Peep Show is second only to The Office and the 1st series of Black Books in terms of how good comedy in the UK had been this decade.

From Channel 4's Series 3 intro (http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/P/peep_show/show.html)



Meet Mark and Jeremy. Mark's the sensible one, a professional brogue-wearer with a slightly disconcerting interest in World War Two. Jeremy is the loose cannon, a lazy waster with dodgy friends who dreams of becoming a musician but can never get his act together (or up in the morning).

As ever, their deepest, darkest thoughts and feelings are revealed as they try in vain to find their place in the modern world and to find love and fulfilment. After two years, Mark finally gets together with his beloved Sophie but is distraught when she's relocated to Bristol. He tries everything to maintain their relationship, from mild stalking to a botched session of phone sex.

Meanwhile, Jeremy tries to get over his disastrous marriage to American beauty Nancy by embarking on a series totally misjudged relationships. Along the way he falls for a troublesome defendant while he's on jury duty, and - horror of horrors - Mark's younger sister.

Also in this series, Mark and Jeremy are forced to deal with intimidating plumbers, insane friends, and must face up to scary teenage muggers and disappointing threesomes

From the BBC guide to comedy

Jeremy (Jez) and Mark share a flat in a high-rise block, Apollo House. Jeremy thinks himself something of a rebel and is determined to make it big on the music scene, like his pal Super Hans seems to have done. The chances are, however, that it's not going to happen. Mark is an office worker hopelessly pursuing his colleague Sophie, a sensible, down-to-earth woman who just might, under the right circumstances, agree to date him. Then he blows it by trying too hard and by being overbearing. Also on the scene is the boys' next-door neighbour Toni, a straight-talking girl whom they both fancy, on and off. On the surface, Jeremy and Mark are quite horrible people; underneath they're even worse. We know this because the viewer is privy to their inner monologues, hearing the secret thoughts that often contradict their spoken statements, thoughts that are littered with sexual desperation, bitterness, bile and obscene fantasies.

This, at least, was the first series, and things were little improved in the second, when Mark finally succeeds in wooing Sophie only to stuff it up when she discovers he has hacked into her emails, and Jeremy also messes up, finally getting to sleep with Toni (now his boss at a media sales agency) but falling hopelessly in love with Nancy, a gorgeous American. Nancy weds Jeremy (for visa reasons) but this marriage of convenience only brings Jeremy deeper frustration.

Quirky, clever and extremely dark, Peep Show was a true original and pushed the theatre-of-embarrassment envelope further than ever. Aside from the 'inner monologue' device, another innovation was to force the viewer to look exclusively through a character's eyes: every shot was from one or other of the characters' POV, sometimes in extreme close-up, which gave the show a curious intimacy and added a level of intensity to the already in-your-face scenes of anger and madness. (Some of these scenes were captured via a small camera strapped on the actor's head, which literally did record their POV.) The two lead actors were game in portraying such loathsome yet undeniably funny characters, and the rest of the cast succeeded in capturing the unique flavour of the piece. Not for the faint-hearted but spicy fun for those with the stomach for it.

Peep Show quickly attracted a buzz, and by the start of the second series had won the Golden Rose of Lucerne and been nominated for a Bafta award.



BBC America page
Wiki

The Bluth's couldn't be saved, let's not let a similar thing happen here.
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/sig...?peepshow&1

you mentioned Black Books. has that ever come out on DVD. i tried looking for it a few months ago and saw nothing of it. i thought that one was great.

Yep, have all three seasons sitting on my shelf.

i just checked amazon and they only carry season one. hmmmm

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B...1360836-2953468

Sure. I don't know the show but i'll take your word for it.

I finally got "Only Fools & Horses" that I asked you about a while back. Pretty good stuff.

Cool, it does slowly drop off once the shows hit 60 mins and not half an hour. The Miami Twice holiday special was really bad. Especially compared to the really great episodes. Like when the canary dies when they are decoratiing, or Rodney pretending to be a kid in Spain, or To Hull and Back, Freddy the Frogman and the one with the blow up dolls. Good stuff.

