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

Motherland starts again on monday

followed by new Inside Number 9

For some reason, I watched all of the new Motherland yesterday even though I feel very conflicted about it. It makes me anxious rather than making me laugh and the way people behave is stupidly implausible, at times. I want to like it more than I do but I find it mean spirited a lot of the time. I think it's mostly carried by some very winning performances & the laughs are good when they do come.

The series has a surprisingly upbeat and uncynical ending which hopefully signals a new direction for the show and seems to be a hint that that will be foregrounding one character who's only been a residual presence until now and is played by an actor I'm really quite keen on.

I'm going to settle for the weekly pace because of the Inside#9 double bill but I thought there were a fair few flags the focus might change.

"I was the head of product development for Glaxo SmithKline."

“Are you sure you didn’t work in Greggs?”

lol at hidden text with no actual spoilers or names in it

there's like 1 semi-likeable character in the entire show, i'm not even sure i enjoy it.

(unlike, say, starstruck which is funny and smart and charming - "i didn't want to come empty handed and these are the only things i've seen you eat")

y'all sold me on motherland so i knocked the first season and a few extra episodes out in two nights. Will likely catch up to season 3 by tonight. "not even sure i enjoy it" feels accurate, it's very Sharon Horgan-y and the actors mostly keep me engaged but it's kinda light most of the time and then violently mean on occasion.

Starstruck lost me at episode four when it ran out of ideas and just started recycling the same shakespearean confusions and mistakes to keep them from getting together. fair play on the nod to The Graduate at the end.

(gah spoilers! only 3 episodes have been on telly so far)

I don't know if it's very Sharon-Horgany as much as very all over the place. Like whoever wrote everything revolving around the kevin pig-pit slapstick in s2 hadn't spoken to anyone else who'd written the other parts of the episode.

xp sorry, didn't know! in any case, i'm not spoiling anything with that comment that you couldn't figure out by just watching the show, i promise. Would be curious if other folks who didn't binge starstruck have different opinions.

the Horgan-ishness: black and gross-out humor, feints toward humanity promptly chopped down as the payoff of the scene, devastating personal loss played off as nature of the game, all male characters have the intelligence and maturity of a damaged teen

That's food for thought, tbh.

in any case, i'm not spoiling anything with that comment that you couldn't figure out by just watching the show, i promise.

you did specifically describe the final scene of the series, and contrasted them with your own expectations from just watching the show, tbh

i feel bad! honestly, I assumed you guys got them all at the same time and had already had a fair amount of time to see the show but i guess the international t0rr3nt scene works on a different delivery timeline.
anyways, it NODS to the graduate, that's not where it lands. I am also a bit annoyed that it got far enough up its own ass to stop coming up with new ideas after the first ninety minutes.

i was just remarking that i likely wouldn't watch half the middlebrow british/australian sitcoms i watch if they were american but the UK/AU stuff's actors are generally 5X better, the subject matter is more daring and they say "fuck" regularly. apparently that does it for me enough so that I can unapologetically binge through Plebs.

It’s common-ish for UK (and a bit in Australia) to drop a whole series on free streaming the night the first ep TXs - koogs is just watching week by week on actual TV

liked this pilot about an all female muslim band a lot

― oscar bravo, Tuesday, May 12, 2020 3:51 PM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

so this has got a series going out on ch4 next week.

Currently watching Drifters on Netflix which completely passed me by first time round. Bit of a slow grower, but always watchable and by series 3 consistently hilarious.

I bailed after the ep where she gets a lesbian friend and doesn't know she's a lesbian lololololol. Guessing it gets better?

Oh yeah I'd sort of forgotten about that. That was a low point.

okay, watched the first two episodes of Ghosts. It's okay! Worth sticking with, I think.

I was halfway through the second when i had the very clear thought this was gonna be bought by a premium cable channel to screen and then remade by another premium cable channel for a US audience. Found out this morning it's new to HBO stateside, so halfway there.
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Saturday, October 31, 2020 12:58 AM

the choices with character reboot design are shall we say interesting?
casting looks okay.

uk side : 'video unavailable'

are they remaking GHOSTS for the US market ?

yep
https://www.cbs.com/shows/ghosts/

Ghosts is a single-camera comedy about Samantha (Rose McIver) and Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar), a cheerful freelance journalist and up-and-coming chef from the city, respectively, who throw both caution and money to the wind when they decide to convert a huge rundown country estate they inherited into a bed & breakfast—only to find it’s inhabited by the many spirits of deceased residents who now call it home. The departed souls are a close-knit, eclectic group that includes a saucy Prohibition-era lounge singer, a pompous 1700’s Militiaman, a ‘60s hippie fond of hallucinogens, an overly upbeat ‘80s scout troop leader, a cod-obsessed Viking explorer from 1009, a slick ‘90s finance bro, a sarcastic and witty Native from the 1500s, and a society woman and wife of an 1800’s robber baron who is Samantha’s ancestor, to name a few. If the spirits were anxious about the commotion a renovation and B&B will create in their home, it’s nothing compared to when they realize Samantha is the first live person who can see and hear them. Joe Port & Joe Wiseman, Mathew Baynton, Jim Howick, Simon Farnaby, Laurence Rickard, Ben Willbond and Martha Howe-Douglas; Alison Carpenter, Debra Hayward, and Alison Owen (Monumental Television); and Angie Stephenson (BBC Studios) are the executive producers for CBS Studios in association with Lionsgate Television and BBC Studios’ Los Angeles production arm. Trent O’Donnell is an executive producer (pilot only) and directed the pilot from a script by Port & Wiseman. Based on the BBC Studios distributed format. Ghosts stars Rose McIver as Samantha, Utkarsh Ambudkar as Jay, Danielle Pinnock as Alberta, Brandon Scott Jones as Isaac, Richie Moriarty as Pete, Asher Grodman as Trevor, Sheila Carrasco as Flower, Román Zaragoza as Sasappis, Devan Chandler Long as Thorfinn, and Rebecca Wisocky as Hetty.

