Friday Night Dinner - Series 1 Page 18

Yeah, but she looks 35 at most. It looks unbelievable. The dad looks at least 55.

Quote: TopBanana @ April 15 2011, 3:04 PM BST

Yeah, but she looks 35 at most. It looks unbelievable. The dad looks at least 55.

She's in her forties in real life.

Quote: Matthew Stott @ April 15 2011, 3:44 PM BST

She's in her forties in real life.

Paul Ritter and Matt Le Blanc already this year. Oh, and Stephen Mangan. Who does she think she is? Joan Crawford?

Quote: john lucas 101 @ April 15 2011, 3:48 PM BST

Paul Ritter and Matt Le Blanc already this year. Oh, and Stephen Mangan. Who does she think she is? Joan Crawford?

Desperate to stay in the public eye!

Yeah those bitch actors. Wanting to work.

I watched the last one today. Sort of you know, meh. It didn't really do anything for me. The whole premise of the date episode was unbelievable, why would parents invite a random girl round to cop off with their son? Funnily enough I thought Simon Bird was the weakest actor in the cast. I love him in The Inbetweeners but this seemed like a carbon copy of Will with all the ticks and mannerisms he relied on in that series. I hope there is more to him than that.

Quote: Agnes Guano @ April 16 2011, 10:24 PM BST

why would parents invite a random girl round to cop off with their son?

She wasn't a random girl, it was made clear that the family knew her and her family, though she and Bird's character hadn't met since they were children.

What was with the dad eating parsley and burping?

Quote: Matthew Stott @ April 16 2011, 10:56 PM BST

She wasn't a random girl, it was made clear that the family knew her and her family, though she and Bird's character hadn't met since they were children.

Yeah I know that, but why would parents randomly invite her round? Why would she accept? How did she get there? Did she feed the father parsley? It just needs a bit more believability.

Quote: Agnes Guano @ April 16 2011, 11:57 PM BST

Yeah I know that, but why would parents randomly invite her round? Why would she accept? How did she get there? Did she feed the father parsley? It just needs a bit more believability.

I don't see what is unbelievable about it? The family, every episode, has been nosing into his love life, or lack of it, and been trying to push him into pursuing ladies. They know this girl and her family to some extent, they decide to try and push things on behalf of their son; it's no more unbelievable than a million other story lines in a million other sitcoms. You can definitely argue about whether it works, or is funny or not, but I don't really see the lack of believability.

I'm with Stott on that.
It was totally within the mother's character.

Quote: Matthew Stott @ April 16 2011, 11:59 PM BST

I don't really see the lack of believability.

The scenarios are totally believable, it's the predictability of the punch that disappoints.

Fair enough! That'll teach me to record the series and watch the last episode first I guess.

Quote: Matthew Stott @ April 11 2011, 9:02 AM BST

Have you seen a sitcom before?! :P

There seems to be an awful lot of leeway and willing suspension of disbelief afforded to this show, presumably because of its writer, that many other sitcoms are ripped to shreds on...

Quote: Charlie Boy @ April 15 2011, 8:48 AM BST

The last episode of the series was verging on Ray Cooney "you've invited the vicar to tea" farce.

No it wasn't: Ray Cooney farces are funny.

Quote: Matthew Stott @ April 16 2011, 11:59 PM BST

I don't see what is unbelievable about it? The family, every episode, has been nosing into his love life, or lack of it, and been trying to push him into pursuing ladies. They know this girl and her family to some extent, they decide to try and push things on behalf of their son; it's no more unbelievable than a million other story lines in a million other sitcoms. You can definitely argue about whether it works, or is funny or not, but I don't really see the lack of believability.

I'm not sure. I'm certainly in agreement that such an action is within the boundaries of what has been established as the parents' behaviour, but at the same time, it felt like a very old-school sitcom setup; as if it's some cliché that's out of place in a naturalistically-shot, closed-set sitcom like Friday Night Dinner.

But then, that's been the story of the whole series: a real mess of styles.

As for the last episode, well, that I've only just watched it this evening/morning probably summarises how I feel about the show. There are some laughs, but they're few and far between. It's an odd, hodge-podge mess of a sitcom that seems to be trying to be both traditional and bleeding edge at the same time. And, IMO, it doesn't work.

Some very good points made previously about character traits. Why is the dad deaf? Why do they often just repeat each other? What's funny about any of that? Terrible!

On the subject of the brothers, Adam is clearly some sort of saint. If my brother acted remotely like Jonny does, I'd have stabbed him many years ago.

Quote: Aaron @ April 18 2011, 1:04 AM BST

There seems to be an awful lot of leeway and willing suspension of disbelief afforded to this show, presumably because of its writer, that many other sitcoms are ripped to shreds on...

I'm not giving this any 'leeway' because of Popper; I like Look Around You, but it's not a favourite or anything. I've put up nice posts about this show because, for me, it works and I enjoy it. I've enjoyed it more than any other Brit sitcom so far this year.