It stinks that Peep Show has probably got the ax. The powers-that-be at Channel 4 didn't help the matter much by moving it to an earlier time slot, when their audience was not home. Here's looking forward to "That Mitchell and Webb Look"

Oh people sign this!!!

Best show out english friends have done since the office! no lie. Watch it on BBC America or get the torrents.

Not to be off topic, but I've been meaning to ask you, how do the TV seasons work in the UK? I see that The Office and Coupling in particular have short 6-7 episode seasons, while US runs are generally in the 20's. Is there not as much lag time in when new episodes or seasons air, or are there just a lot of new shows to constantly take their place? I'm confused by this system.

The 6 week run started on radio in the 50's when you would have two shows fill the same slot in one season, ie a 12 week section. The remaining four weeks would usually be taken up by holidays and such like.

Long series are generally still made 13 episodes long in order that they can fill a given timeslot for a quarter of a year. Thus shorter series tend to be six episodes long, so that they can show two of them per quarter, with one week spare for bank holidays or one-off specials (6 + 6 + 1 = 13....and 4 x 13 = 52 weeks in a year). So, if a British sitcom has six parts in it's first series, it'll often get an extra episode in its second to make up the shortfall (or a special), and be sold together in a lovely quarter of the year package. Not The Nine O' Clock News, Ever Decreasing Circles, The Office and I'm Alan Partridge all fit this pattern. Red Dwarf even went as far as having some 8 episode series so there would be 52 of them.

This makes them easier to be sold around the world. Doctor Who is the prime example that I can think of of UK programmes being exported - the last Eccleston run was of 13 45 minute episodes. So the rest of the world had an hour-long programme (with adverts, which is why we only get 45 minutes what with it being on the BBC) of 13 episodes.

Of course US shows follow this pattern too (e.g. The X-Files and the various Star Treks) tended to be 26 episodes a series, but more recent ones (Desperate Housewives; Lost) seem to be 24 these days after Fox used big event TV like American Idol to interupt the flow of shows that occur in real time.

The main reason British sitcoms are shorter is they are generally only written by the creators not a large writing team, this means that writer can't provide much more then 6 blocks of 30 min episodes (25 if it's on Ch4) between the two of them or even alone. We don't have the writing teams as seen on shows like Friends and The Simpsons Tthe only example of this here is My Family which has longer runs.

Just shows quantity does not mean quality.

Signed.

It is one of the best things to have came out of the UK in quite some time.

Fuck YEAH!!

Channel 4 has recommissioned Friday night comedies Peep Show and The IT Crowd.

The future of Peep Show had been hanging in the balance after the third series of the comedy dropped to an average of just 1.3 million (6%) viewers, despite an extensive marketing campaign.

C4 sources said director of television Kevin Lygo wanted to secure its stars David Mitchell and Robert Webb for a sketch show. However the duo will now return for another 6 x 30-minutes series of the sitcom. It is unclear when the fourth series, made by Objective Productions, will go into production or be scheduled.

This must be Britain's Arrested Development.

If by one of the best things on TV, the answer is yes. Two days in a row. How odd.

hells yeah - more Big Suze to drool over

for people who are not region-free

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6333...y=Breaking+News

BBC America is adding a British comedy import and introducing a second season of another, both in June.

The show is Spaced, written by Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead) and Jessica Stevenson (Smack the Pony), chronicling the agony and ecstasy of two disillusioned Gen X-ers adrift in a world where reality is as subjective as their taste in shoes. Produced by Paramount Comedy and LWT for the U.K.’s Channel 4, it premieres with an hour-long special (two of seven 30-minute episodes) Friday, June 23, at 11 p.m. (EST)/8 p.m. (PST).

