Why is Peep Show Series 4 so Awful?

[SteK]

The Australian girl bits are great, the dog-earing bit is shit.

There's a glaring error in the dog and and Range Rover scene. Jez blames the incident when he runs the dog over on 'the clutch in that thing' when it's quite plainly an automatic, Jez's even selects the gears in shot so there's no downside.

What, there's no downside?

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Don't like that Australian Girl one, it's one of those episodes that's far too cruel to Mark. Is the episode where the grown up versions of the kids who called Mark Cleanshirt break into the flat and nick the telly and that in the fourth series?

[idunnosomename]

There's a glaring error in the dog and and Range Rover scene. Jez blames the incident when he runs the dog over on 'the clutch in that thing' when it's quite plainly an automatic, Jez's even selects the gears in shot so there's no downside.

What, there's no downside?

isnt that just because jez an idiot who cant drive? I cant remember if he has a driving licence

The whole haha take a bite of dog is so fucking contrived it's impossible to watch. Yes they couldnt bury it but why would they keep the fucking collar on the corpse?!?! Just shite writing

Poop Show. Shouldve been two series like FAWLTY TOWERS

[SteK]

isnt that just because jez an idiot who cant drive? I cant remember if he has a driving licence

The whole haha take a bite of dog is so fucking contrived it's impossible to watch. Yes they couldnt bury it but why would they keep the fucking collar on the corpse?!?! Just shite writing

Poop Show. Shouldve been two series like FAWLTY TOWERS

Jez can drive, Mark can't....

[idunnosomename]

He might not know what a clutch is though i guess

[ajsmith2]

Don't like that Australian Girl one, it's one of those episodes that's far too cruel to Mark. Is the episode where the grown up versions of the kids who called Mark Cleanshirt break into the flat and nick the telly and that in the fourth series?

It's series 5 episode 1. Same series as the Australian girls one.

[JarrowMonkey]

He might not know what a clutch is though i guess

Johnson's BMW was a manual and Jez could drive that, as he could the golf

I can't believe I'm replying to be honest, if you want to see shite driving/ not being able to drive see Men Behaving Badly, Gary could drive then couldn't in an later episode

Professional writers eh?, I'd shit the lot of 'em

[JarrowMonkey]

Johnson's BMW was a manual and Jez could drive that, as he could the Golf given to him by Sophie mother

I can't believe I'm replying to be honest, if you want to see shite driving/ not being able to drive see Men Behaving Badly, Gary could drive then couldn't in an later episode

Professional writers eh?, I'd shit the lot of 'em

[Dewt]

The whole haha take a bite of dog is so fucking contrived it's impossible to watch. Yes they couldnt bury it but why would they keep the fucking collar on the corpse?!?! Just shite writing

And then topped off with "you ate our dog? That is the last straw, we will no longer flirt with you on the river!" instead of "you have to prison and be remembered in British history as two of our foremost psychopaths".

[sutin]

Don't like that Australian Girl one, it's one of those episodes that's far too cruel to Mark. Is the episode where the grown up versions of the kids who called Mark Cleanshirt break into the flat and nick the telly and that in the fourth series?

ARE THOSE THE SAME KIDS?!?!

[sutin]

Series 4 has never stood out for me as being particularly poor but after recounting what episodes it contains, it does appear to be the start of the wacked-out storylines.

The dog episode had me howling with laughter at the time but it is stupid. There's absolutely no reason why they couldn't just throw the dog away. Throw it in the river, leave it in the woods, whatever.

[Dewt]

Don't like that Australian Girl one, it's one of those episodes that's far too cruel to Mark.

I like that one. It captures the sheer power of a rowdy women's party, when they take over the flat. Jez says something good alone the lines of "What's so funny, that's what I'd like to know".

[Peru]

There's a definite move towards a more cartoony style from series 4 onward - Dobbie, the Australians, Gerard, Jez's Eastern-European girlfriend, Sophie's cousin. I've seen people make a similar criticism of Seinfeld, which gets much wackier then PS ever did (Mr Marbles) but that never particularly bothered me.

That's not to say there aren't great episodes in later series. The house party and the locked-in-the-lobby eps are outstanding.

[Pearly-Dewdrops Drops]

The dog-eating episode and the wedding finale might be my two favourite episodes of the entire show. (Because they are funny.)

It doesn't need to be realistic to be funny. Obviously no real human person is going to start eating a half-cooked pet dog just to avoid some slight embarrassment in a social situation. It's an exaggerated version of reality.

Though focusing on the dog-eating climax at the end obscures the fact that the entire episode is just very good throughout. "Oh, naughty, you've combined metric and imperial. You might get an interdenominational, you know from mixing the two measurement systems, a hangover of that kind..."

[idunnosomename]

i don't know I just that Peep Show has a unique setup with the POV and thoughts of the two main characters and after series 2 it just squandered it with farce. there's not much comedy in something like the Canal Holiday one that couldn't be done with a regular sitcom setup is there?

so many of the funniest lines in series 1 and 2 aren't said but thought. in turn I think it's better if it stays slightly rooted in realism because you don't have to have any fourth-wall breaking to deliver things to the audience.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Yes but that itself doesn't render 4 bad. It can be a successful sitcom with elements of the existing format. It isn't a prerequisite to be like 1 and 2 in format in order to be funny.

