Rolling UK Comedy Thread - "Ricky Don't Lose Larry David's Number

One of my best friends - and I follow her opinions usually - loves, loves, loves Friday Night Dinner. I don't get it.

I didn't make it more than ten minutes into Fleabag. It was just trying way too hard.

I've seen lots of Friday Night Dinner. There's good stuff in it but I generally find it too repetitive and irritating.

Watched two episodes of Fleabag and there were a handful of funny bits but still too much Miranda-ish stuff.

First couple of seasons of Friday Night Dinner were golden, but it is essentially the same show every week and diminishing returns/dearth of ideas killed it last season. Not wanting to watch the new one tbh.

The last season of Friday Night Dinner was only saved by Mark Heap and Robert Popper, and saw the first ep of the new season was maybe even a step too far for them; not to mention it was a rehash of the piano tuner episode. The writers of Man Down clearly love it though because the new Tony Robinson character is a straight lift of Mr Maurice.

I enjoyed the second episode of Fleabag more than the first, but not feeling it. Shower scene is the only time I've really laughed.

Seems like Fleabag might have been frontloaded and blown its stack on the first episode. The second episode did nothing for me.

― Half-baked profundities. Self-referential smirkiness (Bob Six)

Not as good as the first but still decent imo. I can see her smirks to camera getting old soon, though.

Yes to both those things. It's a question of how she moves beyond the standup material

Gotta admit Man Down has been cracking me up a fair bit recently.

Fleabag's returns continue to diminish, meanwhile.

I think Fleabag's remained strong, but I think it's not a sitcom, as such. It reminds me of that Netflix show Love, which seemed to be a romcom but ended up being a show about depression and substance abuse; the base theme of Fleabag is grief, and I think it handles it really sharply and really subtly.

Brent is baaaaaaaack

Brent is back with 6-minute songs before films I want to see in the cinema! Thanks, 2016.

I'm actually enjoying Fleabag more than the first one - getting rid of the wacky OOH SEXPOT element has really worked and it's clear the whole plot is about her failure to get over the death of the co-owner. It reminds me of Catastrophe probably more than it should, specifically the relationship between Sharon Horgan and Ashley Jensen, and Ashley's relationship with Mark Bonnar.

It'd be pretty easy to argue that the silent yoga retreat was a bit hackneyed but the empowered men seminar in the same building was great and Hugh Dennis was surprisingly good.

Ricky Gervais defends use of n-word in his new film

smdh

don't cut yourself on that edge ricky

Better for the populous

Fleabag 1 was on bbc2 last night. which is easier for me tbh.

not sure the world needs random 'big fat quiz'zes - it feels so much like a christmas / new year thing.

and that was probably the worst 8/10 catsdown so far on friday. the woman was useless, sub Roisin Conaty levels. and suzy shouldn't have to suffer character comedians.

I liked the woman and the character comedian guy! I enjoyed Big Fat Quiz as well, could do with less Jimmy Carr in both though

Fleabag's getting better and more depressing I think

I think Fleabag's remained strong, but I think it's not a sitcom, as such.
It reminds me of that Netflix show Love, which seemed to be a romcom but ended up being a show about depression and substance abuse; the base theme of Fleabag is grief, and I think it handles it really sharply and really subtly.

this this this.
so spot on stevie.
i have loved fleabag.
there are so many tickpoints in it that make me go 'ooooh yeah .. i did that .. '.
it's clearly written by someone who has been through the grieving process.
if not, then a lot of chats/research have been done.

i think it's brilliant.

i've only just discovered 'cats does countdown' wasn't just a comic relief sketch

Guy I work with thought it was the real Countdown, he was horrified that they'd turned it into 'some sort of comedy show'.

his reaction is otm. it's… odd

my wife managed 15 minutes and noped out

See, I quite like it, as a fan of panel shows, Sean Lock and game shows. I'm very much over Roisin Conaty being rubbish at it though.

yeah, i'm picking through old episodes and hadn't realised just how much scope there is to slot comedy into the countdown format. in some ways it's pretty inventive and like nothing else on television.

very much an acquired taste though. i didn't really get it until the third or fourth episode.

