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March 29, 2024, 11:23:10 AM

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Peep Show

Started by rue the polywhirl, December 29, 2019, 01:10:45 PM

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sutin

The final scene was bloody underwhelming too.

sevendaughters

think the bit where I thought "this is a less good version of a thing I liked (though nonetheless I will stick it out to the end because it won't tunnel through the floor)" when they ate the charred dog on the houseboat.

idunnosomename

i will have said it at the time but it got so fucking ridiculous at one point it might as well have been Stressed Eric and ending every episode with Mark strangled with his forehead vein

sevendaughters

Quote from: idunnosomename on January 01, 2020, 11:10:59 PM
i will have said it at the time but it got so fucking ridiculous at one point it might as well have been Stressed Eric and ending every episode with Mark strangled with his forehead vein

yeah. both guys are spineless, unlikely situation, rinse, repeat. got really old. saved by the characters' ability to deliver good lines and the relationship feeling emotionally if not actually realistic.

H-O-W-L

I quite like watching fragments of the show, or episodes here and ther,e but I feel like watching it in a binge, or in a run, becomes fucking stale almost instantly. Watching it weekly I can see how one can enjoy it as a show run, but if you put me in a room with the boxsets I'd end up fucking hating it.

Phil_A

It sounds slightly absurd considering how late on it was, but S8 really felt like the last straw for me, the fact they were expecting us to be invested in the Mark & Dobby saga when it was obvious there was nowhere for that storyline to go just made it feel like a big waste of time. The plot setups were just that much more contrived to the point you could predict where they'd end up without watching them, so I didn't bother after episode 2.

That's not to say there weren't things in earlier series that also rubbed me the wrong way - the whole Elena storyline for example, but S8 was the point I felt nothing but disinterest in the mechanics of the show.

I did come back for S9 as it was the last one, and I think they brought it back from the nadir of the penultimate series. Some genuinely classic episodes in that final run.

ajsmith2

Yeah that's what I really disliked about S8. The stakes were SO low. Will or won't Mark and Dobby move in together after 3 series? Who the fuck cares? They're in their 30s and Marks already been married and had a kid, is it THAT big a commitment or life change to move in with his girlfriend?

Also, Gerard's funeral really was the absolute pits of unreality for a show that could be painfully true to life in its early days. Why the fuck were Johnson or Mark doing the (or course hilariously off the cuff and disrespectful) eulogies? Cos they're characters the audience knows who'll make funnies. Of course Gerard didn't have his own family or loved ones cos he's just a minor character in someone else's comedy show.

SteK

It's fair to say Mark effectively killed Gerard when he snatched Dobby's phone during Gerard's effective cry for help when he ended the call.

And Mark didn't even seem bothered at the result....

alan nagsworth

I have watched series 1-3 so many times that, much like Neutral Milk Hotel's "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea", it's something I will probably quote (or sing, with NMH) for many many years to come but never have the desire to watch it again. The quality differs between the three series but I still view them as this perfect untarnished thing. The rest of it from series 4 onwards wavers from not-as-good to this-is-a-parasitic-worm-shambling-about-in-the-show's-corpse and so I can't really be fucked to watch any of that again either.

MortSahlFan

I love it... The funniest part is when they are the church, and Jeremy says, "Good song"

Armin Meiwes

The crap series generally improved on rewatching for me tbf, I thought serieses 6 and 7 were fucking rubbish on first viewing (especially 7) but ended up quite liking them both. There's no saving 8 though that IS shit.

Armin Meiwes

Has anyone ever seen the pilot of the American version (that obviously never turned in to a series)? It is proper weird.

https://youtu.be/8Yredc3ayOE

ArtParrott

Quote from: Armin Meiwes on January 03, 2020, 10:48:18 AM
Has anyone ever seen the pilot of the American version (that obviously never turned in to a series)? It is proper weird.

https://youtu.be/8Yredc3ayOE


That's a hard watch but some of the comments are great.

SteK

Quote from: Armin Meiwes on January 03, 2020, 10:48:18 AM
Has anyone ever seen the pilot of the American version (that obviously never turned in to a series)? It is proper weird.

https://youtu.be/8Yredc3ayOE

The Inbetweeners one was the worst...

