interior monologues, did the visuals have to be as self-conscious? A moot point, perhaps... I do feel it harmed it slightly but not irrevocably.

But yes: good actors (that's the key! nothing they do is stand-up mugging or 'routine') are the main pair, and gratifying underplaying in the wider ensemble - though I loved that rather exaggerated businessman grotesque, Johnson. Looking forward immensely to this returning. The new Peter Kay show is on before it in the schedules, also.

Friday's episode did impress me; a good deal of tenderness, and a commendable avoidance of obvious moves: unlike the preceeding "Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere", which I hoped would have something of the Tinniswood Uncle Mort & Carter Brandon radio-travelogue about it... but that was sadly rather tired with its irrelevant 'parodies', 'ironic' musical telegraphing. It had potential, but lacked the poetry required; how much better those silhouetted "Dirty Dancing" parodies would have worked with the Ingmar Bergman, or Mike Leigh, silence behind them? Nothing too deep was wrung out of the situation; not enough absurdity, not enough muted feeling. Maybe it'll improve, but I'm skeptical.

"Peep Show" is sharper with the non sequitur, and actually manages to surprise a bit; 't plays often as an onanistic "Bottom" crossed with "The Office". Admittedly, I do have to agree with Jed that the Mark actor is the more skilled... v. good supporting cast; must say that Olivia Colman is right for that role.

An episode without the inner-monologues could be a masterstroke, actually; like moments in the "Office" Christmas Specials where inter-relations appeared so differently without the 'docu'-framing. Being so used to the show's conceit would make such an edition a different take on things, and add a bit more complexity: maybe change how we view the main characters, not being given their innermost thoughts, once in a way.

not sure who you mean at all here, but it was a good episode and v funny at times (certainly more than Max & Paddy)

the line about "HAVING A GREAT BIG WANK" was particularly well-received chez carsmile...

? disagree there - it seems to be fulfilling the mandate 'make people laugh while presenting sitcom in a relatively novel way' - assuming that IS the mandate

constant POV shots = dud

whole point tho!

hasn't mark gotten fat???

whole point tho!

ya. still doesn't work though.

"Wow, this crack is really moreish"

so otm about racist friends too.

i should think so

"I'm gonna broom you! I will, you'll get the broom, I promise!"

"Now your girlfriend and my best friend are going off to fuck, and what are we gonna do? Make a tent in the lounge and eat Dairylea Triangles? Is that what you want? Cos that's exactly what's gonna happen."

I fucking love Peep Show. It's never going to cross over like The Office did, being (I think) too close to the bone for mass mainstream consumption - ie although these character types no doubt exist in every office/pub/block of flats in the country, nobody really wants to think about that fact too deeply - but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I wouldn't recommend it to my mum and dad, certainly...

"Are you saying we can't be friends just because I'm stalking you?"

I don't like Peep Show because they talk to the camera when they are supposed to be talking to each other. This is wrong. Over the shoulder shot and counter-shot is bad, but this is worse. Also it has too much swearing and appears to be genetically engineered for young people. Steptoe and Son wasn't specifically for rag and bone men, was it? I mean, I'm sure they enjoyed it, but you could still get into it if you were a roadsweeper.

my fave Superhans bit: "i tell you what that crack is really moreish"

This second series really did impress me, especially as it moved along. The characters - if not perhaps so strongly the situation - were pushed into interesting waters. And why is a developing, serial situation now seemingly what I want in a sitcom? Probably a bit too much Reggie Perrin watched of late (though of course the brilliance there, is how the basic melancholy situation is eventually reaffirmed, after, say, the novelties/experiments of new identities, Grot and the commune...) ;)

The occasionally more 'reflective' tone of this was very pleasing; just the sort of thing I was looking for after the last series. Questions remain as to whether the show can perhaps 'speak to' a larger audience, and extend further its reach (aye, maybe change the whole dynamic by removing the POV? would throw up a whole new set of questions about the characters)... but it was more than good enough to be getting on with.

I'll third the admiration for the "That crack was really moreish" line. Greatest line of the year, all the more so in the light of Pete Doherty's ongoing self-destruction.
The university episode was particularly heartbreaking. The Columbo bit was genius, Peter Capaldi was on fine form (stop taking easy money voiceover jobs and ACT man), and Mark's awkard dealings with the girl were really close to the bone. We've all been there at some point.
The final episode even had its own mini Brent telling Finchy to fuck off moment when Mark asked that knob to leave.
And that Nancy girl is totally hott.

well, look at the fucking state of that lot. You can only read a finite amount of books in a lifetime, folks. Choose wisely!

