Best British comedy series to have debuted in the last ten years.

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (380 of them)

Where was "Duck Patrol" in this poll anyway?

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 09:58 (seventeen years ago) link

Friends shifted the impetus in a sitcom from caring about the characters to using them as a cipher for gags, to simplify as far down as possible.

-- Dom Passantino, Thursday, May 10, 2007 12:19 PM (35 minutes ago)

oh bollocks. i'm not saying i was invested overmuch in 'friends' but i don't think that's true. comparing it with 'only fools and horses' and indeed 'spaced' makes no sense anyway because they come out of very different traditions blah blah blah. but even then the characters in 'spaced' are just as 'cipher-y', if you like, as the characters in 'friends' -- clusters of pop-cult references, almost.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:00 (seventeen years ago) link

But in Spaced you're meant to be emotionally invested in the will-they wont-they relationship between Daisy and... whatever Simon Pegg's character was called. All I'm saying is that Spaced is the most *traditional* sitcom on British TV in a long time, it's a lot closer to a Marks and Gran production that anything else.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:02 (seventeen years ago) link

"I don't like it when people set out to create great TV, I prefer it when it happens organically"

what does this mean?

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:12 (seventeen years ago) link

Actually setting out to create Important TV detracts from any enjoyment of it.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:13 (seventeen years ago) link

not funny

― RJG, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:16 (seventeen years ago) link

ive seen 8 of these shows, ive never heard of 12. it doesnt seem a good list for 10 years of tv?

the results arent surprising at the top. but a little more surprising lower down, why do you think royle family and phoenix nights gained so few votes?

― 696, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:18 (seventeen years ago) link

i think dom maybe just answered my question. i thought he might like phoenix nights, but i think now i see why he might not

i kind of think all of these shows, and perhaps any show, sets out to be important thuogh?

― 696, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:18 (seventeen years ago) link

Spaced is the most *traditional* sitcom on British TV in a long time

Since "Phoenix Nights" at least

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:20 (seventeen years ago) link

Spaced is more traditional than Phoenix Nights in terms of format. Think about it: Spaced has characters in a tight location who each week go out on a wacky adventure (paintballing, raving, whatever). It's almost like Dad's Army in many respects.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:23 (seventeen years ago) link

that was one of the ones i havent seen

― 696, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:24 (seventeen years ago) link

i wonder if the phoenix nights vote was from Alba

― 696, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:26 (seventeen years ago) link

i think The IT Crowd was sold specifically on the fact it wasn't striving for importance. thing about this list though is that by neccesity it is loaded. i doubt "my family" and "two pints of lager" would have got any votes but it's sort of missing the point to make huge generalist arguements, of the sort we are now seeing, about british comedy without mentioning them.

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:30 (seventeen years ago) link

But "Two Pints of Lager" = unfunny AND unpopular

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:30 (seventeen years ago) link

TPOL not so much, but My Family (and My Hero for that matter), yes.

xp

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:31 (seventeen years ago) link

Plus surely 96% of the people on this forum have merged Coupling and TPOL into one show in their head?

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:31 (seventeen years ago) link

Which has the squeaky voiced Indian girl? Which has the comedy Welsh guy? Which has her from Hollyoaks? Etc.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:31 (seventeen years ago) link

The DVD has a really good Ianucci/Baynam/someone else (Coogan? Henry Normal?) commentary.

Coogan I think, on series 1. Very good. Also, Alan and Lynn commentary is mildly amusing. Series 2 commentaries not quite as good - mainly lots of snark at Coogan being too busy ~~sexxing Courtney Love~~ being in Hollywood to do commentaries anymore.

Is Help still 'easily available'? I lost my previous 'copy'.

― Bocken Social Scene, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:32 (seventeen years ago) link

UKNova.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:33 (seventeen years ago) link

The first series of Black Books, as written by (either Linehan or Matthews I forget) is really good. The latter ones written by Dylan Moran, where the plots are "lol asylum seekers have different customs to me", are fucking awful.