Ferris

Quote from: SteK on January 05, 2020, 01:18:42 AM
The Inbetweeners one was the worst...

...there was an Inbetweeners one? Fucking hell.

SteK

Quote from: FerriswheelBueller on January 05, 2020, 01:19:22 AM
...there was an Inbetweeners one? Fucking hell.

Loads on YouTube, even full eps, I've yet to finish one.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN1Br6QVCzs

Urinal Cake

Quote from: ajsmith2 on January 02, 2020, 05:59:29 PM
Yeah that's what I really disliked about S8. The stakes were SO low. Will or won't Mark and Dobby move in together after 3 series? Who the fuck cares? They're in their 30s and Marks already been married and had a kid, is it THAT big a commitment or life change to move in with his girlfriend?

Also, Gerard's funeral really was the absolute pits of unreality for a show that could be painfully true to life in its early days. Why the fuck were Johnson or Mark doing the (or course hilariously off the cuff and disrespectful) eulogies? Cos they're characters the audience knows who'll make funnies. Of course Gerard didn't have his own family or loved ones cos he's just a minor character in someone else's comedy show.
I think that's the point. Mark hasn't moved on from fixating on a women to solve what his place in the world should be. He should be a better father, he should try to get on with his child's mother (and her partner) and he should try and get a better job. But much like Sophie and then the history woman he fixates on a woman to fix his social malaise.

But Gerard's funeral did not ring true. It was like they thought if Mark had a funeral who would say the eulogy- Alpha Johnson and Gerard from work. Not Jez because Mark would think it would be too embarrassing. Not anyone from his family because they had contempt for him. Then Mark  really has no one else. But while Gerard might not have close friends but he's got a wide circle of acquaintances such as the LARP group and the NYE party he was able to organise. Plus his sister seemed close to him. So realistically plenty of other people to say a eulogy.

Bazooka

I didn't even know there was 9 series, I probably watched,it obviously left its mark (pun intended).

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: SteK on January 05, 2020, 01:24:03 AM
Loads on YouTube, even full eps, I've yet to finish one.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN1Br6QVCzs

There's a 3 page thread about the Inbetweeners US here: https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,32425.0.html - with the general consensus being that it started off poorly but slowly became its own thing and wasn't too bad in the end.

As for the US Peep Show, I wrote about it in an ongoing section about failed pilots a year or so ago:

QuoteOne and Done: Peep Show

I know what you're thinking, Peep Show was one of the longest running British sitcoms ever (a whole 54 episodes!) so why is it featured here? Or perhaps you're thinking why are you patronising me you fucking idiot, you're clearly discussing the American pilot for the show which was absolutely abysmal. Either way, the latter is the reason for this article, as back in 2005 Peep Show became the latest of many many sitcoms to fail to work with a US cast and a script which while bearing some resemblance to the British version is all rather clunky and unlikeable.

One of the biggest problems is the casting of The Big Bang Theory's Johnny Galecki as Mark. He's far too good looking and normal for the role and though he tries to act geeky and inept with women he doesn't come close to capturing David Mitchell's superb portrayal of a socially rubbish man. He shares an obsession with history but is far too confident with women (believing that a woman "digs him" just because she briefly talks to him) and when Sophie leaves a cartoon on his desk at work he instantly thinks "I am the strongest and most handsome man in the world", and at one point he decides he wants to get in a fight with Jeremy, which are three examples of how he's pretty much the opposite of the British version but there are many, many more.

Their take on Jeremy is weak too, he's even dumber than Robert Webb's rendition of the character and though they've got his arrogancy down to a tee he's so idiotic it's hard to understand why he and Mark would be friends at all, or why anyone on this planet would tolerate his existence in the slightest when it comes to it. Josh Meyers is a fine comedic actor (at least in his recent role as Barry in the underrated Red Oaks) but this is a one note portrayal and lacking in any element of humour at all. The poor casting choices extend to Sophie (Alexandra Holden) as well, here she's a charming sexy young blonde so once again it's nothing like the original show. Not that I'm saying Olivia Colman isn't an attractive woman, without a doubt she is, but Bain and Armstrong deliberately made her downcast and glum so that Mark would believe he had a chance with her, but obviously the Americans thought everyone had to be pretty if anyone was going to watch the programme.

