Full credit to Patrick Baladi for taking a face-full of some awful "stuff" without missing a step/line!
I wish we could see more of him!
28 Reviews
Very good
marklaw-378066 August 2020
Semi-Detached
Prismark109 August 2020
Lee Mack so well known for his funny zingers in Not Going Out has been enticed for this comedy pilot.
Mack plays Stuart, a middle aged wedding DJ who is about to have an harassed half hour. His much younger girlfriend April is about to give birth.
His ex wife Kate lives over the road with her new husband Ted. She is standing to be a Tory candidate, he is a smarmy flash git. It is also his daughter's birthday but she has little time for Stuart.
Semi-Detached is a farce. Events pile up on Stuart as April goes into labour. The Uber he has ordered to take April to hospital has not arrived because of some cows on a rampage. His dad is in bed with some bloke he had met in the pub. Suddenly his brother turns up as he is on the run for the police. Ted accidentally slices his thumb off.
With all the goings on, it does have some funny albeit some crude humour. The actors are also required to be physical to make the situations come across as hilarious. Patrick Baladi wriggling naked in agony as Ted after losing his thumb in a DIY accident.
It might not always be original. The weak link was the spoilt stroppy daughter who had shaven her head on her birthday.
Stuart's dad Willie who discovered later in life that he liked drugs, willy and wild living reminded me of Bunny from Extras as well as the transsexual Val from Uncle.
You have to applaud the writers David Crow and Oliver Maltman. Too many times an intended pilot comes across as uncertain and lacks humour.
Here they throw everything in for this episode as well as gags.
Mack plays Stuart, a middle aged wedding DJ who is about to have an harassed half hour. His much younger girlfriend April is about to give birth.
His ex wife Kate lives over the road with her new husband Ted. She is standing to be a Tory candidate, he is a smarmy flash git. It is also his daughter's birthday but she has little time for Stuart.
Semi-Detached is a farce. Events pile up on Stuart as April goes into labour. The Uber he has ordered to take April to hospital has not arrived because of some cows on a rampage. His dad is in bed with some bloke he had met in the pub. Suddenly his brother turns up as he is on the run for the police. Ted accidentally slices his thumb off.
With all the goings on, it does have some funny albeit some crude humour. The actors are also required to be physical to make the situations come across as hilarious. Patrick Baladi wriggling naked in agony as Ted after losing his thumb in a DIY accident.
It might not always be original. The weak link was the spoilt stroppy daughter who had shaven her head on her birthday.
Stuart's dad Willie who discovered later in life that he liked drugs, willy and wild living reminded me of Bunny from Extras as well as the transsexual Val from Uncle.
You have to applaud the writers David Crow and Oliver Maltman. Too many times an intended pilot comes across as uncertain and lacks humour.
Here they throw everything in for this episode as well as gags.
Please make a series!
Sleepin_Dragon17 February 2019
I did worry about Lee Mack being a little type cast from Not going out, but that wasn't the case, he, and everyone in fairness was great in this madcap farce, it had me in stitches from start to finish, the situation was bonkers to begin with, it just got more and more off the wall as it went on. The scene with Patrick Baladi on the floor with his missing finger was so funny.
There is so little comedy like this, not super smart or layered, just pure good old fashioned silliness, let's have a series please. 9/10
There is so little comedy like this, not super smart or layered, just pure good old fashioned silliness, let's have a series please. 9/10
Cringe-inducing miseries of a self-hating loser
nothingisforbidden16 September 2020
Like a number of Brit coms I have watched recently, this one centers on a sad git who lets everyone in his world walk all him and treat him like dirt. He's a masochist, I guess, and they are all sadists. The result is a nonstop orgy of misery. What is funny about that? The cast is great, but oh how I wish the situations made me laugh. (Some recent comedies that DO make me laugh: Upstart Crow, Stath Lets Flats, Arde Madrid, Detectorists, Motherland, What We Do in the Shadows.)
Superb
scousershere31 August 2020
Lazy Rubbish
silvio-mitsubishi9 January 2019
Just when you thought British sitcom couldn't get any worse, ...
