Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Mel O&amp;#039;Drama" data-source="post: 160407" data-attributes="member: 23">With Series Four of ...And Mother Makes Five they wisely returned to form by losing the animated sequences from the title and going for the classic opening sketch (this one being Sally and David dressed for cocktails and leaving the house while the children chortle on seeing Sally&#039;s dress completely unzipped at the back).I was reflecting last night how the series really has no USP at this point. In terms of premise it&#039;s become very generic. A viewer tuning in to one of the latter episodes would simply see a ditzy stay at home Mum with a husband and three children. She gets into a scrape each week, frequently accompanied by the wacky next door neighbour. The family are patient and when it&#039;s resolved everyone laughs about it.The last series, as far as I noticed, had no mention at all of Auntie - such a vital piece of the picture in the earlier series. And the bookshop is now gone. David seems to spend most of his time at home. There was a reference to him selling antique books, but this time he brought a client home to show him the book (just in time for Sally to embarrass him, naturally).I find it interesting that this is the fate of a sitcom that started out focussing on a non-traditional family unit. We first met Sally as an independent working mother. Over the years she journeyed to become a housewife who had dinner on the table when her husband came in from work. She&#039;s become more conformist and dependent as the series have gone by. It&#039;s almost a backwards journey. But still a very interesting one.The writing remained sharp and the series was making me laugh until the end. Now that it&#039;s ended, there&#039;ll be a Sally shaped gap in my daily schedule and I&#039;d certainly be up for a revisit in a decade or so.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mel O'Drama, post: 160407, member: 23"] With Series Four of [I]...And Mother Makes Five [/I]they wisely returned to form by losing the animated sequences from the title and going for the classic opening sketch (this one being Sally and David dressed for cocktails and leaving the house while the children chortle on seeing Sally's dress completely unzipped at the back). I was reflecting last night how the series really has no USP at this point. In terms of premise it's become very generic. A viewer tuning in to one of the latter episodes would simply see a ditzy stay at home Mum with a husband and three children. She gets into a scrape each week, frequently accompanied by the wacky next door neighbour. The family are patient and when it's resolved everyone laughs about it. The last series, as far as I noticed, had no mention at all of Auntie - such a vital piece of the picture in the earlier series. And the bookshop is now gone. David seems to spend most of his time at home. There was a reference to him selling antique books, but this time he brought a client [I]home[/I] to show him the book (just in time for Sally to embarrass him, naturally). I find it interesting that this is the fate of a sitcom that started out focussing on a non-traditional family unit. We first met Sally as an independent working mother. Over the years she journeyed to become a housewife who had dinner on the table when her husband came in from work. She's become more conformist and dependent as the series have gone by. It's almost a backwards journey. But still a very interesting one. The writing remained sharp and the series was making me laugh until the end. Now that it's ended, there'll be a Sally shaped gap in my daily schedule and I'd certainly be up for a revisit in a decade or so. [/QUOTE]

Verification

6 + 4 =