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Last week, our A-Z featured 2 sitcoms that were very traditional in style. This week couldn't be more different, with a sitcom that paved the way for the term 'mockumentary', and another that just has that Mitchell and Webb look about it.
"MUNKEH"
Synopsis: It was from the slump years of television comedy, where Friends was entering its 50th season of canned laughter, that The Office quietly emerged as a bleak antidote to the rampant post-millennial optimism; a new breed of sitcom which completely revolutionised the mockumentary style and brought cringe humour to levels never before believed possible through a ground-breaking satire of bureaucracy, middle management and the bleak state of the 21st century's working environment. Henry D. Thoreau wrote that 'the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation', and The Office, set in the unrelentingly grey Slough at the fictional Wernham-Hogg Paper Merchants, depicts exactly this. The camera follows the monotonous daily lives of Tim (Martin Freeman), Gareth (Mackenzie Crooke), Dawn (Lucy Davis), and the rest of a regional department run by David Brent (Ricky Gervais), as he tries and fails – badly and frequently – to win their respect and admiration.
The ability to find humour in the most grim situations is an inherently British trait, and The Office follows on from the tradition of classic sitcoms like Fawlty Towers, which also play on this concept. However, what makes The Office so remarkable is that is is entirely unafraid to be depressing and cruel, and to utterly debase certain characters to the extent that it is sometimes hard to watch; this unwavering commitment to bleak realism is what makes the show so funny, so tragic and so exceptional.
Best Character: David Brent
Gervais is a master of creating characters that are simultaneously loveable and loathable, but none more so than David Brent. Whatever your personal opinions may be of Gervais, Brent is despicable, but disillusioned, and therefore an utterly sympathetic character, and his flawed nature makes him one of the most convincing TV 'baddies' ever.
Best Episode: 'Charity'
Every episode contains moments of comedy genius but 'Charity' features the now infamous dance scene, plus Tim hides all of Gareth's things (which is always a joy to behold), Dawn is selling kisses and David gets some bad news.
Best Moment:
See also: Only Fools and Horses, One Foot in the Grave, Open All Hours
"People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis. You can't trust people"
Synopsis: Peep Show recently became Channel 4’s longest running sitcom with the premier of its seventh series in late 2010, and with writers such as Jesse Armstrong (The Thick of It) and consistently brilliant performances from David Mitchell, Robert Webb and a varied supporting cast, it’s easy to understand why.
If there is something us Brits do well it’s cringe humour, and Peep Show has this in spades. The series is filmed in a unique POV camera style that gives the show its name and its voyeuristic honesty. We hear the internal monologue of the two main characters, flatmates Mark and Jez, and can simultaneously compare their inner thoughts to how they outwardly behave. This is where the majority of the laughs are generated, because Mark and Jez are both socially inept and morally bankrupt oddballs who are floundering in 21st century Croydon. Like all the best car crash television, the situations that they create for themselves are dire, but it’s how they exacerbate them that makes for truly watch-through-your-fingers television. It’s dark, it’s painful and it’s one of the best character driven comedies that’s ever aired on British TV.
Best Character: Super Hans
Mitchell and Webb have never done anything better, but Super Hans (Matt King) wins this accolade ‘hans’ down. Thanks to his sociopathic tendencies, love of scotch eggs and a casual crack habit, Super Hans inadvertently brings novelty to every situation he is in, for beneath his expressionless facade exists a drug addled mind so insane that it might just be genius. Praise is also due to Paterson Joseph’s cool as a cucumber Johnson and Olivia Coleman’s quietly tragic Sophie, who bring so much to the narrative in the first four series.
Best Episode: The last two episodes of Series Four might just take the honour. A surprising amount of comedy is to be found when Jez organises Mark's stag do, which starts off as an innocent boating weekend but swiftly deteriorates when Jez runs over the dog belonging to a potential one night stand. But this is Peep Show and things can always get worse. The subsequent series finale is possibly the most enjoyably disastrous TV wedding you will ever experience.
Best Moment: Classic Peep Show banality as Mark makes breakfast
See also: Porridge
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