In this newish Robert Popper-helmed comedy, Simon Bird plays his Inbetweeners character with Tamsin Greig as his mother, Mark Heap as the creepy neighbor (always a joy to see), in a decidedly Inbetweeners-vibed milieu. As sitcoms go, nothing special so far.
When I watch sitcom pilots I generally evaluate by two standards: the ambiance/tone and the characters. Not many American sitcoms are funny right off the bat (exceptions abound, of course, ex. Modern Family), because the humor typically takes a bit to develop and find its footing. This is the same for tone and characters, though writers usually have a better feel for them initially, I find. The pilot of 30 Rock wasn't very funny, but Liz was Liz and Jack was Jack and the incidental music and direction set the tone for the series as it stands today.
That said, it's different for British comedies. Because the series are so much shorter (22-ish versus 6-ish), the qualities and quality of a sitcom are evident right from the start: the first episode of a series doesn't feel tonally separate from its successors. This is just opinion and personal experience with the genre, of course. Garth Marenghi's Darkplace was a fully formed idea from the beginning. Parks and Recreation wasn't. The Office US wasn't. They took a whole series to find tonal center and balance.
So, Friday Night Dinner. I've only seen the first episode so far. Feels like The Inbetweeners, which isn't a bad thing. Popper is very good. Shot well, cast well, but I'm not yet sure if the laughs are there. The funniest bits were Mark Heap, which did make me laugh out loud. We'll see how this goes!
Surprise Matt Holness!
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