I don't know who thought this would be funny or clever, but it is neither. It is hard to feel any empathy for a single character: the stupid and ineffectual father-to-be who has done nothing to prepare for the imminent birth, the pregnant woman who acts like the worst stereotype, the gay father who is not as staid as fathers usually are, the ex-wife who is standing for election, the neighbour who builds a pagoda naked and cuts off his thumb, ... I could not believe any of them would exist, nor why the writers thought I might.
It is a horror story cliché that characters do the opposite of what they should, but at least there is an element of twisted logic. Here there is nothing. In the midst of a crisis, the lead actor locks himself in the bathroom, but allows two others to join him. Was he trying to escape the situation or share it more widely? Needing a vehicle to transport two people to hospital, they try to use a severed thumb to start a two-seater car while a camper van sits idle a few metres away.
The actor whose previous glory was arguing with a chicken about eating pork must be regretting this disastrous attempt to further her career. The more established cast have no excuse, though, for this pointless exercise.
I don't know who thought this would be funny or clever, but it is neither. It is hard to feel any empathy for a single character: the stupid and ineffectual father-to-be who has done nothing to prepare for the imminent birth, the pregnant woman who acts like the worst stereotype, the gay father who is not as staid as fathers usually are, the ex-wife who is standing for election, the neighbour who builds a pagoda naked and cuts off his thumb, ... I could not believe any of them would exist, nor why the writers thought I might.
It is a horror story cliché that characters do the opposite of what they should, but at least there is an element of twisted logic. Here there is nothing. In the midst of a crisis, the lead actor locks himself in the bathroom, but allows two others to join him. Was he trying to escape the situation or share it more widely? Needing a vehicle to transport two people to hospital, they try to use a severed thumb to start a two-seater car while a camper van sits idle a few metres away.
The actor whose previous glory was arguing with a chicken about eating pork must be regretting this disastrous attempt to further her career. The more established cast have no excuse, though, for this pointless exercise.
This is Very Very funny!
snickybow22 August 2020
Please don't turn this into a series
centaur11351 February 2019
Really Quite Ridiculous In A Bad Way
martimusross18 January 2019
This had to many absurd situations combined with the freneticism of an Alan Ayckbourn farce.
Slow it down, have it less focussed on Lee Mack, don't insert stereotypes and there might be a reason for developing this pilot.
My advice don't bother.
Slow it down, have it less focussed on Lee Mack, don't insert stereotypes and there might be a reason for developing this pilot.
My advice don't bother.
Love Lee Mack
beckytomlinson12329 September 2020
Worst guff I have seen for a long time
prylands-389-5674809 August 2020
I miss good quality British sitcoms and this drivel only adds to my disappointment. It is so full of unentertaining cliches that the only reason you would keep watching it is to see it there is ever going to be a laugh. Let me save you some time - a laugh never comes, it will never come.
Instead there is a procession of implausible characters and situations,tired tropes and hackneyed hokum. I struggled through the pilot but I did not get to the end of episode one - I felt a scream building and my bowels stirring. I would rather drink a pint of vinegar and rub salt in my eyes than watch another minute of this crud. It is lazy, witless, unoriginal and quite frankly embarrassing.
I like Lee Mack. I enjoyed Not Going Out (at least while Tim Vine was in it) but this has no redeeming features.
I gave it 4/10 out of sympathy and because I like many of the cast - but even they cannot save this turkey.
Take my advice - give this a miss!
Instead there is a procession of implausible characters and situations,tired tropes and hackneyed hokum. I struggled through the pilot but I did not get to the end of episode one - I felt a scream building and my bowels stirring. I would rather drink a pint of vinegar and rub salt in my eyes than watch another minute of this crud. It is lazy, witless, unoriginal and quite frankly embarrassing.
I like Lee Mack. I enjoyed Not Going Out (at least while Tim Vine was in it) but this has no redeeming features.
I gave it 4/10 out of sympathy and because I like many of the cast - but even they cannot save this turkey.
