Kate and Koji.

[bgmnts]

Just saw an advert for this on ITV.

Good god almighty.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

It's written by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin. More info here...

https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2020-03-09/itv-comedy-kate-and-koji-air-date/

I've seen the first episode and it's... nothing really. Decent performances, a handful of fairly amusing lines, nowt to get worked up over.

However, it's quite nice seeing a primetime sitcom on ITV, of all places, where the small-minded prejudices of Daily Mail readers are the butt of the joke. It will almost certainly annoy those very people, which is funnier than anything in the actual show itself.

[bobloblaw]

what's saddest is that even if it flops for ITV, it will still do 5 times the numbers of Channel 4's funny and touching Home.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

A reminder that this starts tonight.

The preview in today's Guardian is very odd, it criticises a sitcom about a casually bigoted white woman for containing, at its centre, a casually bigoted white woman. Whether you find the show funny or not, it is quite clearly a satire of those attitudes.

[Alberon]

ITV sitcoms are rare these days. It's nice to see them trying at all amid the wall to wall soaps and cop dramas.

It sounds like it's got good writers, but I'm not expecting anything good because, well, it's ITV.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

It's not great, but it's not bad either. See my lukewarm 'preview' above for further stellar insight.

[Malcy]

Thought this was alright. Rare for ITV to do any kind of comedy these days so I'll keep watching.

[bobloblaw]

what's saddest is that even if it flops for ITV, it will still do 5 times the numbers of Channel 4's funny and touching Home.

seems I was wrong.

it got 10 x Home's audience.

5.1m. Viewers will hunt out possibility of a laugh after the news right now, I guess.

[Alberon]

I think TV audiences will all see a boost over the next few weeks.

[Malcy]

seems I was wrong.

it got 10 x Home's audience.

5.1m. Viewers will hunt out possibility of a laugh after the news right now, I guess.

Would Brenda Blethyn be a draw for people as well? Vera is quite popular.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Definitely, we mustn't underestimate the Blethyn factor. She's ITV royalty.

I was expecting the worst on Twitter last night, but it actually seemed to go down quite well. Granted, quite a few of the comments I read were along the lines of "I can't believe I've just watched an ITV sitcom that isn't total dogshit", but I suppose that's better than people tediously wanging on about 'canned laughter'.

[ishantbekeepingit]

I thought it was fucking dreadful.  I smiled all of twice - once at "Cagney Lacey" cropping up in the guy's name (copied thirty seconds later with a "Starsky Hutch" gag) and the image of a woman's face carved out of a photograph (also seen on the IT Crowd, only funnier and with the great "like breaking up with Stalin" line).

Speaking of the IT Crowd, a shit moronic line about "they couldn't decide how many genders to add to the toilets" got the first big laugh of the show.  Utter bollocks.

[Alberon]

Never got round to trying the first episode, but did watch ten minutes of the second. Piss weak Still Open All Hours level effort.

I get that it's not really aimed at me, but still. Mrs Brown's Boys isn't aimed at me either, but I can see why people like it even though I don't.

Another misfire like Avenue 5. Gather some genuine talent and watch the beige slop that oozes out as a result.

[neveragain]

It's by no means... good however it isn't the worst sitcom I've seen. Up until now I thought of Hamilton & Jenkin as fairly witty and insightful topical writers but there's a lot of guff here (e.g. the genders joke).