Tockinit
not horrible nor great
MonsterPerfect
Good idea lost in the noise
Dorathen
Better Late Then Never
CrawlerChunky
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
RaspberryLucozade
Sitcoms about flat sharing have always proved popular over the years. In the '70's we had 'It's Awfully Bad For Your Eyes, Darling', 'The Liver Birds' and 'Man About The House'. In the '80's, we were given 'The Young Ones' and 'Girls On Top' whilst the '90's gave us 'Bottom', 'Men Behaving Badly' and, of course, 'Game On', written by Bernadette Davis and Andrew Davies. It is rather similar in style to Simon Nye's previously mentioned 'Men Behaving Badly', with two men sharing a flat and vieing for the attention of an attractive female. Whilst not garnering the same amount of popularity of the earlier show, it was nevertheless well enough received to run to three series.The head of the house is Matthew Malone ( played first by Ben Chaplain then by Neil Stuke ), a he-man type whose main interests are women and surfing. However, he is never able to fulfil his interests as he suffers from agoraphobia, a condition which was brought on following the death of his parents.His two flatmates are Martin Henson ( Matthew Cottle ), a well-meaning young man who is usually unsuccessful with the opposite sex, due to his lack of confidence and Mandy Wilkins ( Samantha Womack, credited here as Samantha Janus ), a blonde bimbo who is unable to secure a steady relationship or hold down a steady job. She is, however, not averse to jumping in the sack with those who ask her, with the obvious exceptions of Martin and Matthew. Martin later dated Irish nurse Claire ( Tracey Keating ) and fathered her child, however his clingy nature broke them apart. Mandy started a relationship with her boss Archie ( Crispin Bonham Carter ) and later became engaged to him, however he is unexpectedly killed on their wedding day, leaving Mandy devastated.'Game On' was intermittently funny. The crude and bold nature of the programme made it an acquired taste ( I don't think even Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson's 'Bottom' relied so heavily on the word 'shag' ). Nonetheless, it did build up a core fan base and compared to ITV's later 'Babes In The Wood' ( which also starred Samantha Womack ) it is a masterpiece. Ben Chaplain was funny as the housebound Matthew though Neil Stuke in my opinion was superior. Matthew Cottle ( who also starred in 'Get Well Soon' ) was perhaps the funniest out of them all as Martin. Despite being a weasel, one cannot help but feel sorry for him, due to his unsuccessful love life, his lack of fulfilment and his shady treatment from Matthew.I do not regard 'Game On' as a classic sitcom but a good value one all the same. Samantha Womack is to be seen nowadays as Ronnie Mitchell in the BBC's long running soap 'Eastenders'.
NeoNsMoKeJaZz
This show is a completely under-rated classic! Matthew Malone is one of the funniest comedy sitcom creations ever and show go down in the books next to Cosmo Kramer and all the other greats. Mandy is hot and poor bloody Martin, what a sad tosser! Its a shame they stopped making this show cause I love it, my fave Matt was Benny from the first series but his replacement was wicked too. An all round great show and one of the best of the 90s. Gotta love the themetune too. If you dont know this show too well then go check out the re-runs.
tiger style
Another fine BBC comedy production. Not only is the comedy consistently sharp and in some strange way the cheap set works to vissually enhance this as well. We're talking good eye-candy absurd and quick dialogue gags. Mandy is beautiful.
janhus
Laugh-track tagged comedy, predictable one-liners, shallow character development. Seemingly desperate for controversy (slightly rude language, shag this, shag that etc.) to try and pick up some kind of youth audience. This is a lame excuse for television entertainment. You have to wonder if it was obvious that it was poor when they were making it, or whether it just became obvious after a few years of sitting on a shelf!