Take my advice - give this a miss!
Brilliant
nick-casey3816 August 2020
Deary me...
stephenhynesntlworldcom5 August 2020
I slightly chuckled twice at this first / pilot episode.
It was just trying too hard to be funny, if that make any sense; far too frantic with very few laughing points. Perhaps they were just trying to introduce all of the characters as quickly as possible and, if so, perhaps they should have made the first one slightly less frantic and 15 minutes longer.
Perhaps I'll give the second episdoe a go...perhaps.
It was just trying too hard to be funny, if that make any sense; far too frantic with very few laughing points. Perhaps they were just trying to introduce all of the characters as quickly as possible and, if so, perhaps they should have made the first one slightly less frantic and 15 minutes longer.
Perhaps I'll give the second episdoe a go...perhaps.
Very funny
terry-stamatis7 February 2021
Dire
leejoseth18 August 2020
It's dreadful. It's a right farce, every character is awful everyone shouts everyone runs about people pop out of bushes.
It's all very amateur.
Poor Lee Mack looks like a knackered Rough sleeper.
You'd probably have more fun putting a brick in a tumble dryer & listen to it clanging about then watching this garbage.
Wasn't bad... Bit short maybe
wanthony7 January 2019
Rubbish!
cathyandrews-5697728 August 2020
I had the misfortune to watch an episode of this drivel. Shall not be making that mistake again! I'm sure that something billed as comedy is supposed to be funny? Not in this case. One of the worst things I have watched in a long time.
Hilariously stressful
sjo-154 September 2020
I didn't really enjoy the first episode. Wasn't sure I liked Lee Mack's character (too used to seeing him do comedy or his character in Not Going Out I guess).
By episode 2 I was hooked. It all clicked into place.
Its hilarious.
Its a series of ever more stressful and disasterous situations - how unlucky can one guy be?
Excellent cameos all over the place from British comedy regulars.
Patrick Baladi is perfectly cast and excellently plays the awful Ted.
Samantha Spiro is excellent as ever.
Geoffrey McGivern as Barry is perfect. Cecilia Noble as his wife is great.
Sarah Hoare - awkward and funny.
Neil Fitzmaurice as Charlie - candidate for the most hateable, awful, completely watchable fictional human being in a sitcom?
My favourite of the supporting cast is Clive Russell as Willie, playing against type and delivering a standout and memorable performance, as he always seems to.
Just when you think an episode was as awkward and stressful as it could get, what else could go wrong - then the next one is better and even more cringeworthy.
Semi detached
ianlittleproud8 September 2020
After watching this drivel for four episodes I'm afraid to say I have come to the conclusion that who ever commissioned this needs a sense of humour transplant because it is not remotely funny and is a waste a of talent.
Makes Sandylands look good!
ian-watson69-28-50720514 August 2020
My new favourite programme.
rrahill-401341 September 2020
Purile Drivel
crumpytv17 October 2020
Manic mad mayhem and Mack
peterrichboy2 September 2020
I can only assume the people who don't rate this must still be hoping for the day's of Are you being served and Terry and June to return. This is just a total gross out half hour of total mayhem and LOL set pieces. In which Lee Mack excel's in the lead roll.
I appreciate this may not be for everyone but in these depressing times it's great to have something that bought a smile to this face at least.
I appreciate this may not be for everyone but in these depressing times it's great to have something that bought a smile to this face at least.
Just forget about it
miaalike27 February 2021
Caught part of the first episode, and couldn't stand it. Why double or fix something that is NOT broken? I mean, just let Lee Mack stick to Not Going Out, which is fine as a comedy series, and not a dump. By dump I mean a sitcom where they throw in gross, gore, disgusting or boring stuff, and then they make it seem like such things are funny. They are not. Enough of those rubbish in real life... Gloom and doom and bore and other hideous stuff are highly incompatible with comedy. Only true art can sublimate such things into something to appreciate, and a sitcom is rarely true art. And this series definitely is not doing that deed.
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