Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

astridtarwild Just watching the very first series and I noticed the Harper's house was very different back then. The lounge in the first series had a wall with a pool table by the front door, the under stairs cupboard door faced the front door which also opens the opposite to the later series. I notice the fireplace has moved from the kitchen side of the lounge to where there are two windows which are not there in the later series Susan and Ben's bathroom is on the opposite side to later episodes as is the fire place in the lounge! Also, there is a door to the right of the kitchen door and this is not there in the later series! I now find myself looking for these differences as I watch to try and find out when the house was altered! All very odd and I was so confused when I started watching from Episode 1 series 1! Astrid

steve-williams In reply to SHREK 2004 it is not fake laughter it IS real! I know I have been to some 40+ recordings! The reason it is still popular, is because it is a real family, albeit over exaggerated incidents, someone said that Ben hates his wife and kids, this is not so, and is missing the point, he loves his family, but they do get on his nerves! The acting is top notch, and still gets regular viewing figures of 7 million, not bad for a UK sit-com these days, Series 8 is now in production, and there will be a series 9 recorded sometime in 2008, and the production values are 100% this is a credit to the cast, crew and DLT

lucy-228 totally classic episodes, all of them are different but just as funny. Totally original characters. My favourite is Nick who keeps coming up with random hair brained schemes or getting a new job after new job(one a day). Ben with his dental assistant problem and Suesan's fabulous cooking. Janey always trying to get money out of Ben for clothes, Micheal the family genies (so cute in series 5+6). Then there's Abi and Alfie who are a classic addition to the family. This program always makes me smile no matter what mood I'm in. After each episode my mum comes in to my room and says that sounded like a good episode because I've been laughing so much.

IridescentTranquility It recently occurred to me what exactly it was that appealed to me about My Family. I've loved it since it was first shown by the BBC, and now I think I know why. It has much to do with the characters.Ben is about as far away from the stereotypical father as you can get. He isn't proud of his kids - at one point he actually says of his eldest son, "Why did we have him?". He hates his job, he hates the people he works with and he almost seems to hate the life fate has meant him to live. Susan isn't much of the perfect housewife, either. She can't cook to save her life, but it never seems to bother her. Nick, who could have made his father proud by joining him in the family business, doesn't really seem to want to do anything - not get a job, not get a flat of his own, not even consider some kind of further education. Reading over my description of Nick just now makes me think I probably would encounter some kind of personality clash if I met him in real life, but there is something so great about Kris Marshall's performance as the character that makes me wish that - if I had an older brother - I would want one just like that.And then there's Janey. A lot of people don't seem to like her, even her father Ben has been quoted in the series as calling her "that air-headed shopping machine from Hell", but I think she's an interesting character. Very self-centred, very fashion-orientated, the only reason she want to go to university ("What's the one with all the clubs?") is because it's the only way she can leave home without entering the world of paid employment. A novel approach to leaving home if ever there was one.Michael is probably the most intelligent of the whole lot. He certainly seems it - watch out for a shot of him with a rabbit where Ben tells him he looks like a Bond villain. It would have been very easy to make Michael a one-dimensional character - having established his character as the brain of the family, it could have been that the writers decided there was no need to expand his characterisation any further, but they did. He still gets into girls, he still experiments with illegal substances, he even sells presents at a family wedding on eBay. This is no normal family. They're certainly not boring, and with the cast of supporting characters around them, I don't think they ever will be. The three main supporting characters, when Ben can find a dental assistant willing to stick around long enough to assist him, are his hippie dental assistant (who plays "Song of the Narwhal" in the surgery), a worryingly childlike new colleague Roger upstairs and Ben's hapless distant cousin Abi, who ends up in Casualty with a never-ending scarf wrapped round her hand the first time we meet her.