Circa - yeah I was wrong. This has grown on me

I generally have an instant annoyance of animal-related storylines in sitcoms. (Same with Mummy the dog in Peep Show). So I'd rather it did without that, or maybe I'm just dead inside.

I loved the Mummy plot.

https://i.imgur.com/6ECdo6p.png

"back" is pretty enjoyable so far

that was the last one, wasn't it? (the cancer test one).

This is pretty brutal https://t.co/e0SFKXAQol pic.twitter.com/2whBIrMgZG

— Tom Gara (@tomgara) March 7, 2022

I wonder how much of this is just bluster and how much reflects how people would actually act in that situation, it reminded me the Peep Show episode where Mark and Jez talk about whether they would have joined the resistance had they been in nazi-occupied France

Mark: I dunno, Jeremy. It would have been a terribly difficult time, but I would probably have kept my head down.
Jeremy: You're kidding! I totally would have joined up.
Mark: That's very easy to say, Jeremy, but you would have risked death not just for yourself but for your family.
Jeremy: I'd probably have just got on a train to Berlin and taken Hitler down. Boof, the whole thing's over.
Mark: Well, I guess we'll never know for sure.
Jeremy: Oh, I know. I definitely know. No question about it.
Mark: Well, congratulations. You would have been a brave, brave man.
Jeremy: I can't believe you wouldn't be in the Resistance with me. I'm really disappointed in you.

obviously Jeremy is not any braver than Mark, he's just has a more conceited, less realistic self-image - but maybe the person with the deluded self-image is more likely to actually do the heroic thing when the moment comes because they've rhetorically backed themselves into a corner, whereas the self-critical person is more likely to not do the heroic thing because they're already prepared to do that, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy? Being constantly self-critical can make you a bad person because you have a ready made explanation/excuse whenever you do bad things?

(I guess the difference is that joining the resistance would have been unarguably the morally right thing to do, but whether staying to fight for the US would be the right thing to do is more ambiguous?)

jeremy would, of course, have run like hell and/or become an informer

relaxing video of los dude bros coming to life:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnshhIWdEfk

It's so weird, my first reaction was, huh, Peep Show is still on? Then my second reaction was to look up when it stopped airing. Then my third reaction was to try and determine if we've seen every season, and ... I don't know! It's been so long I can't remember if we ever finished it, but reading the episode descriptions is no help at all. Maybe we did? Maybe we didn't? Were there really *9* seasons? No idea! I could have sworn we stopped at 5, which for some reason I thought was the end, but scanning the summaries I think we went past there, but no idea how far. Might have to start over. Or maybe just pretend we finished and thought it was all very funny.

I feel like the 'Mark and Jez eat a dog' season is where a lot of people understandably jumped off the train but it's worth hopping back on because it did quickly and admirably redeem that epic misstep imo.

It's solidly funny all the way to the end imo

There’s a lot of great episodes from the later seasons, like when Mark finally publishes Business Secrets of the Pharaohs—a rare example where Jez is the (relatively) sane one and Mark is unhinged. Or "Chairman Mark", which has a great election speech from Mark as he tries to become chairman of the freehold committee (tho as an American, I’m not really sure what that means… like being on a condo board, maybe?)

It's a shame people remember the dog eating episode mainly for the dog eating, this scene from the same episode has one of the series greatest ever lines

"Unfilled?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkjeorS12F0

good timing, I decided to watch Back this week. it starts off really badly imo. was really jarring to see them basically playing the same characters in what starts off as quite a lame trad sitcom with trad sitcom jokes. it gets better after about 3 episodes, but apparently because it got cancelled they never resolve anything, but am going to finish it anyway

re Peep Show, I did have the impression it started sucking after about series 5 but I rewatched it last week before watching Back and it's actually still quite funny most of the time and some of the episodes I don't like are in the early seasons - I think my least favourite one is the one in the gym where they accuse that guy of shitting in the pool and touching up Mark.

I looked up the guy that wrote Back when I was hating it and he also wrote the Peep Show episode where Mark gets raped which was another low point.

What I did notice was both Peep Show and Back have the same bullshit nonsense about tracking people's IP addresses which just isn't how this works but strangely the Back guy didn't write that episode.