"Fucking awful" is well off the mark. It dropped a couple of notches but it was far from fucking awful. I think you & I have similar tastes, Dom, but I have a soft-knee slope down to comic mediocrity and your tolerance just drops like a stone. (Oh, and we disagree about Boosh/Barley).

― Michael Jones, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:33 (seventeen years ago) link

TPOL seems to single handidly keep bbc3 afloat. my family and my hero are bigger than anything on that list with exception of little britain. coupling and TPOL are very different beasts. class warrior passantino should have clocked this.

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:35 (seventeen years ago) link

I just have a low tolerance for Moran's "modern life is rubbish, look i've not combed my hair how roguish" schtick.

xp

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:35 (seventeen years ago) link

Coupling and TPOL are meant to be differently classed, I know (main characters in TPOL work at a garage and what's obviously meant to be Gregg's, correct?), but the humour is _exactly_ _the_ _same_.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:36 (seventeen years ago) link

why do you think royle family and phoenix nights gained so few votes?

in the Royle Family's case i think people are now turned off by how popular it became because of the (over)reliance on catchphrases and maybe even the 'depressing' effect of 'watching people watching TV' overtook anything else. in TRF's defence i don't think it played up some idea of class stereotypes too badly - at least, i think TRF could've worked just as well had it been set in East London or somewhere else so it didn't come off as 'lol Notherners'. Kay likes to do this more (i think?) but it's all wrapped up in the playfulness of the language, accents etc. - in a way that doesn't grate and he's often more subtle than you might expect (i much prefer to say Kay acting than performing on stage as a result). Phoenix Nights was fun(ny) but maybe in the end the characters just weren't strong enough (and That Peter Kay Thing may still be funnier today, or at least more enjoyable).

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:38 (seventeen years ago) link

hmmm TPOL is far coarser, ok the format is the same but the tone is different. would you class these two as pre or post friends?

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:39 (seventeen years ago) link

But in Spaced you're meant to be emotionally invested in the will-they wont-they relationship between Daisy and... whatever Simon Pegg's character was called.

But in Friends you're meant to be emotionally invested in the will-they wont-they relationship between Rachel and... whatever David Schwimmer's character was called.

All I'm saying is that Spaced is the most *traditional* sitcom on British TV in a long time, it's a lot closer to a Marks and Gran production that anything else.

seriously, no way. stylistically it's the least sitcommy sitcom like ever. plus unlike most sitcoms it doesn't go for a broad audience. its jokes are reference-based more than character-based.

was it the first sitcom (ie pre-scrubs, pre-arrested development) to have shitloads of random insert shots?

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:40 (seventeen years ago) link

Post, I'd say. Especially Coupling.

xp

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:40 (seventeen years ago) link

Are you seriously saying you don't see Spaced as an update of Dad's Army?

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:40 (seventeen years ago) link

"Phoenix Nights" - NOT PHUNNY enough

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:43 (seventeen years ago) link

I think we can agree that the absence of A+J and L+H from this poll is a bit like a Slam without Federer and Nadal. Well, OK, Davydenko and Nalbandian. Hey, I'd miss 'em.

― Michael Jones, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:44 (seventeen years ago) link

There's always this thread: http://ilx.wh3rd.net/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=40&threadid=25046

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:45 (seventeen years ago) link

i think Dom's pre / post Friends thing is more important when you think about it in terms of how a show is written. few british sitcoms i know of have really run with the american "team" system. i know "my family" has, any others? rather than Dom's distinction it could be more of a case of more writers, less character coherence perhaps?

