Fazzinchi

Welcome to the World, Neil-lar 

Like The Office before it, the first series sneaked onto the schedules with no so much a fanfare as a whisper; word of mouth and critical recommendation followed and the soon-to-be cult viewership began to fall in love with this cast of wierd and wonderful characters; series two aired and the plaudits and awards have been thrust upon it along with hundred of thousands of extra viewers; and now a Christmas Special has been comissioned and you can be sure it will be BBC Three’s (more…)

Christmas Review #5 of 12

“From the makers of Friends” is the kind of tagline for a new sitcom that is all but guaranteed to add a pretty big slice to the viewing figures. Fortunately, for fans of Friends, this new ensemble comedy, The Class, ticks all the right boxes and gives us a welcome break from the constant loop of Friends repeats that appears to be cycling through ad infinitum on E4 a thousand times a day. The comedy here is driven by a the fact that the main players all used to go to school together and (more…)

Christmas Review #3 of 12

“Happily ever after” is how Ricky Gervais and Steven Merchant brought The Office to an end as Dawn and Tim finally got together and even David Brent himself found someone special in that most memorable of finales, four year’s ago.  Trying to force lightening to strike in the same place a second time has proved tricky but there were many great little moments throughout the two series of Extras that led me to think that the Christmas Special finale would be well worth watching and (more…)

The World Against Me

The second series of Jack Dee’s BBC2 comedy, Lead Balloon, is now well underway and thankfully, after a pretty shaky start, it’s right back on track. There’s something refreshing about portraying what is essentially Jack Dee’s on-stage persona in a domestic situation where he can be even more grumpy and put-upon than usual and, most effectively of all, play off the people around him. In the latest installment, “Points”, anti-hero Rick has been penalised with points on his (more…)

Staying In

Series one of Not Going Out was a delightful surprise. A Friday night, BBC1 comedy in the slot that had brought us the funny-for-five-episodes My Family and much other forgettable fayre, suddenly threw up a little gem. It didn’t baulk away from its comedy as so many other, more knowing, 21st century sitcoms tend to do and neither did it rely on extreme characterisation that encourages the audience to “laugh at” instead of “laugh with”. No, here was a comedy that was just (more…)

The Meaning Of Life

One of the best sitcom imports of recent years has quietly sneaked back onto the schedules of Channel 4 after what seems like far too long.  The second series of My Name Is Earl is easily still on a par with the first one and, just five episodes in and we’ve already enjoyed seeing the eponymous hero making amends for stealing a cat, throwing an old guy out of their band and making fun of a girl with a moustache, they’ve even had time along the way for cameo appearances from Burt (more…)