As it happens, it isn't as good as 1 and 2, but I still reckon it's a very funny series of comedy.

[Thursday]

I think I just like that 4 is largely set in rural locations, just gives it a different flavour that was interesting.

[Jockice]

I like that one. It captures the sheer power of a rowdy women's party, when they take over the flat. Jez says something good alone the lines of "What's so funny, that's what I'd like to know".

Also in that scene Mark is wearing a jumper almost exactly the same as one I own. And wear. I also like the way at his birthday party he constantly refers to 'my girlfriend.' Reminds me of someone.

[Hand Solo]

Even bad Peep Show is good Peep Show, it has enough nuance and idiosyncrasies to make it interesting.

[thenoise]

They should have carried on with more scenes of them watching TV together. Always obscure American cable shows, for some reason, or 40 year old detective shows.

[Blue Jam]

I enjoy the episode with Australian Saz but it seems to be the one that divides people the most. I'm in a Peep Show group on Facebook and The Saz Episode is the subject of many arguments, and loads of people saying they can't stand to watch it. Personally I love seeing Mark getting his comeuppance after turning down Dobby and breaking her heart just so he could show off his "primetime newsreader girlfriend" who is a horrible person and who doesn't even like him. He doesn't always deserve his humiliation but that's one time where he very definitely does.

I really like series 4- "Sophie's Parents" is one of my favourites. The worst thing in that series for me is probably Mark falsely accusing a man of sexual assault, I always found that went a bit too far and was quite jarring as a result. Mark's a coward but would he really stoop that low?

Series 5 is a bit of an odd one for me. If I remember correctly the episodes all have different teams of writers and that may explain why it feels tonally all over the place. The focus on Mark's search for "The One" also gets old quickly, and there's too much Mark and not enough Jeremy.

"Burgling" is one of the two episodes I struggle to watch because I find it a bit upsetting ("Mugging" is the other) and the plot with Natalie raping Mark also seemed to go a bit too far for me- Mark is a neurotic who finds the most minor things to be an utterly humiliating ordeal, there was no need to have him raped.

Jeremy and Super Hans bullying Barney and then Super Hans sexually abusing him and leaving him frightened and confused and refusing to come out of a locked room is also more than a bit dark.

[Dewt]

Robert Webb is on the latest episode of Rule of Three and he said something along the lines of

"It's like in Peep Show how the inevitable always happens. It's very logical that Jez ends up eating the dog, it's the logical conclusion"

(wildly paraphrased but this was the gist)

He's pretty good at being an incredibly incorrect man.

[thenoise]

Robert Webb is on the latest episode of Rule of Three and he said something along the lines of

"It's like in Peep Show how the inevitable always happens. It's very logical that Jez ends up eating the dog, it's the logical conclusion"

(wildly paraphrased but this was the gist)

He's pretty good at being an incredibly incorrect man.

It being inevitable/predictable isn't necessarily a problem - lots of sitcom writers start with the 'punchline' and work backwards - but it was a few bizarre choices along with way, together that in the end they didn't really justify it at all, Jez just did it. And drawing attention to it in his internal monologue didn't make up for that.

Aside from that poor moment it's quite a good episode though.

[idunnosomename]

i think taking the piss out of a canal barge holiday is far funnier than writing backwards from eating a bit of a dog you accidentally killed but thats just me who finds mundane funnier than utter gross-out.

i mean mundane humour going toward utter fucking madness might be funny but I dont think this script pulled it off at all. it's horribly contrived.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Series 5 feels like where the wheels fell off for me. Far too grimy. Genuinely don't think I could rewatch that episode with the awful Australian who agrees to be Mark's pretend girlfriend and keeps calling him "Marko".

Hey Mark! Come and put your tongue up Lindsay's arsehole. It's clean!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=wOnZn8z5ol4

[Old Gold Tooth]

Hey Mark! Come and put your tongue up Lindsay's arsehole. It's clean!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=wOnZn8z5ol4

Desolation. You're better than this, Corrigan.

[SteK]

Desolation. You're better than this, Corrigan.

Crorrigan....

[Sebastian Cobb]

Hey Mark! Come and put your tongue up Lindsay's arsehole. It's clean!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=wOnZn8z5ol4

Always loved the pathetic 'If you say it, you'll break the spell.' when they're hoping Saz and her mates will end up shagging each other.

[Old Gold Tooth]

Crorrigan....

Heh that always makes me laugh. "British London" is such a great name for a fake publishing house.

[pigamus]

Hey Mark! Come and put your tongue up Lindsay's arsehole. It's clean!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=wOnZn8z5ol4

"She's Australian. They think it's all fine." That's one of my favourite lines from the whole show and it's not even the favourite line from the whole show somebody else nominated from the same episode. So, on a shitness scale and that.