Cult comedy hit Peepshow -- winner of one of Europe’s top television prizes, a Golden Rose of Montreux -- centers on the inner thoughts of two socially dysfunctional roommates, Mark and Jeremy, also known as the “El Dude Brothers.” Written by Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain (The Thick of It, Smack the Pony), it’s a Channel 4/Objective Productions production. A six-episode series, it premieres Friday, June 30, at 11:30 p.m. (EST)/8:30 p.m. (PST).

Both comedies will premiere in “The Underground,” BBC America’s late-night zone that showcases adult, irreverent comedies.

btw...detailed Myspace page for Mark

Mark gets mugged

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For all of yous who went to Intonation and got free water and t-shirts from the BBC America tent,<br> pay them back by watching the outrageous Series 2 tonight<br>
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Great extras on the first series DVD, I win!

http://www.myspace.com/mitchellandwebb

is The Smoking Room any good?

Watchable but nothing special.


That Mitchell and Webb Look though, great transfer from Radio 4 to BBC2. Really pleased at how great Numberwang et al transferred.

I liked it

"I'm a motherfucker. Literally a mother-fucker."

Eerie how similar the series premiere was to the Sopranos' opener. Both took place in rural areas away from their usual settings, both contained male bonding scenes involving the shooting of guns, and the giving-away of houses. That last one is kind of a stretch as Tony gave Janice the Sacks' house last year, but it was referenced often.

Also, Bobby (and Mark) stood up against an authority figure (Tony and Sophie's Dad).

That aside, 'Tis good to see the show back.

"Do I suck mummy's finger?"

"I'm a bearded concubine"

Fantastic start.

Who needs PM when we've got this thread.

Good first episode. Started out slowly, but then settled into the demented brilliance we have come to expect. Favourite bit (which sadly was shown on a trail) was the 'practicing snoring' scene. Loved it.

Also, it sets up a quality enemy in Sophie's dad.

And Mitchell & Webb sketch show was dire.

I just watched this show for the first time, saw the new episode on youtube. Very, very funny! The bit with the pheasant had my jaw on the floor.

"Great, I'm getting an angry lap-dance."

During the somb-less week, I discovered all the Peep Show episodes on YouTube, and have been watching them in order. Absolutely one of the funniest shows I have ever seen.

"I have entered the abyss. I have bought a house in the abyss. All my mail has been forwarded to the abyss."

Nice one. Just caught the repeat on E4. Episodes with Johnson are absolute gold.

Johnsons' gown. lol

Signed. I've seen it a couple of times, it's a great laugh.

It's all good, safe now. fifth series commissioned.

I've finally caught up. This show is genius...it always builds to the point where you're killing yourself laughing, yet can't bear to watch the predicament Mark & Jez have gotten themselves in. Like the whole "pooing in the pool" thing on this week's ep. Oh man, I was howling.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR111796421...yid=14&cs=1

That's mental.

"You a mate of wank-a-thon's?"

re: the American remake. I read in the Guide that they already made an Amefican version and fucked it up to get revenge on Bain/Armstrong making That 70s Show shit (Days Like These... ugh).

Also, the 'Heseltine ousting Thatcher' bullying pretext is genius.

Yeah that was an excellent episode. Good to finally see Super-Hans, brilliant to see him used sparingly.

"How do you think I got these trainers?"

That reminds me: they seem to be wheeling people out on a single-episode basis. The debut of Mad father in Law, then we get Johnson/Big Suze, then ex wife, now Super Hans. Hmm, maybe we'll get Toni and that Paul Morley-looking dude back next week.

I love YouTube.

"You're disgusting. But I like it! It's like going to a strip joint with the Pope."

Peep Show is the best comedy of the decade

Trawling the Wikipedia entries for upcoming TV shows recently, as I generally do to screw any last vestige of expectation from the viewing experience, I came upon a startling fact. The comedy series Peep Show, which started its fourth series last Friday, was rumoured to be close to cancellation this time last year. What might these heartless hypothetical axe-wielders have been thinking? Peep Show is only the best British comedy show of the decade, after all.

