Life Of Riley - Series 3

Not sure if it's a good source or not, but think it may be getting a 3rd series.

http://www.baileyc.myzen.co.uk/cb/?page_id=30

Well found, thanks!

Omg you didn't know about it? Have I discovered a hidden gem? :O :D

I'm glad to see it come back. It's not amazing but it could be a hell of a lot worse. It's even doing better than My Family. Expect it to run until 2019.

Is anyone but me glad this is coming back?

No I like Life of Riley as well.

Sure it's not a classic by any means but it is better than most people give it credit for.

Plus I do like the entire cast.

Yes, I also quite enjoy it.

These are hardly resounding endorsements but like we say, could be a lot worse. I do hope that 2019 prediction - however tongue-in-cheek - doesn't come off because it doesn't deserve such longevity. My Family has long outstayed its welcome in my view.

I further predict that it will go the same way as After You've Gone and Next of Kin and not make it past 3 series. Though I'd like it to get a 4th.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2010/11_november/29/quentin.shtml

I suppose the big question is 'Can the 3rd series maintain the standards this show has set for itself?'... :|

Quote: Tim Walker @ December 2 2010, 12:31 AM GMT

I suppose the big question is 'Can the 3rd series maintain the standards this show has set for itself?'... :|

Let's hope not.

(From the above BBC Press link...)

'Refusing to be fazed by her increasingly complicated brood of children, step-children, step-siblings and half-siblings, Maddy is still trying to be all things to all people. Now she finds herself coping with a work-at-home husband, the re-emergence of both their exes, neighbours at war (with each other)... and the challenge of meeting a new boyfriend - her mother's!'

I'm just wondering, is Life Of Riley the most formulaic, predictable piece of sitcom shit the BBC have ever shovelled in front of a family audience? From what I've seen of this show (which is more than you - or indeed I - might care to think) it features the most terrible, dreary, banal old plot standards of any sitcom I can remember. There is absolutely nothing original in its conceit, content or execution. It's bad family sitcom-by-numbers. Even the cast sometimes look like the effort of working their way through yet another depressingly-inevitable episode of contrived misunderstandings and manufactured "hilarity" is exhausting. You can actually sometimes see that the two lead actors minds are elsewhere as they go through the robotic motions of banging out another 28 minutes of soul-less, high-definition nothingness. (Probably thinking "This episode will pay for that new conservatory".)

And yet it gets a 3rd series. Why? I suppose just because there's a schedule and a slot to fill. My 11 year old daughters are (naturally) not necessarily typical of the average BBC family sitcom audience (being my kids, of course, their favourite sitcom is Hancock's Half Hour and instead of watching BBC1 comedy they write and act-out their own darkly comic Jam-esque sketches during the long winter evenings), but I can't imagine any family has ever got in of an evening and said "Oh brilliant! It's that Life Of Riley on tonight! I can't wait to see if there's a misunderstanding involving Jim secretly buying Maddy some lingerie!". It's watched simply because it's there. Right there, on BBC1, in a primetime slot. If Auntie scheduled a programme - I don't know - some show which looks into the banal private lives of soap actors - 'Holby City Celebrity Sock Drawer Disasters Confidential!' - it would probably be watched just as passively by the same number of people.

So maybe it's time there was a separate genre for sitcoms which are there simply to allow people to sit down on the sofa and distract them from the terrible realities of life and mortality for half an hour, but are not actually primarily concerned with making them laugh or lifting their spirits?

Maybe call them "Chitcoms" - a chit being a receipt/note/voucher used as a statement of an amount owed of a certain product. A Chitcom would therefore be a show which is there as a kind of contractual promise by the broadcaster to deliver a certain length of narrative comedy, but with no guarantee that it may actually be funny in any way.

(*ticks "write pissing-in-the-wind Life Of Riley rant..." off 'To Do' list*)

You'll look a damn fool if it turns out to be great.

However, you are probably safe.

Quote: Tim Walker @ December 4 2010, 12:42 AM GMT

I'm just wondering, is Life Of Riley the most formulaic, predictable piece of sitcom shit the BBC have ever shovelled in front of a family audience?

So that's rhetorical, right?

Anyways, it must be a contender. I am something of a connoisseur of unloved sitcoms, having found things to admire in Lab Rats, Big Top, The Persuasionists, Whites, and after I overcame my kneejerk dismissal, that Simon Amstell guff. But this...

Quote: Tim Walker @ December 4 2010, 12:42 AM GMT

I'm just wondering, is Life Of Riley the most formulaic, predictable piece of sitcom shit the BBC have ever shovelled in front of a family audience?

There was that Jasper Carrott one... the ultra politically correct sitcom. I know what you mean though. Thing is, Life Of Riley gets pretty good ratings, hence the recommissions.

It's also made in Scotland, so helps fill the 'outside of London' quota by the way.

Anyway.

Can we all stop posting on this thread. The big wigs might think we are interested.