I'd like to be a bit more successful than this business, if that's OK?

Continuing my trip down The Guardian's Top 50 TV Shows of 2021.  

#11 : Stath Lets Flats

In its third series, Jamie Demetriou’s sitcom remained as riotously silly as ever – witness the tender song about eggs Stath sings to his newborn child – while mining the characters for a deeper vulnerability. There were moments of unbearable sweetness nestled among the idiocy this year, and the thought of a life with no more Stath is almost too much to take.

I've been meaning to watch this for ages but never quite found the time - I considered starting from with season 1, but in the end decided there probably wasn't going to be a lot of deep plot that I'd have missed out on (and I'm still catching up with Succession - which I definitely made the right decision on in starting from the beginning).  So, was that the right decision?

Yeah, I think so in terms of plot but there were some aspects of the characters that I felt I was missing.   And did I like it?  Welllll - that's an interesting question, isn't it?  I did find there were quite a few laughs in each episode and each of the players have some comedic and character aspects that make you like them and laugh at them.  But - an awful lot of the stuff is based around "oooh look - aren't foreigners and/or shy people funny?".   Yes, they can be but going on about it doesn't really make for constant hilarity for me, I'm afraid.  Which is a bit of a shame because there are some quite tender moments in there where you really feel for the characters - for me, it's an odd mixture of well written moments in the midst of broad brush unsubtleties.  This season also massively runs out of steam in the last two episodes, which also left me feeling a bit flat.

Within the confines of the writing, it's all well acted - Jamie Demetriou carries the show but everyone else gives him able support when given the opportunity to do so.  Natasia Demetriou feels somewhat underused, particularly given her sterling work in What We Do In The Shadows (her appearances on Adam Buxton's podcast are also well worth checking out) - Katy Wix is probably given the most to do and she's charmingly despairing of all the idiocy around her.  It's also odd to see Al Roberts playing pretty much the same character here as he does in Starstruck - I do hope they let him play someone with half a brain sometime soon.

So - did I like it?  (I've just realised I never answered that question earlier).  I think it's a "Yes, but" - I'm not a great one for finding comedies funny and there were more laughs here than I usually get from these things and they were a nice bunch of characters.  But I often either wasn't particularly comfortable with what I was laughing at or I was aware that laughs were being signposted but just found myself sighing instead.  And whilst the characters were lovable, they were unevenly filled in for me, which I found frustrating.  Maybe I was just expecting more from it than I should, but I'd heard great things and was looking forward to it so I can't help but be left feeling a little let down by it all.  

I shall leave the final comment to my eldest - she was in the room for 10 minutes whilst I was watching it and when I mentioned I was trying to decide if it was funny, she came back instantly with "It's not - decided".

#10 - This left me somewhat perplexed
#12 - Interesting, but challenging