This has been hyped up as being a realistic and insightful commentary and satire on suburban America. In reality it's just Neighbours or Dallas with better production values and sharper script-writing.
All of the hype about it being "clever" is bollocks, but that is probably not the fault of the programme itself, just the shitty, up-their-own-arse reviewers writing total shit about it, as they do when they get to see a tape of it a week or so before transmission. Luckily I didn't read any of the so-called critics opinions before I watched it, and I approached it simply from the point of view that it was a new comedy/drama. Of course, the fact that it didn't star Ross Kemp, Jimmy Nail, Robson Green or any of the Birds of a Feather cast meant it was at least in with a fighting chance of not being total and utter shit.
The same old characters are here. There's a slutty one, a "nice" one, a ginger one that nobody fancies, an interfering old bag, a one dimensional bloke and one with kids to appeal to the mums.
I thought it was okay, although I can see that there's a real danger that it will quickly become ludicrously over-rated, inevitably turning my mild enjoyment into the sort of passionate hatred that Simon began to display almost as soon as the opening scene had finished. Then again Simon hates pretty much all of television, by definition. He soon left in a huff for the Rat and Conker when it became apparent that the rest of us weren't interested in listening to his smug, snobbish, boring and unwanted commentary.
The show is expected to become very popular with women, although the term "women" in this case probably actually means "women who liked Sex and the City", and not actually "all humans of the female gender". Eclectic House's Wine and Travel columnist, Gilly Prior-Reclinique, is often described as a woman, more often than not with an attached epithet such as "drunken" or "that awful" in front of it, but a woman nevertheless. She wasn't all that taken with it, although to be fair, she's not really a big fan of the performing arts. Most of it tends to go over her head, quite literally, as it's usually slumped in her lap on the odd occasion she attempts to sit down for a film, a play or a television programme.
Wiggy and The Binge on the other hand, loved every minute, mainly because they're a pair of lecherous drunks who spent the two episodes drooling and making lewd remarks about the female characters. It seems that this programme my well attract a large chunk of male viewers for this very reason. However, I think the main reason that it got such a high figure is simply that it was a miserable, mid-week Winter evening and there was absolutely fuck-all else on. It's remarkably easy for this average programme to look really good when everything it is up against is the most unwatchable shit.
So - it was okay, and I watched it through the same hooded eye-lids and air of mild disinterest that I watched Seinfeld and The West Wing. That is to say there were people, shapes, colours, some people said things. Other people said things and there were some adverts when I could go for a tonic water induced piss. I remember smiling a couple of times and at the end I felt I had enjoyed myself. I might even watch it again if I am in the mood to drink and look at the telly.