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:47 (seventeen years ago) link

it doesnt seem a good list for 10 years of tv?

in comparison to the US you mean? i haven't seen the lists of French, Chinese, Australian comedies...

wrong to base on nationality perhaps but it seems there's an idea that the UK should be producing better comedy generally - better than the US better than anywhere else in the world. why tho?

or is it just that in a ten year period there should be more comedy that caters for one's own tastes. again tho, why? a few people on ILE are 'above' most of these shows/kinds of humour it seems, just as they are with certain types of music or other entertainment. hating on Little Britain is a lot like hating on Mika or Gorillaz.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:47 (seventeen years ago) link

Phoenix Nights: good "set piece" humour (racist folk group, Stars In Their Eyes, Ann Summers party), not great character interplay humour. Fair to say?

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:47 (seventeen years ago) link

Are you seriously saying you don't see Spaced as an update of Dad's Army?

-- Dom Passantino, Thursday, May 10, 2007 1:40 PM (5 minutes ago)

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:48 (seventeen years ago) link

Dad's Army is a sitcom that is centred around two main character who don't have much in common but are thrown together by a "greater" need. The rest of the cast is an ensemble who revolves around them, and are all "weird" in their own specific way. The humour arises from how the two main characters cope with both each other and these other characters who rotate around their lives. The set-up of the average episode will find the characters escparing the enclosed space that they've been forced into and exploring a "new" space, usually with a large number of characters from this supporting cast.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:50 (seventeen years ago) link

hating on Little Britain is a lot like hating on Mika or Gorillaz.

sorry steve but neither mika or albarn has done anything quite as straight up offensive as Ting Tong Macadacca Ding Dong.

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:51 (seventeen years ago) link

rather than Dom's distinction it could be more of a case of more writers, less character coherence perhaps?

-- acrobat, Thursday, May 10, 2007 1:47 PM (1 minute ago)

do characters cohere in real life? i'd say not. the bigger diff us/uk is that their seasons run almost FOUR TIMES longer than ours. which in case of 'friends' means real stuff actually happens in their lives, careers, etc, over the course of years. the transition from 'post-student' to 'adult' is played out in real time. there were 13 episodes of 'spaced', so of course the characters were coherent. (plus the writers were the actors...) over the ten years of the 'friends' arc, the characters changed, but why wouldn't they? all the lauded and dull brit sitcoms (dad's army, porridge) were way more cipher-based. 'friends' maybe had a few catchphrases, but it wasn't as bad as 'dad's army' in that respect.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:52 (seventeen years ago) link

also the two main characters fall in love with each other as was expected from the start. (xpost x2)

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:52 (seventeen years ago) link

dom, that's weak.

it's like that "there are only seven stories" thing, you can modify it to taste. daisy and tim have a fair amount in common. there's no class humour. etc.

but the main thing is 'spaced' is shot nothing like other sitcoms.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:54 (seventeen years ago) link

Porridge was *revolutionary* though, as well as being well-written, well-characterised, and hilarious, in terms of social construct. Lukewarm, Jock: these were characters that broke down boundaries.

xp

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:54 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm not talking *stylistically* Henry, I'm talking of form.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:55 (seventeen years ago) link

or rather the way Spaced was shot was far more integral to the show than any other british comedy show ever.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:55 (seventeen years ago) link

I mean, if I reshot To The Manor Born in the camera trick style of Green Wing, it'd still have more in common with the former than the latter.

xp

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:55 (seventeen years ago) link

blueski: Jam, Green Wing. There's two off the bat.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:55 (seventeen years ago) link

replace 'ever' with 'beforehand'

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:56 (seventeen years ago) link

forgot Jam cos didn't watch it

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:57 (seventeen years ago) link

or rather the way Spaced was shot was far more integral to the show than any other british comedy show ever.

-- blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:55 (28 seconds ago)

the young ones? python?

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:57 (seventeen years ago) link

Spaced is important because it was the first time that *that generation* and *that lifestyle* had been shown on British TV: low-level media aspirationals scraping a living in the arse-end of London. Maybe the TV show that Spaced has most in common with then is Thirtysomething?

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:58 (seventeen years ago) link

The Goodies as well, xp.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:58 (seventeen years ago) link

Skipping 280 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.