i see your point about episodes 4 and 5 of Starstruck, episode 4 was largely farce. but i'm still enjoying it.

VCM probably the pick of new Taskmaster guests, but we'll see.

full list - Alan Davies, Desiree Burch, Guz Khan, Morgana Robinson and Victoria Coren Mitchell

mother's day episode of motherland felt like the first fully realized program and a payoff for the investment of time put in

Lady Parts was amazing and the first British comedy I want to recommend to people in ages

yes it's great.

Been meaning to watch that.

Disappointing lineup for the next Taskmaster. Khan and maaaybe Burch are the only ones I'm looking forward to. Hate Davies.

By that I mean Alan, not Greg.

Though Greg's relationship with Liz Kendall does raise suspicions that he's actually a dickhead...

I'd seen the Lady Parts pilot but was still worth seeing the actual first ep - loved the reiwrite of "Man Of Constant Sorrow".

finished off s3 of motherland, that show really found its stride this go-round

Yeah, Lady Parts was great, have been doing some recommending.

Bit of a wasted opportunity on Partridge, an actual tory band would be playing polite folk rock not 80's synth pop. "Cottswold Commuters" is admitidely a jam.

Yeah that segment felt like it was gonna be total ilx bait when it started but it didn’t really come off

I am loving it in general tho. The Ruth Duggan bit is a joke I’ll never tire of, also fair play for getting in lines about “things that don’t fly at the bbc anymore, like criticising the government”

i don't know how many other americans read this thread but i was recently informed that Stath Lets Flats is on HBOMax now. i know there are several UK ILXors who loved it but i hadn't found an easy way to watch it before this. it is very funny.

Glad Americans can dig it too, it's quite culturally specific.

there's probably cultural stuff of which i'm not getting the nuances but there's also destroying three TVs while trying to catch a pigeon with a small plastic bag

Stath is kinda perfect.

I knocked out the first season of Friday Night Dinner, which is basically the same set of jokes rearranged for each episode and consistently told well. i liked it well enough to keep going i think.

UK ilxors: what other britcoms from the 00's/10's that are commonly known to be good over there but are unknown in the US should I be looking for? I need good acting, decent writing, no laughtrack and am otherwise willing to take a shot.

Pulling?

watched all of it at the start of this year!

from upthread:

if you want a general guide as to how dark Pulling is, right around the fourth episode of the first season, there's a sequence where they beat a cat to death with a brick. And it's funny! But it is very much there.
― That's not really my scene (I'm 41) (forksclovetofu), Saturday, January 30, 2021 12:19 AM

Count Arthur Strong is, I think, massively underrated. Laughtrack though, if that's a deal-breaker.

unfortunately it is. But i'll try the pilot!

i tried 8 out of 10 cats/countdown and it's not watchable

I’ve no idea what’s well-known in the US. Inbetweeners? Spaced? Detectorists? Mighty Boosh? Royle Family? All good, for different values (and types) of good. Some of them may have laugh tracks for all I know. Black Books has one for sure.

i tried 8 out of 10 cats/countdown and it's not watchable

― Draymond is "Mr Dumpy" (forksclovetofu)

It's appalling. If you want a cosily undemanding yet entertaining comedy panel show try Would I Lie to You (or better yet Taskmaster).

Inbetweeners? Watched all of this so long ago that i have completely forgotten it existed! I think it was fine?
Spaced? heard of this, never watched it, will try it. i like edgar wright well enough so this is a good recommendation. i get it confused with red dwarf which i am thinking you might find funny.
Detectorists? Watched this, its decidedly okay!
Mighty Boosh? dated a girl who was really into this and i don't know if i can ever watch it again.
Royle Family? Never heard of this. Will give it a try!

Tried taskmaster, mostly unwatchable but to be fair i don't think I am into panel shows of any variety. I love Only Connect tho!

here's a list of some stuff that exists that I don't know anything about:
how to stay married
not going out
spicks and specks
rob and romesh versus
murder they hope
enterprice
housos
two weeks to live

here's a list of some uk/au stuff i watched and like:
adult material, aftertaste, brass eye, Cunk on, Day Today, Damned, Dead Pixels, Fisk, Fleabag, Getting On, Ghosts, Anything/Everything Alan Partridge, Look Around You, Mandy, Motherland, Mum, The Other Guy, Serafinowicz show, Plebs, Pulling, Rosehaven, Saxondale, Slings and Arrows, Staged, Stath Lets Flats, Why Are You Like This

I'd say you have watched far more British comedy than most people in the UK. I've seen about 4 of those and haven't heard of most of the rest.

The only one I've seen out of that is Not Going Out and I suggest Not Watching It