Oh dear, the authors of some of the funniest shows of 5-10 years ago are now back, with a show, but not with a funny show.
Well, that's a slight lie, there are some funny lines in it, how could there not be, but overall the level of humour and its methodology are enormously middle-aged, like the actors and like the setting.
Set in a twee English village (pub) everyone in it is so totally daft, dotty and mad you'd wonder how their world even functions. Blissfully unaware of the things they say and do they are effective passive-aggressive torturers for our protagonist (Mitchell). He himself phones in his performance as a bog stock middle-classed English suppressed neurotic, essentially he simply plays his on screen persona, but with the smarts and clever dialled down to 1/10 (an older duller Mark Corrigan). A large part of the jokes are based on Mitchell determined to sail one course in life but being completely incapable of preventing the world forcing (with little effort) the opposite on him.
If a stranger gave you a dog you didn't like and didn't want in a pub would you a/source out the problem to a pet rescue or b/ reluctantly and bitterly let it live with you where it almost immediately wees and defecates everywhere and forces you to pay 1000 quid on vet bills? Well guess which path Mitchell takes. Not hard is it? Next we have Webbs character turn up,he is, peculiarly enough a slick glib lying narcissistic sociopath ( a bit like Peep Show's Jeremy) who we think, so far, is there to destroy Mitchells life and replace him. Its a standard sort of plot device and is naturally assisted by no-one (almost) BUT Mitchell being even vaguely suspicious. Essentially his over-eccentric family and friends will happily allow the slick antagonist his way through a combination of sheer idiocy and perversity.
It just needs some sort of kick and a far lower reliance on cringe humour.
Well, that's a slight lie, there are some funny lines in it, how could there not be, but overall the level of humour and its methodology are enormously middle-aged, like the actors and like the setting.
Set in a twee English village (pub) everyone in it is so totally daft, dotty and mad you'd wonder how their world even functions. Blissfully unaware of the things they say and do they are effective passive-aggressive torturers for our protagonist (Mitchell). He himself phones in his performance as a bog stock middle-classed English suppressed neurotic, essentially he simply plays his on screen persona, but with the smarts and clever dialled down to 1/10 (an older duller Mark Corrigan). A large part of the jokes are based on Mitchell determined to sail one course in life but being completely incapable of preventing the world forcing (with little effort) the opposite on him.
If a stranger gave you a dog you didn't like and didn't want in a pub would you a/source out the problem to a pet rescue or b/ reluctantly and bitterly let it live with you where it almost immediately wees and defecates everywhere and forces you to pay 1000 quid on vet bills? Well guess which path Mitchell takes. Not hard is it? Next we have Webbs character turn up,he is, peculiarly enough a slick glib lying narcissistic sociopath ( a bit like Peep Show's Jeremy) who we think, so far, is there to destroy Mitchells life and replace him. Its a standard sort of plot device and is naturally assisted by no-one (almost) BUT Mitchell being even vaguely suspicious. Essentially his over-eccentric family and friends will happily allow the slick antagonist his way through a combination of sheer idiocy and perversity.
It just needs some sort of kick and a far lower reliance on cringe humour.