James
While I'm the first to acknowledge that a reasonable review requires far more exposure than a single (first) episode (plus a bit of Part 2), I am here stung into action by the contrast experienced between the gushingly enthusiastic reviews on the DVD box (Series 1 and 2 purchased, worst luck) and what I actually watched. As a patriotic Brit who loves US sitcoms and longs for a better British one, I again found myself disappointed, despite having had relatively high hopes.I'm prepared to confess to appreciating (and even laughing at) "Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps", so I'm radical enough to realise that 21st-century comedy needs to embrace the realities/absurdities of working-class life (including its "adult" aspects), and dispense with the kind of lifestyle portrayed (occasionally in fact in a laughter-generating way) in "Terry and June", say. But unfortunately, comedy is indeed supposed to be funny, and not just "in your face". Remember the "Likely Lads"? I do...Presumably deciding to start as it meant to go on, "Gavin and Stacey" episode 1 decides that there's wit and laughter to be had from James Corden's "Smithy" accompanying Matthew Horne's "Gavin",hooking up on a one night stand with "Nessa" (Ruth Jones), who is chaperoning "Stacey" (Joanna Page). The actually-middle-class Gavin and Stacey (who nevertheless embrace working-class habits whenever possible) have had previous contacts online, but Nessa and Smithy are new to each other, dismissively and offensively unimpressed, but then increasingly attracted as the evening goes on and (this being modern Britain), the alcohol flows.While it can reasonably be argued that the level of eroticism or seductiveness conveyed by the makers in respect of these four people apparently increasingly randy for each other is stuck firmly at double-zero, it must be owned that this is firmly in line with the depiction of sex in most British comedy, TV comedy above all. Hence (paradoxically) this approach is actually traditional, as opposed to anything new! Undeterred, Nessa and Smithy hit the bathroom of the foursome's cheap London hotel together, with the intention of engaging in sexual intercourse, which is the same likely goal as Gavin and Stacey, who are sharing the double bed. Any possible impacts of the alcohol consumed have been magically dispensed with, given that this is the realistic reality of the world of "Gavin and Stacey", as opposed to our really real and realistic reality.There is here a supposed - if uninspired - contrast between the rather lovey-dovey bed activities of G&S and the lewder "rough stuff" going on in the bathroom between Smithy and Nessa, and in fact this goes as far as to involve Smithy receiving the handle of a toilet brush "where the sun don't shine", as it were.Now, this being the oh-so-realistic-and-radical-yet-actually-totally-unreal world of "Gavin and Stacey", Smithy does not develop a life-threatening septicaemia or commence with a bout of deadly internal bleeding, but in fact merely walks slightly gingerly the next day, all the time wondering if it's normal or not for him to allow that he might have enjoyed the whole experience! So much for "Terry and June", but so much also for any hint of the real world, or indeed a reasonable chance to have a laugh at said world, given the resolute unfunniness of this whole "affair". If it can't be funny, it might be sexy. If it can't be funny or sexy, it might have some "comment" to make. But it has none of the above. The same occurs in a different context as Gavin (so already besotted with Stacey that he's prepared to drive to Wales from the first hookup so that he can meet her as she disembarks from the bus home from London) later (at the start of Episode 2) has to change his phone manner with Stacey abruptly when his boss appears in the room as he's making his private call to her on the work phone. This being the world of "Gavin and Stacey", the latter is - really and truly - convinced her lover is going cold on the whole relationship (so soon and so abruptly), and so she gets into an almighty huff (obviously generated by unfounded fear); instead of utilising the three brain cells it would have required to deduce that Gavin's sudden change of manner had its perfectly understandable, logical explanation of zero significance to the romance.These are two direly dumb, unrealistic, entirely unconvincing and above all unfunny vignettes from Episode 1 and the start of Episode 2 that give the lie to "Gavin and Stacey" as radical and new comedy, or indeed comedy at all.What is more, further depths are plumbed via a bit of "rape alarm" banter and repartee between Stacey and her Uncle Bryn played by Rob Brydon, in which the primary attempt at humour comes from repeating the words "rape" and "rape alarm" in a Welsh accent, the radical approach being the willingness to dispense with the gravitas that these two terms deserve, given what they in fact represent.No doubt a million people will convince me that "Gavin and Stacey" is great, and that my review cannot be based around so little exposure.So little? In fact, it was more than enough for me to decide that there was some paint drying in our front room more worth watching, and far more likely to generate a laugh.
Christopher Tuffley
Gavin and Stacey has got to be one of the best romantic comedy TV series of all time. James Cordon and Ruth Jones really wrote this to its full potential. The acting is not fantastic from the main characters but it doesn't need great actors because its such a great storyline. Rob Brydon is at his best in this as Uncle Bryn, he is so laugh out load funny. This comedy series has made James Cordon into a superstar, he is now taking over America and in my opinion it is down to this. Us English fell in love with his humour as Smithy and it has paid off by making him into a global superstar. My only disappointment is that it had to come to an end. A forth series would have been great but now I think we just have to settle with watching the 3 series over and over. Maybe with James Cordons Hollywood friends this could be made into a film just to finish it off.
megler_game
I will be the first to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed the 1st season, but from the 2nd season onwards someone has obviously forgotten to insert any jokes!!! Kind of odd for a "comedy" series I think! Instead they are focusing on overplayed drawn out dialogue (ordering a curry) and giving more time to possibly the 2 most irritating characters I have ever seen on TV Pete & Dawn...... Another big wrong is that in the 1st season Stacey was adorable, cute & very likable, now they have just made her a squeaky, whiny & extremely annoying little girl.I suppose it is not too surprising considering Corden's writing skills which were so expertly showcased in the surely long-running & surely classic series "Horne & Corden"!!!!To put it mildly.....pure tripe!!
paul2001sw-1
In the 1980s, the most famous hit of writer John Sullivan was 'Only Fools and Horses', but what actually won bigger ratings was a gentler comedy drama he wrote about two people falling in love, 'Just Good Friends'. And in some ways, 'Gavin and Stacey', a low key hit, is the 'Just Good Friends' of our time. At initial acquaintance, it's not riotously funny, and it's certainly not savage (unlike 'Pulling', another BBC3 hit); but the more you watch it, the more you find yourself smiling throughout, simply because the world it depicts is unquestionably the real world: this, in a way that few other television programs are, is a story of contemporary life. The central role of Gavin is quite passive and non-comic: the other characters are one-part sitcom staple, one part modern cliché, but still original - the mix works, supporting by acting and direction which overplays nothing and stays true to the rhythms of the everyday. As such, it's a record for the historians of the future to judge our age by; but very much also a comedy for us to laugh at now.