Don't believe it? Then that's probably because you've never heard of it - or have, but just haven't quite got round to watching it. If so, a quick run up to speed: Mark (David Mitchell) and Jeremy (Robert Webb) are your quintessential Odd Couple, an anally-retentive loan manager and deeply untalented waster respectively, who live together in a high-rise flat in Croydon, south London.

Mark lusts after his work colleague Sophie in an unnervingly methodical fashion, while Jez flits from one sordid, gormless sexual encounter to the next, including a loveless marriage-of-convenience to a bohemian American and a drug-fuelled homosexual encounter with his crack-addicted best mate Super Hans. It's all presented in a subtle combination of point-of-view shots and voiced-over internal monologues, hence the title.

It's also brain-fryingly funny. Still, best comedy of the noughties? Let's consider its more feted competition. Little Britain? Dizzyingly overrated, although sadly Matt Lucas and David Walliams have reached the status of comedy royalty simply by rewriting a pilot episode's worth of half-decent sketches ad infinitum. Thus far, no one has noticed.

There's stiffer competition from The Office. Both series follow the mould-breaking sitcom template set by Friends, in allowing their characters' status quo to alter from one episode to the next, although where The Office managed a dramatic narrative for two series and a couple of specials, Peep Show has now carried on for three and a bit series without letting the quality slip. In the new episode, Mark fretted over how to tell his now-fiancee Sophie that he didn't actually love her, under pressure from her game-hunting, alcoholic father - a complete but naturally progressing inversion of the series' initial premise. Jeremy, true to witless form, just screwed Sophie's mum.

Where The Office relied on its actors' interpretation for the best scenes, a Peep Show script will, guaranteed, have more punchlines per minute, a testament to the criminally underrated writing team of Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong. Spaced, whose second series appeared in 2001, is ruled out on similar grounds of proven longevity, while The Thick Of It - for which Bain and Armstrong also write - just doesn't have the same everyman appeal.

Even discounting the spin-off sketch show That Mitchell and Webb Look and the upcoming feature debut Magicians, the Mitchell/Webb/ Bain/Armstrong axis deserve their place in posterity for creating the richest, most human, enduring, and hilariously quotable sitcom of the decade. Nathan Barley alone matched its perfect love/hate relationship with the 21st century - although even that only managed it for one series.

Did you write that?

And agreed that it might be the best British sitcom of this decade, but I reckon Curb and AD handle it easily. The latter, too, is definite evidence that quality is no Aegis protecting a programme from cancellation.

No, Granuiad.

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/tv/2007/04/pee...t_comedy_o.html

I'll go with Curb for being funnier but AD falls slightly behind Peep Show for me as even by series 2 I felt I knew everything about Mark and Jeremy.

What's weird is that I kinda turned off Peep Show for series two. I sorta watched it, but wasn't a fan of the way it had been 'sexed up'. Stuff like the Waitsesque theme tune being replaced by Flagpole Sitta (which I now appreciate in its own right), as well as all the sex and random marriage. It was only when I got the DVD set in that I warmed to it. I swear I never saw the genius that was the poker game when it originally aired. Series 3 was good enough to draw me back in, and I'm digging this one, even if it is a bit formulaic (as mentioned above).

AD I consider to be the best comedy since Seinfeld (which, weirdly for a Brit, I consider the best sitcom ever). It's just that - and I appreciate it's a different format of sitcom, style of writing etc - it is so densely packed with layers of comedy, callbacks, intertextual reference, pop culture reference, surrealism, and at such an insane pace that there are so many jokes you sometimes miss them. Peep Show, by contrast, is very linear, but great at what it does. Without checking chronology, I'd venture it's my fave British comedy show since Brasseye.

"It's a hairy turkey!"

[spoiler]Yeah, I wonder how they can outdo the eating of a dog called 'Mummy' in front of her owners. That was freaky and hilarious.[/spoiler]

I haven't laughed that hard in so long. The last seven or eight minutes...oh man.