Siblings - New Sitcom BBC3
Jefferson
Posts: 3,736 Forum Member
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Did you see it last night?
I thought it promising and quite watchable. What did you think?
It's repeated tonight (Friday) 9.30 BBC3.
I thought it promising and quite watchable. What did you think?
It's repeated tonight (Friday) 9.30 BBC3.
0
Comments
Hope it does well.:)
It wasn't, I'm sure, meant to be natural. I think part of the appeal is the somewhat "mad cap" leading characters.
A quite obvious punchline re:the wheelchair situation, but there you go. It will be interesting to see how the series unfolds.
Predictabilty doesn't bother me ( unlike the Mail critic). I can find things better the second, third or forth time of watching - Peep Show is a good example of that.
Bossy - but likeable - boss involved. Lazy brother, ditzy sister - but she almost knows what she is doing. Might be more characters to come?
There was a lot more to it than that. And next week there probably won't be a wheelchair in sight.
It really wasn't. There was a whole lot of other stuff going on; establishing Charlotte as a ruthless slacker, Dan's fawning and lack of self-awareness for example. It's an established joke that anyone pretending to be in a wheelchair has to accidentally walk at some point; it's kinda the comedic equivalent of Chekov's gun. The point is not that we know the guy will walk at some point but how well it is done and the joke was used twice in the episode, so pretty good value.
I really liked this. At some point someone will say that Charlotte and Dan aren't 'likeable'. Well, duh, since when do characters have to be likeable? Hamlet isn't likeable, Michael Corleone isn't likeable. So what?
Siblings tapped into a lot of contemporary British themes; drunken-ness, meaningless office jobs, selfishness, uneasiness about disability and attempts to be right-on about it. Dan's character needs fleshing out a bit more, I think but this was a good start. The only thing I would have changed would have been to have Tracy Ann Oberman snogging Charlotte Ritchie in the hotel room.
Mad cap? As in lazy, lying, stealing, patronising, crawling, conniving and blackmailing? However, for me the programme's main fault was that it wasn't in the slightest bit funny. And, despite what the writer may have thought, adding obscenities doesn't make a programme funny.
I think I'll keep watching, hopefully they will stay consistent, and that the mutual blackmail doesn't get overplayed, it only needs an occasional mention.
It's BBC3 so you have to expect it not to be safe for elderly aunts.
All of the other stuff you mentioned would have happened without the wheelchair joke being part of the script, that was an extension of what was going on around his one punchline joke.
I kept watching to see the reactions and when it happened, we didn't get the reaction of anyone apart from facial expressions, even the boss when she found out didn't say anything except give a look & that coincidentally timed perfectly with the end of the episode.
It's just something I've seen in TV shows loads of times so it didn't make me laugh & I stupidly watched it thinking they were gonna surprise me and go in a direction that was at least an attempt to make the most predictable outcome a little bit more exciting than facial expressions and he walks.
EDIT:
If that's an accurate description then I reaffirm my original statement.
I watched Siblings last night and although it wasn't really laugh out loud and predictable in places it was watchable and i'll give ep2 a chance to see how the relationship with the boss works out.
The guy played a similar role in a sketch show. Not sure if it's a coincidence or just can only play one style of character.
The girl was new to me and seemed to play the lazy but trying to be cool girl.
Tracy-Anne Oberman is a good cast member. She's also been good in Friday Night Dinner recently.
A couple of things that seemed out of place were the titles and the music. Very 70s.
The best new show on BBC3 BY FAR is People Just Do Nothing.
Google it.
I agree. You could spot the "gags" coming from miles away. "Siblings" is yet
another Terrible BBC3 "Comedy" in the tradition of "Grown Ups",
"Coming of Age" and "It's Adam and Shelley". >:(
I am with you. Didn't laugh last week and this week was dire.
Editing fail as well. Bloke knocks loads of boxes off reception desk. Next shot they are there, next shot gone. So lazy.
Another show to wipe from my list.
It's hard to like something when both the central characters are unlikeable and have no redeeming features.
Plus, it's just not funny.