Peep Show

[Utter Shit]

One of the funniest/most relatable uses of the internal monologue, I think. I used to have similar thoughts about poisoning my parents or whoever else I was cooking for - it's not that you're actually considering it, but it flashes into your mind that you could. Bill Burr has a good bit which I think taps into similar thought processes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AzY0gG8QSM

100%, I don't think it's a lapse in judgement from Bain and Armstrong at all, it's entirely believable that Jez (and Mark, come to think of it) would think that. In fact those sort of intrusive thoughts occur in most people, the only difference is that Jez doesn't seem to be perturbed by it where most people would...which again I think is true to the character, because he doesn't really overthink (or even think at all) about things. He has no interest in raping Mark, he's just aware that he could if he wanted to, and he doesn't worry about the fact that the thought entered his head.

The dog eating, on the other hand...it's funny, but it doesn't stand up to scrutiny because Jez isn't that stupid. It is not believable to me that he would end up eating the dog, because there are endless equally plausible ways he could have got out of the situation without having to eat the dog.

It's an odd misstep for me, because there are little touches elsewhere in the dead dog storyline that are far more subtle, so there's obviously a lot of thought put into it. For example Jez not only casually puts the corpse in the bin - when Mark opens it, you can see that discarded food has been piled on top of it. It is entirely Jez that he would think the dog situation had been dealt with once he's put it in the bin, and just go off and have something to eat before callously putting the scraps into the bin on top of the dog.

You could maybe argue that Jez would be callous enough to eat dead dog if he was in a bind and there was no other solution to avoid embarassment, humiliation or whatever, but he isn't stupid enough to eat dead dog in that specific situation where it was just not necessary.

[ASFTSN]

He has no interest in raping Mark, he's just aware that he could if he wanted to, and he doesn't worry about the fact that the thought entered his head.

It's a Peter's Mad Thought.

[BlodwynPig]

Spoilers please. I've only just started on season 2

[Astronaut Omens]

I

100%, I don't think it's a lapse in judgement from Bain and Armstrong at all, it's entirely believable that Jez (and Mark, come to think of it) would think that.

Yeah, if Mark was thinking the same thing, it would totally be in character, since mad and disturbing thoughts often do pop into his head, it would make sense.
(Also if Super Hans had said it out loud, that would also make sense because he's supposed, ultimately, to be a bit of a bastard).
With Jez, it doesn't fit, I don't think. Certainly when I saw it first it seemed out of character... maybe I felt in the first two series there was a sort of innocence about Jez that went along with his childish selfishness.

[thenoise]

Dead dog eating was particularly irritating because it was so obvious that was where it was heading and we were looking forward to the convoluted farcical path that would lead us there. But the writers just didnt bother, and said whatever just have him eat it.

[sutin]

Dead dog eating was particularly irritating because it was so obvious that was where it was heading and we were looking forward to the convoluted farcical path that would lead us there. But the writers just didnt bother, and said whatever just have him eat it.

I laughed so hard at that episode when it aired, whilst shouting 'why?' between laughs.

[The Mollusk]

"What about your doubts? Your crippling doubts?"

[Ferris]

"What about your doubts? Your crippling doubts?"

That was pub talk! You know how I get after the pub

[Lemming]

That line is great because you can pretty much imagine, in perfect vivid detail, the exact conversation they had off-screen that Jeremy is referring to.

I'VE GOT DOUBTS, JEZ

I'VE GOT CRIPPLING DOUBTS

[Ferris]

That line is great because you can pretty much imagine, in perfect vivid detail, the exact conversation they had off-screen that Jeremy is referring to.

I'VE GOT DOUBTS, JEZ

I'VE GOT CRIPPLING DOUBTS

And consequently, how mark "gets" after the pub. Lots of character in those lines.

That is the show's strength for me - yeah it makes no sense that Jez eats a dog or that Johnson is so mental - it's a sharply written show about observations via internal monologue.

The character stuff is holding it back - I want to see Superhans with his rental snake!

[Thomas]

Mark's machinations in those early series - spying on Sophie's emails, trying to bribe the CCTV men into helping him frame Jeff - are brilliant. There's such tragedy in his doomed friendship with Daryl, and his sexual confusion over Johnson. The best day of his life was reading Hitchhiker's Guide with Sally Slater.

On rewatch, I've noticed all the tiny background details thrown in by Bain and Armstrong, later expanded upon. In the first series, I think, it's mentioned offhand that Mark's sister is a lawyer. We get hints of what his parents are like long before we meet them. Jez's eventual explicit bisexuality is there all along. Super Hans and his German connection. The ever-offscreen Pej.

