From the start this is a strange sitcom. From the opening titles showing a glitzy and glamorous London seen from above by night, right to the American co-star (in the first series) the viewer gets a strange and oddly unsettling impression that this is meant to be a British imitation of Friends or Will & Grace. Why do they live in the sort of luxury London flat that the characters would find impossible to afford? Did the producers check out London rental prices to see if this is even remotely credible? (OK, this is handwaved later in the series by various means. But even so...)
The plots are fun, but flimsy, and seem to be devised to allow Lee Mack to make the maximum number of puns and bad-joke one liners per episode. Megan Dodds is no slouch at this, either. After a while, realisation sets in. This is an American sitcom, written, plotted, setted and directed, made to American production values. It even incorporates logical places to put commercial breaks. (Although this is the BBC). You wouldn't be surprised to check out it's even written by committee, in the American manner?
Light dawns. This is an American sitcom with a largely British cast. Was it deliberately done this way with one eye on BBC America, or to sell to American networks proper? Megan Dodds was a rising star in the USA at the time. Lee Mack was to have starred in a British remake of Everybody Loves Raymond, as an Irish/British take on Ray Barone with an equally overbearing mother. Was this his consolation prize after the ELR remake failed?
Even after Megan Dodds left at the end of the first series and her role is taken up by the very British Lucy, the "this is really an American sitcom, but set in London with British actors" mood persists. This lasts for the first six or seven runs, but makes the metamorphosis into being a far more typical Brit Com after Lee and Lucy get married and start a family. The impossible London flat goes, it's replaced with Standardized Sitcom Housing (British Type Two) in an anonymous suburb - even the opening credits reflect this new reality. A British housing estate of semi-d residences is seen from the air, backed by the high-powered big-band theme tune. This reflects a new reality - one where Lucy has given up on the high-powered City career (which she wasn't particularly good at, anyway) to raise a family. The plots become more substantial and reflect more familiar British concerns of escalating embarrassment combined with the subtle workings of the class system, which is infinitely more familiar terrain for the BBC. It's as if halfway through the run, it gives up on the gloss and sheds its trans-Atlantic pretences, and becomes a more satisfying and substantial experience for that. Periodically, especially in Christmas specials, it takes on an oddly satisfying surrealism and strangeness, but this show appears to have settled down as a very watchable Britcom.
Series Treading water somewhere near the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
From the start this is a strange sitcom. From the opening titles showing a glitzy and glamorous London seen from above by night, right to the American co-star (in the first series) the viewer gets a strange and oddly unsettling impression that this is meant to be a British imitation of Friends or Will & Grace. Why do they live in the sort of luxury London flat that the characters would find impossible to afford? Did the producers check out London rental prices to see if this is even remotely credible? (OK, this is handwaved later in the series by various means. But even so...)
The plots are fun, but flimsy, and seem to be devised to allow Lee Mack to make the maximum number of puns and bad-joke one liners per episode. Megan Dodds is no slouch at this, either. After a while, realisation sets in. This is an American sitcom, written, plotted, setted and directed, made to American production values. It even incorporates logical places to put commercial breaks. (Although this is the BBC). You wouldn't be surprised to check out it's even written by committee, in the American manner?
Light dawns. This is an American sitcom with a largely British cast. Was it deliberately done this way with one eye on BBC America, or to sell to American networks proper? Megan Dodds was a rising star in the USA at the time. Lee Mack was to have starred in a British remake of Everybody Loves Raymond, as an Irish/British take on Ray Barone with an equally overbearing mother. Was this his consolation prize after the ELR remake failed?
Even after Megan Dodds left at the end of the first series and her role is taken up by the very British Lucy, the "this is really an American sitcom, but set in London with British actors" mood persists. This lasts for the first six or seven runs, but makes the metamorphosis into being a far more typical Brit Com after Lee and Lucy get married and start a family. The impossible London flat goes, it's replaced with Standardized Sitcom Housing (British Type Two) in an anonymous suburb - even the opening credits reflect this new reality. A British housing estate of semi-d residences is seen from the air, backed by the high-powered big-band theme tune. This reflects a new reality - one where Lucy has given up on the high-powered City career (which she wasn't particularly good at, anyway) to raise a family. The plots become more substantial and reflect more familiar British concerns of escalating embarrassment combined with the subtle workings of the class system, which is infinitely more familiar terrain for the BBC. It's as if halfway through the run, it gives up on the gloss and sheds its trans-Atlantic pretences, and becomes a more satisfying and substantial experience for that. Periodically, especially in Christmas specials, it takes on an oddly satisfying surrealism and strangeness, but this show appears to have settled down as a very watchable Britcom.