I found it pretty slow moving and lame. Only one line that made me laugh in the entire show - and I can't remember what it was! Plus, just when I was thinking 'how many more walk on parts for the likes of Super Hans, Dobby and Catherine Parkinson from The IT Crowd reprising her character' when lo and behold, Kevin Bishop was on the trailer for next week's show.

I'm not sure that you can classify regulars (Kiki - Isy Suttie, Caroline - Katherine Parkinson (who was definitely not the same character)) as "walk on parts", Aldeem!

OK, what I meant was, Super Hans and Katherine Parkinson were playing their identical characters from other shows. Dobby was maybe slightly different. Kevin Bishop looked pretty much as he did in his last show. Who next?

I think it's a mistake to open a show set in the kitchen of a country club with a kitchen shot. Most people will assume as I did that the kitchen is in a city-based restaurant. Holding back the first appearance of Alan Davies is never a mistake however.

There was a point in a recent episode of QI where Davies was endlessly jabbing the buzzer chimp-like to reproduce a 'comic' sound where I realised I actually hate his special brand of Essex-accented smirking gormlessness. And he can't act - or rather he can't act well. He has a go at the chef but the part is beyond him. Under the circumstances, the moustache is preposterous and a clear indication that there are two different conceptions of what this show is meant to be operating in the same programme.

Then the relationship between the spineless sous chef and the agency lad: oh dear. Is he meant to be so unlikeable? Do the writers imagine that we will sit through six episodes of a grown man being treated hatefully by this tit? Misconceived.

The best realised character in terms of acting and writing was Kiki whose aside to the agency boy was touching and realistic and funny - 'thought it was a ghost but it was just wee-steam'.

Presumably we can look forward to romantic tension between those two as well as Davies and the Katherine Parkinson character - who will be wasted in this since she excels at manic physical comedy.

To not disappoint the food analogy collectors: not enough on the plate, undercooked mismatched ingredients, no sauce, and too many vegetables. Left me feeling hungry (obviously).

Sigh! Can people stop calling her Dobby? It wasn't as if Isy was a main actor in Peep Show. Calling Matt King 'Super Hans' makes some sense, he's been in every series, but I think Dobby is different...

Quote: Tim Azure @ September 29 2010, 4:00 PM BST

Sigh! Can people stop calling her Dobby?

View original

No, she is Dobby for now and forever.

It's a good job 'Whites' had a such a good cast.

I guess the first episode uses lines to bed the characters in but even so I agree the writing is not up to the standard of 'Rev' or 'Roger and Val'. You never know though, it may ripen... (variation on Tim Walker's get out clause). I'll keep watching.

On the whole, it's a quality show.

The cast is strong, the script (apart from a rather old joke in Roland's opening lines) is solid and production values are high.

I find the new young chef rather frightening.

I thought it was alright. Not as poor as Tim makes out, but certainly not as good as Ming suggests.

Yes I found the young chef quite scary when he was in the Great Outdoors.

Just watched this on catch up. I rather enjoyed it.

Just wasn't good enough, really, was it?
When will they learn that camerwork isn't funny.
With these things you've either got to laugh or care - both, ideally.
This is scoring a big zero on both counts.

Quote: Lazzard @ September 29 2010, 8:51 PM BST

Just wasn't good enough, really, was it?
When will they learn that camerwork isn't funny.
With these things you've either got to laugh or care - both, ideally.
This is scoring a big zero on both counts.

View original

I do admit is was short on the laughs, but I pretty much instantly cared about the characters. Maybe I'm just the target demographic?

A comedy about a chef? Starring Alan Davies? I was smugly looking forward to despising this, but it is actually a perfectly serviceable sitcom, and Davies is fine. Damn.