[frajer]

Mark's machinations in those early series - spying on Sophie's emails, trying to bribe the CCTV men into helping him frame Jeff - are brilliant. There's such tragedy in his doomed friendship with Daryl, and his sexual confusion over Johnson. The best day of his life was reading Hitchhiker's Guide with Sally Slater.

Yeah, the early series' capturing of quietly desperate minutiae is superb. Stuff like Johnson in the pub casually forcing Mark to say Sophie does not have a supermodel-quality arse. Brilliant everyday grimness.

I do like the later series but it's a (still very enjoyable) cartoon compared to the grim and grimy early years.

[The Mollusk]

I laughed so hard at that episode when it aired, whilst shouting 'why?' between laughs.

I think maybe that's why it's so routinely discussed on here, because it isn't an out-and-out shark jump; there's some level of plausibility in it. This is because, despite it being a much more ramped up and bonkers example of anything horrible they've done before, it is still a conceivable event in the lives of Mark and Jez because it evokes such a cringeworthy reaction that makes you recoil in horror. Ultimately, it's an event you've watched build up and you really don't want to see it happening, but it's still transfixing because of the fantastic chemistry Mitchell and Webb share together, one we've known for years beforehand and we cherish.

It's like a condensed, pure hit of the awfulness we've witnessed before, awfulness that had taken a whole series to build up, like the steady disintegration of Mark's adoration for Sophie through series 3 which culminates in the crushing "WHYYY" at the end of the Quantocks episode. Mark could well have just expressed how he really felt and escaped the torment he was letting himself be dragged into, but his lack of self-esteem held him back. He stumbles through various avenues of trying to make it work and just when he thinks the nightmare is over, the worst thing imaginable happens. That's pretty much what happens in the dog episode, albeit to both Mark and Jez together, with two different plot arcs that come to a brutal head at the end.

You can of course argue the overall feasibility of eating the blackened chunks of a dead dog out of a bin bag, and you'd be right to do so, but in a round-about way, the writers were on the money. It is an example of the show beginning to rest on its laurels and become (too) comfortable with its previous successes to repeat them without giving quite enough thought to the notion of "Wait, is this a bit too far?"

I'm personally on the fence with it. I howled like a fucking banshee when I first saw it, and even though I don't react the same way now and find it to be one of the weaker plot arcs of the first 4 series combined, I still think it holds water enough to get an easy pass from me. The rest of the episode is bloody great as well.

[Clownbaby]

Anyone seen that Australian series Spirited with Matt King as a ghost punk rocker from the 70s, who falls in love with a dentist who is the only person who can see him? I stumbled across it recently and couldn't figure out what they were trying to achieve with it. Any bit without Matt King in it was a bit crap. Shame cause it could have been an interesting little idea

[frajer]

Anyone seen that Australian series Spirited with Matt a king as a ghost punk rocker from the 70s, who falls in love with a dentist who is the only person who can see him? I stumbled across it recently and couldn't figure out what they were trying to achieve with it. Any bit without Matt King in it was crap. Shame cause it could have been an interesting little idea

Found that on Prime and enjoyed the few episodes I watched. It is very low-key but I liked its bizarrely laidback mood, especially as I was expecting it to be more madcap. That said, I didn't get beyond episode 3 so clearly I didn't enjoy it that much!

[Clownbaby]

Found that on Prime and enjoyed the few episodes I watched. It is very low-key but I liked its bizarrely laidback mood, especially as I was expecting it to be more madcap. That said, I didn't get beyond episode 3 so clearly I didn't enjoy it that much!

I would have liked it a lot more if it hadn't had that oddly sterile budget Australian soap for mams vibe. It was a bit of a shame cause it had some genuinely touching moments and Matt King was good, very expressive eyes that lad

[jobotic]

Frayed was like that, although I think that was the point.

It was a Sarah Kendall series that no one watched except me, and Diane Morgan was in it. Australian, it was.

[chrispmartha]

Frayed was like that, although I think that was the point.

It was a Sarah Kendall series that no one watched except me, and Diane Morgan was in it. Australian, it was.

I absolutely loved Frayed. So, you can add me to your list.

[sevendaughters]

one joke/thing I never understood in Peep Show is 'the wedding tuna'.

[frajer]

one joke/thing I never understood in Peep Show is 'the wedding tuna'.

I took the joke to be that Mark has received his 50% share of it in the split, despite the wedding going to shit, and for weeks/months has been joylessly ploughing through enough frozen tuna to feed half a wedding reception.

[sevendaughters]

I took the joke to be that Mark has received his 50% share of it in the split, despite the wedding going to shit, and for weeks/months has been joylessly ploughing through enough frozen tuna to feed half a wedding reception.

ok, why not everything else not consumed at the wedding? i realise this is pedantic and my not getting it, in a way, makes it funnier to me.