There's a good few other reasons as to why it feels so inferior to Bain and Armstrong's series, it ditches the point of view camera work which made the British version so unique and though it maintains our hearing Mark's thoughts you'll soon find yourself wishing it hadn't, as it misuses the device to make you dislike the character rather than find him endearing, and all of his thoughts only go to highlight how unfunny the script is. It was written by the married writing team of Jackie Filgo and Jeff Filgo (That 70's Show, Man With A Plan) and they're clearly the wrong people to handle such material, only having had a history of writing for bland network sitcoms, if it had been made by someone else for a cable channel it might have been more interesting but as it was for Fox all the edges have been taken off.

Is there anything good about it? Sadly the answer is no. All of the characters bar Sophie are unsympathetic, the script misfires with every attempt at comedy and it's lacking pretty much everything which made the original so special. I always try and find something positive to say about a show but the only times I laughed were at how bad it is, for instance at one point Mark is convinced that Sophie will like a bad boy and draws a swastika within a love heart that he gives her while thinking "This is going to make Sophie so hot", it's so badly misjudged it's almost unbelievable, as is her believing that Mark's making a satirical point about office politics with that drawing and she happily gives him her phone number.

At least the executives who commissioned it recognised how bad it was and didn't give us twelve seasons and a spin-off starring a kid version of Super Hans, that would have been truly depressing, but at the same time it's disappointing that they weren't able to make a version of the show which was it's own beast but still resembled the original in certain ways, because as with The Office the source material shows how much potential it had to become a long running series.

evilcommiedictator

No news out for almost a year about the new US gender flipped reboot of Peep Show
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-48423181

To be honest, I think that would actually be quite good, I think a lot of what women think and go through for society's sake hasn't been explictly stated, and of course, you do that with the inner dialogue.

This is the point where I say that Mark internally apologizing to Antony Beevor is an amazing joke

Hand Solo

Some info and footage from the second 2008 US pilot of Peep Show, except this one was actually written by Bain & Armstrong.

idunnosomename

 they should do a body swap. put the cameras on the leads' arses. we hear their world muffled inside their pants, until they take them off, and we see the world from their arse's perspective

i call it POOP SHOW


The Lurker

Oh well, that's all ancient history now.

BlodwynPig

I just started a first rewatch of this last night as I couldn't find anything to watch. 2003, an odd time. Even odder to see Robert Hartley as Barry in the 2nd episode. A comedian (more writer) betwixt 80's Russ Abbott and 00's Outnumbered. I thought he'd been a lot more things. Surely he would have appeared in One Foot in the Grave at least.

The Lurker

Quote from: SteK on January 05, 2020, 01:24:03 AM
Loads on YouTube, even full eps, I've yet to finish one.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN1Br6QVCzs

Seen parts of the US Inbetweeners. Main memory of it isn't included in the above video but at the end of the bus wankers scene where the British Jay said "fucking hell, you two shit yourselves," the American Jay said "wow, you are such a pansy!"

Yeah...

jsgibble

I was watching 15 Storeys High today and the Ice Queen episode in particular stuck out as something quite Peep Show-like. Possibly an influence here

backdrifter

Love it. But I wish the plot where Jez pimps out Big Suze didn't exist. Not funny, just gross.

The Mollusk

Quote from: jsgibble on August 09, 2020, 07:49:08 PM
I was watching 15 Storeys High today and the Ice Queen episode in particular stuck out as something quite Peep Show-like. Possibly an influence here

This line from a post-orgasm Vince is one of my favourites from the show. And 15SH is insanely quotable.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

QuoteGoing the other way, Coupling failed to live up to its billing as the UK version of Friends,

A bit harsh, it wasn't as big as smash hit caucasian New York-based syndicated US sitcom Coffee Friends, but was still a very popular series in the UK and very much a 'discussed next day by the water cooler'.