Simon Bird has received a great deal of praise as a young comedian - although I was surprised to discover recently that he's actually 26 - and in the new Channel 4 show in which he stars, it was always going to be important that he distance himself from The Inbetweeners, especially since he's a comedian and would do well to display how versatile he is.
He doesn't do this and what we have on our hands is a new Channel 4 sitcom that comes off as the alternative existence of one of the Inbetweeners. Friday Night Dinner even begins in the same way, a garish opening sequence that seems to have been the joint effort of a graphic-arts student and NME magazine.
There are two main jokes that seem to be the inspiration for this series initially. The first is this: YOUNG PEOPLE ARE DIFFERENT FROM OLD PEOPLE! Lol. Old people don't get young people. "Muuuum"..."Daaaad" - how humiliating! If only they were more in touch with youth culture. They should watch The Inbetweeners.
The other joke, is that everyone is an eccentric. It's like salt is also a crazy powder that everyone on their street takes. I refer to salt by the way, because it was one of three recurring jokes that took place in the first episode. This was very neatly done and tied together very precisely. It wasn't particularly witty though.
Indeed, little of the programme was actually funny. It didn't make me laugh, or I have to admit, even titter really. Yet there are much worse programmes that have made me laugh, at some point. All this was, was observant. Mildly observant. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it was painstakingly observant. It seemed as if great pains had been taken to get the typical, "banter" of the modern family, accurately down. And look, man, I know it's tough to get it just right...and it could have seem so stilted I suppose...but I mean...Friday Night Dinner has really gone all out to create a "natural" family dynamic - the mother watches masterchef, the father is is deadicated to his hobbies, the boys trick each other, the neighbour is a nutjob...it's all so tiresome, I'm sorry, it is.
And it would also be nice to have a comedy that isnt full of awkwardness, that isn't trying to be something. Friday Night Dinner would be better if it was Gavin & Stacey, but it's not.
My arguments might well so opposite. On the one hand, I don't like this regularl, uninspiring family dynamic. On the other, this programmes main problem was that it was too damn wacky. It was always trying to be slightly ridiculous - there are more ridiculous programmes out there, but they dont all work on a purposely regular premise (by which I mean it's whole point is that it's based on a regular domestic situation) - its supposed to be a regular, mundane, friday night dinner with the fam - BUT ITS ANYTHING BUT MUNDANE! Grandmas House worked (it did, you're wrong) because Simon Amstell's character stood as an observer - Friday Night Dinner needs a lynchpin, a protagonist who's own regular normality anchors the rest of the show, and makes sure that we're thinking "yes, this is a bit odd for a friday night dinner" instead of "this doesn't happen on friday night, this isn't very real" - a main character would give this a more believable foundation, but instead what we
have is a series of mild eccentrics trying to have dinner, but people keep coming round to use the bathroom and dealing with death and drinking salt - it's not MENTAL, I appreciate and it's fine for one episode...but are we going to see a couple of wacky situations every week? That's the bit I'm not sure I'm looking forward to.
And once Casiokids kicked in at the end, I knew it was too late - this show sure was crazy and the guy who could have been but probably wasn't Garth Merenghi, bursts out the house going "YOU'RE ALL NUTS!" and that signals the end. It would be even better if this was Fawlty Towers. Which it sort of is. Only not as good. At all. Fawlty Towers also features relatively regular, domestic disturbances, but featured one MAD eccentric in Basil Fawlty and was anchored by Cybil [not sure how to spell that one].
It's a mild, tiresome show. But who knows, it's early days and it could well improve. But I won't be rushing back to watch it particularly. I mean, once you've watched The Trip, you're kind of hoping other comedies will try and do something different too.
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