My Mad, Fat Diary
 

Nothing new to say about it, it's just that the existing thread seems to be impossible to find, even using the search facility.

I don't think anyone's bothered to do a thread on here about it yet!

I enjoyed, it showed the reality of mental illness but handled the topic with both sensitivity and a dollop of humour. I'll be tuning in again.

I really enjoyed it, really funny and poignant. And amazing songs, like elastica and the beastie boys :D

Good lead actress but I didn't find that interesting to watch nor very funny. I was disappointed.

I'll jump in because I think this show deserves a bit more attention than it's getting, based on the first episode.

On the whole, I loved it. I think Sharon Rooney did a fantastic job of playing Rae. I love that Rae can be a stroppy, gobby madam but is also so insecure and tormented and just heartbreakingly vulnerable. I think there will be many people who could identify with some of the things Rae went through. I felt so sorry for the girl.

I like that, as shocking and gutwrenching as some of the drama is, it has the humour and warmth to balance it out. I was a teenager in the late 90's and so I loved the soundtrack and the clothes - big nostalgia points.

I suspect that there are three things that may have put some viewers off:

1. The adverts. They made it seem a bit too gratingly kooky. I wasn't sure how I'd feel based on the adverts but reading about the story behind the show made me want to watch.
2. "Skins" this seems to have become a term to describe a particular brand of humour involving hipster kids up to various misdeeds. Many people seem to use it in a derogative sense and are put off where they think they see it.
3. That the main character is a "weird fat girl". Shallow and cruel, but a glance around Twitter tells me that's how some people think. Makes me think the show has even more of a place on TV for that.

I was surprised about the lack of interest on DS, especially given that E4 have been promoting the s**t out of it!

Yeah Sharon Rooney has done a great job, she hid her native Glaswegian accent well too! I really related to her food-binge scene, the pain and sadness in her face as she stuffed herself. Really highlights the relationship between emotion and food.

I thought her 'best friend' was a right bitch to her for much of the 1st episode and I imagine we've all unfortunately had at least one friend like that in our lives!

I loved the l996 soundtrack too, especially 'Novocaine for the Soul' by the Eels.

All I could think the whole way through was I wish she'd wash her hair.

I thought that too! It felt like she didn't really want her to be part of the gang. I get the feeling that she will show a real nasty side at some point, but maybe I'm wrong?

The fairweather friend who will pick you up and put you down at the drop of a hat, but always with fake niceness. Yeah... know of them.

I thought the music in it was brilliant, for one thing. I'd been looking forward to it for weeks because a childhood friend of mine has a small-ish part in it, he wasn't in the first episode but he said you do see more of him so I'm going to keep watching.

I suspect if I were 17 and female I would have liked it more. Not for me.

Tell me about it! Fake friends are all too common, especially these days.

Yeah she appeared to be embarrassed by Rae, that's why she kept telling her to be more 'normal'. And she gave her this look when they were discussing the upcoming pool party at her house, like she secretly couldn't wait to get Rae in her swimming cossie so that the gang could have a right laugh.

I tried to like it, but just don't... it's all a bit 'forced' if you know what I mean perhaps hits one nerve too many :o

I only put this thread up because there was already one about it, but it just seemed to disappear off the face of the earth.
Most people don't seem to realise that it is based on a book that came out several tears ago, entitled My Fat, Mad Teenage Diary. It isn't fiction, but a true account of a teenager growing up in Stamford, Lincolnshire. The book had added interest for me, because living locally, although I am quite a bit older than Rae, I realised that I might easily have been going into some of the pubs that are mentioned when she and her friends were actually in there.
I was personally disappointed that the TV series has moved the story more than five years ahead of its original setting, so that that you get Stone Roses instead of Echo and The Bunnymen, for instance. In fact, it doesn't really seem to matter that much, although the researchers seem to have a very strange idea about what a South Lincolnshire accent sounds like.
In view of the changes I was prepared to dislike it, but actually found it incredibly well acted and ultimately quite moving. Having known people who have been in similar situations I wasn't sure if I wanted to recommend it to them, as some of the observations hit very close to the mark and could be quite uncomfortable. In the end I felt it was truly exceptional and a remarkable achievement. It surely has to be in line for a few awards.

I was wondering where the thread was for this.
I missed the first one, but the program has had some very good reviews from those in their 40s-60's on the BBC's arts shows, totally out of the target market.

I'll have hunt out the repeat and come back to the thread.

Yes, it was written by Rae Earl who is now a radio presenter. I don't know if "most" people who watched would be unaware of that though, its been mentioned in every piece of publicity about it that I've seen. I suppose if people aren't reading about it beforehand then they might not know.

E4 are advertising this programme as "the programme everyone is talking about", not on here they're not, I've haven't watched it because I thought it looked like a load of preachy PC rubbish but reading and watching reviews I've found it quite funny how the views differ based on political leanings.

For example, AA Gill in the Sunday Times thought it could have been created by a "committee of social workers" and that the lead actress was scary, whereas the always right-on panellists on Newsnight Review all thought it was great and one even said that the lead actress was beautiful.

As for the music I wish they'd left it in it's original setting of late eighties/ early 90s, rather than the Britpop era which is not my favourite music.

Really enjoying it so far. It's funny but very poignant at the same time and as a fat teen who spent time in a psych ward in the early 90's it is spot on for me.

I wasn't sure I'd like it before I watched it last week but I do :)

I do hope this boy isn't after her just because he thinks the fat girl will be an easy lay.

I do really like the interaction between Rae and her mum.

Or she'll exaggerate it and put him off. The dynamic between Rae and her mum really works well.

Are you really trying to say that Anne McEvoy of the Economist and John Seargent are lefties?:D :eek:
Anne McEvoy!!On what planet?

I just assume that all the people on that show are Guardian subscribers, because that's who the programme is aimed at (and it makes me laugh how right-on it is) although to be fair, Michael Gove used to be on it.

The Economist is partly owned by the Rothschilds and is pretty much the house magazine of the NWO, they certainly have the same aim as the left, a one-world government.

I too read AA Gill's review and I quickly got the impression that he only watched the trailer, waited for other people's reviews and then quickly cobbled together a few words that were designed to be contradictory.
To imply any political bias is self-important posturing and absolutely laughable. It is a true account of events, told more or less as they happened. As I mentioned before, the accents are positioned 100 miles too far north and I'm not convinced of the need to bring it forward to the Brit-Pop era. Having said that, the tracks used do actually work quite well.
One thing I did pick up on was the occasional use of the word "like", which I don't think became a teenage girls' speech impediment until about five years ago.

Ah I loved the first episode but found myself pretty bored with the second and turned it off half way through. Her accent is quite annoying and as much as I try, just can't seem to care about the main character.

"Like" has been used like that for a lot longer than that.

AA Gill also said that the programme was like something that would be shown at school with pauses after scenes so the class could have a discussion and that is the feeling I had already got from the trailers, that it would be dull and worthy.