dancing_ostrich
From getting married on a whim, sleeping with the wrong people, showing up to dental school drunk and drilling through someone's face, etc. these students make stupid decisions again and again.
Blaze LaCoste
Great show. I was honestly drawn in by Joe Thomas because of my absolute love for The Inbetweeners series. It has the same kind of dry vulgar comedy as that, but with a mix of new characters and new adventures. So if your a fan of that series you will definitely enjoy this one. I've just started it 4 years to late, but I will catch up soon and then be forced to wait for it to air state side! Amazing show,amazing characters, and amazing writing culminate into just an all around great story that I'm looking forward to getting to know more of. Wish we had this in the US. Until then I will gladly thank Netflix again and again for keeping up with all the well written shows from across the pond!
GameAndWatch
I've just finished watching season two.The show has moments of greatness, is funny, but a tad contrived.The premise of the show is set up early on, in episode one. Which was very good. Students arrive and settle into their new accommodation with each other. We are introduced to each character, and immediately the Kinglsey/Josie will-they/won't-they romance.There are some nice touches with the characters. These include glimpses of humility: fallibility, chaos and lots of indirection. And some cloaked romance.What can feel tiresome is the relentless drinking, bad language, sexual innuendo and drug taking. (The show should carry a swear warning.) It doesn't need any of the former. The bits between the bits are the best parts.Most characters are likable. I'm not sure if any of them are lovable. They do grow on you warts and all.Many of them dither and vie for approval. Which is all very funny. Reading other reviews Oregon is overlooked. She is quite brilliant. J.P. is a likable posh toff with some brilliant lines (sadly Jack Whitehall's over exposure sullies the character). I can't much stomach the Slytherin cohorts. Some performances are far subtler. Heather is borderline creepy.Howard the basement dweller is a little reminiscent of Mike from Spaced. And Vod a touch of Vivian from The Young Ones. I could happily loose the pair. Josie starts off well, but is wasted later on.There are a few laugh out loud moments and some great gags/dialogue buried within. The supporting cast certainly have their moments.All in all it's a great set up for a series. Watch-able? Yes. Funny? At times. But I don't think it's a classic. It did stir up memories of student-ville. And as such, does something right, even if it is cringe worthy.
HuntinPeck80
Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong, creators of Peep Show. It was probably these names that drew many of the more mature viewers to Fresh Meat, but unless my eyes deceived me, they only wrote episode one. Got the ball rolling. Actually, I'd say many of the later episodes were funnier, but imho Fresh Meat Series One is a disconcerting blend of brilliance and incompetence.What we have is the now pretty standard set-up of three guys and three gals plus a few ancillaries who come and go. Must not forget Paul, the unseen housemate, although the script often does. He's no Maris Crane. Six visible housemates at Manchester University. Their lives and loves, fears and insecurities, the ups and downs of burgeoning friendships.Now, I didn't go to Manchester, but I did go to uni and not so long ago that I have forgotten that university is nothing like it's made out to be here. I'd say the behaviour of the characters was often rather more sixth form than undergraduate and the show doesn't concern itself much with actual study. Rather fortuitously, all the guys seem to be reading Geology, but I found Kingsley's decision to change courses, for highly spurious reasons, unbelievable both as a personal decision and as a choice the university would permit. Little comedy mileage is created by his new subject, Drama, although the little that is demonstrated is entirely realistic, as I know from personal experience.I also had a problem with the idea that Vod could get into an English Literature degree course without the slightest enthusiasm for the subject, much less ability. Her friend Oregon is clearly an excellent student, though determined to hide the fact from her rebellious housemate; still, if I could accept the idea of her affair with the English professor, I couldn't believe the scene where she not only reads but starts to edit his new book's manuscript. Come on! He might fancy a bit on the side, but to allow a fresher to tinker with his book in her first term at uni? Generally, the housemates demonstrate the adolescent malaise that escaped my age group. With the exceptions of Howard, JP and Vod - the show's most confident characters and also the funniest and most likable - the others display an insufferable mixture of insecurity and bravado, constantly equivocating, hedging, humming and hawing, using annoying phrases - but if, that is to say, not that I've, and I'm like No way! - you know the sort of thing. It's impossible to care about the droopy romance between Kingsley and Josie which is as wet as a haddock's bathing costume. There often isn't any discernible basis for the characters' behaviour and little development. Why is Vod a druggie and a rebel? Why is Orgeon such a ludicrous mythomaniac. Why is Josie, meant to be seen as sensible and grounded, so obnoxious? One is looking for a little more explication, even in a show about people who have a problem communicating.And yet...Fresh Meat is often very funny, with lots of puns and neologisms, "guymens" for male hymens being one of my faves. The cast are faultless in their portrayals of these deeply worrying freshers, with Jack Whitehall and Zawe Ashton standing proud. Seeing Robert Webb playing such an insignificant needy teacher, another character hard to believe in, was both funny and poignant, since despite its merits and (occasionally) creative use of swear words, Fresh Meat isn't a patch on Peep Show (yet). It does come from the Channel 4 stable and no British channel has created or imported as much high quality comedy in recent years as Channel 4, so here's hoping Series Two will be both funnier and more tightly written.