I've probably got more tolerance to it that most here (I can sit through it no problem mainly thanks to the ever excellent Sean Locke), but there's not really anything to get surely? It's comedians doing Countdown.

by 'get' i mean the pacing. if you come in cold and don't know what they're doing (or how it came about) it can be jarring, although the first episode i saw just wasn't a great one.

my wife gave up because she likes countdown for being countdown. she wanted it to be cats or countdown, and got annoyed when they were doing gags through the game bits.

sounds awful

countdown first

no format miscegenation

when they get it right it's fine and makes a weird sort of sense, but when the contestants aren't great and nobody cares about the game it's a struggle

The joe watsisface bits are tedious. Needs more actual Countdown. I think they've let up a little bit on the jokes about shagging Rachel Riley, which is a good thing I guess? I stopped watching at one point because it left a nasty taste.

ugh that sounds awful

when did I become so enamoured with the word grouping "sound awful"?

Is this a new version of the show or is it the same thing thats been going for years?

watched this weeks 8/10/countdown cos my lads insisted ..
fucking hell it was dire.
painful.
it was a lot better when it was the odd one off special.
turning it into a regular thing has made it desperate.
and i could quite easily live the rest of my life without ever hearing that false jimmy carr laugh again.

in other news : watched all of 'man down' in the last week.
rik mayall as the dad in season 1 was just genius, and a joy to watch.
the way they dealt with his real life death was wonderful, and brutally funny.
admittedly, some of it grated, but when it worked, damn, it worked (the interaction between greg and the kids basically).

hmm, rick mayall played greg davies' father?

I'm sure Carr's false laugh is his real laugh. He says he has trouble fading into the back of live comedy audiences because everyone recognises his laugh.

Watching this week's Catsdown right now. This guy in Dictionary Corner is the worst.

I'd say this is *not* the show to judge it on. That Natasia lass that's on is just dreadful too.

Who are the guests?

This week was some terribly unfunny lass who seemed impressed with herself for getting a three letter word, and a character comedian which is absolutely the worst form of comedy. They do sometimes have decent guests who add to the format, but this week was definitely not one of those weeks.

yeah, if the guest isn't funny and doesn't care about playing the game, there's no point in them being there (e.g. bob mortimer alternating between lazy dad jokes and not even trying to do words/sums). at least on 8/10 cats there's plenty of material for them to bounce off as comedians.

kinder:

The joe watsisface bits are tedious.

otm

Needs more actual Countdown.

otm

I think they've let up a little bit on the jokes about shagging Rachel Riley, which is a good thing I guess?

i hope they didn't let up just in response to the stalker thing.

http://www.chortle.co.uk/features/2016/08/20/25594/bbc_sitcom_season:_whats_on_when

am i wrong to think this could be pretty good? at least some of it will fall flat on its face, and really the money should not be going into rehashing the past, but some of the new angles (e.g. young hyacinth, performing a lost steptoe & son script) could be loads of fun.

Watching this week's Catsdown right now. This guy in Dictionary Corner is the worst.

truly painful to watch.

hmm, rik mayall played greg davies' father?

https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/man_down/interview/rik_mayall/

"I would really like the opportunity to explore the character of Greg's dad fully"

8(

Fleabag episode 6 has got very dark. (Bit irritated by what looked like it may be a sentimental chink of light right at the end of the episode).

I'm not sure I like any of the characters in it very much at all, but it's still very watchable.

Yup. Thought it ended very well. Not really a sitcom though, after all. (And tbh I don't know what I would have done without that brief flash of sentimentality) Look forward to a second series, or whatever else she does.

i've finished ep 4 and fleabag has really turned into something extraordinary