Peep Show (now with added Mitchell & Webb Look)

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.

then the series 2 dvd is out not this monday but the following one.

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.