[jobotic]

I absolutely loved Frayed. So, you can add me to your list.

Nice one

[frajer]

ok, why not everything else not consumed at the wedding? i realise this is pedantic and my not getting it, in a way, makes it funnier to me.

Possibly nothing else could be frozen, or had already been eaten?

Mostly I think it's just funny that Mark hasn't binned it and instead has chosen to burden himself with a physical reminder of his failed engagement, in the form of a fuck-off lump of stinking tuna.

[Ferris]

ok, why not everything else not consumed at the wedding? i realise this is pedantic and my not getting it, in a way, makes it funnier to me.

Presumably everything else from the wedding has been already eaten by guests, or by Jez and Mark months later (and now only the tuna remains). The annulment being so acrimonious that everything has been split in half so there can be no complaints is also also a very funny idea.

[monkfromhavana]

I took the joke to be that Mark has received his 50% share of it in the split, despite the wedding going to shit, and for weeks/months has been joylessly ploughing through enough frozen tuna to feed half a wedding reception.

I thought he was just eating endless roast dinners, how wrong I was.

[frajer]

I thought he was just eating endless roast dinners, how wrong I was.

Corrigan's off his nut post-wedding. Caning roasts and sitting on muggers.

[Thomas]

The magical first two series are peppered with fantastically acute little observations. Jez gazing at the toaster, idly imagining his parents trapped inside it, wondering which of them he'd save. Mark at work, fretting over his Post-It cartoon for Sophie. Jez lying in the bath, laughing aloud at his own thoughts.

As others have noted before, the 'audible thoughts' motif gives way to more consciously comic lines as the series goes on, with fewer reserved for odd little moments like Jez's toaster musings. There are fewer such realist moments.

However, I've just remembered a brilliant one from series eight; Mark stirring his tea without touching the sides of the mug, so that Jez doesn't hear. Mark internally refers to it as 'the velvet spoon routine'. A classic, feels like it could be from the very first episode. There's also 'make the toast, eat the toast, shit the toast'.

Just popped into my head because I was practising the velvet spoon routine myself. mm secret instant hot chocolate

[BlodwynPig]

I finished series 2 yesterday. You can feel the winds of change, from a landscape firmly bogged down in 90s bedsit grottiness, to adults in the room encroaching mid-life angst. I think it was seeing Toni as a boss of a marketing call centre (or whatever they were flogging, insurance?). It reminded me of seeing old student friends who had cast off the shackles of crusty/indie downtroddeness and embraced the Neo-liberal aspirational lifestyle.

Anyway, I was wondering about the flat when Jez was cleaning the bathroom prior to the arrival of Nancy. It looked very realistic. Turns out that Series 1 was filmed in a real flat in Croydon but they were not allowed to use if for series 2 so had to painstakingly recreate it in a warehouse somewhere else.

[paruses]

The magical first two series are peppered with fantastically acute little observations. Jez gazing at the toaster, idly imagining his parents trapped inside it, wondering which of them he'd save. Mark at work, fretting over his Post-It cartoon for Sophie. Jez lying in the bath, laughing aloud at his own thoughts.

As others have noted before, the 'audible thoughts' motif gives way to more consciously comic lines as the series goes on, with fewer reserved for odd little moments like Jez's toaster musings. There are fewer such realist moments.

However, I've just remembered a brilliant one from series eight; Mark stirring his tea without touching the sides of the mug, so that Jez doesn't hear. Mark internally refers to it as 'the velvet spoon routine'. A classic, feels like it could be from the very first episode. There's also 'make the toast, eat the toast, shit the toast'.

Just popped into my head because I was practising the velvet spoon routine myself. mm secret instant hot chocolate

Would have to watch it again but the bit in the first episode where they are both sitting in the bath using the shower adapter as a soda siphon seemed jarring. I really like the scene because it's the kind of twatty thing I would have done in my mid-late twenties, and the conversation they have seems drenched with the sort of angst I would have had at the time and trying to talk it through. It does seem like they hadn't nailed Mark down at that point because the Mark of subsequent episodes would never have done that. Like you say: they're the bits that are the price to pay for the funny lines.

[thenoise]

I took that as a hint of El Dude brothers Mark, the student that hanged around with Jez before he got a boring job and bought a flat. In those early episodes they really had respect for each other - Mark tried to work out how Jeremy was 'cool' and got the girl etc, while Jeremy relied on Mark to do all the 'proper grown up' things (and let him stay in his flat rent free). Im not sure exactly when they started hating each other.