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<blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 427816" data-attributes="member: 23"><p><em>Love Thy Neighbour</em> is whizzing by. I've now watched sixteen regular episodes, plus the Pilot and the All Star Comedy Carnival sketch (introduced by Tarby).</p><p></p><p>With the tone established, it's fair to say that the series is easily digestible. If anything, it's improving as it goes on because the writers quickly exhausted many of the offensively stereotypical storylines such as the one centring on voodoo, or the one where Eddie blacks up to prove he could still be served a drink at a club. With these out of the way, some of the storylines are more standard sitcom fare, albeit with regular reminders of the series' premise thrown in. Standards have included keeping up with the Joneses over cars (ending in the obligatory scene at the wrecker's yard); Eddie being converted by the Salvation Army and becoming unbearably pious (ridiculously cartoony, but fun enough); and a weekend away at a conference where Eddie plans to pull and ropes Bill into his double-date both unaware that their wives are coming to surprise them (as are the husbands of the two women Eddie pulls).</p><p></p><p>The episode where Eddie and Bill camped outside a department store in fierce competition for a bedroom suite felt comfortingly familiar. It would be recycled by <em>Never The Twain </em>almost two decades later in that series' final episode.</p><p></p><p>All the leads are proving engaging, and special points to Nina Baden-Semper for going the extra mile and crying real tears when Barbie's housewarming party was ruined, adding an unexpected touch of pathos to the Series Two opener.</p><p></p><p>Series Three began with another surprise when Eddie and Joan had a debate over the virtues of ITV vs. BBC, with Eddie scoffing that the BBC is for idiot toffs, while ITV is the true working man's channel. It took another turn when Joan pointed out that <em>Till Death Us Do Part </em>had over 21 million viewers and Eddie complained that Alf Garnett was an ignorant bigot who swore too much (Joan's semi-regular comeback to Eddie's hypocrisies "May God forgive ya" is always funny, but was even more so here). Obviously the irony of the comparison was intended, even if it was a little cheap. Considering the writers owe much inspiration to that series, I like to think Joan pointing out its popularity was a little tribute to the BBC series, rather than trying to suggest this newer series was somehow better.</p><p></p><p>The party line episode was kind of nostalgic. I have distant memories of party lines and that little button on top of the phone (though since it apparently ended in the early Eighties, the family members who had them must have been among the last people on earth to still be using them).</p><p></p><p>The changes to set dressings between series is always fun to see. There was a bit of location work in some of the early Series Three episodes (particularly the one with the cars), and I'm fairly certain these are different houses again, with bigger front gardens.</p><p></p><p>The last episode I watched - <em>Eddie Returns From Holiday </em>- ended on something of a cliffhanger (complete with an announcement of the continuation playing over the end credits), with Eddie challenging Bill to a gang fight, black vs. white. At this point it seems to be quite a grim concept, so I'm curious to see how things go down in the next episode.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mel O'Drama, post: 427816, member: 23"] [I]Love Thy Neighbour[/I] is whizzing by. I've now watched sixteen regular episodes, plus the Pilot and the All Star Comedy Carnival sketch (introduced by Tarby). With the tone established, it's fair to say that the series is easily digestible. If anything, it's improving as it goes on because the writers quickly exhausted many of the offensively stereotypical storylines such as the one centring on voodoo, or the one where Eddie blacks up to prove he could still be served a drink at a club. With these out of the way, some of the storylines are more standard sitcom fare, albeit with regular reminders of the series' premise thrown in. Standards have included keeping up with the Joneses over cars (ending in the obligatory scene at the wrecker's yard); Eddie being converted by the Salvation Army and becoming unbearably pious (ridiculously cartoony, but fun enough); and a weekend away at a conference where Eddie plans to pull and ropes Bill into his double-date both unaware that their wives are coming to surprise them (as are the husbands of the two women Eddie pulls). The episode where Eddie and Bill camped outside a department store in fierce competition for a bedroom suite felt comfortingly familiar. It would be recycled by [I]Never The Twain [/I]almost two decades later in that series' final episode. All the leads are proving engaging, and special points to Nina Baden-Semper for going the extra mile and crying real tears when Barbie's housewarming party was ruined, adding an unexpected touch of pathos to the Series Two opener. Series Three began with another surprise when Eddie and Joan had a debate over the virtues of ITV vs. BBC, with Eddie scoffing that the BBC is for idiot toffs, while ITV is the true working man's channel. It took another turn when Joan pointed out that [I]Till Death Us Do Part [/I]had over 21 million viewers and Eddie complained that Alf Garnett was an ignorant bigot who swore too much (Joan's semi-regular comeback to Eddie's hypocrisies "May God forgive ya" is always funny, but was even more so here). Obviously the irony of the comparison was intended, even if it was a little cheap. Considering the writers owe much inspiration to that series, I like to think Joan pointing out its popularity was a little tribute to the BBC series, rather than trying to suggest this newer series was somehow better. The party line episode was kind of nostalgic. I have distant memories of party lines and that little button on top of the phone (though since it apparently ended in the early Eighties, the family members who had them must have been among the last people on earth to still be using them). The changes to set dressings between series is always fun to see. There was a bit of location work in some of the early Series Three episodes (particularly the one with the cars), and I'm fairly certain these are different houses again, with bigger front gardens. The last episode I watched - [I]Eddie Returns From Holiday [/I]- ended on something of a cliffhanger (complete with an announcement of the continuation playing over the end credits), with Eddie challenging Bill to a gang fight, black vs. white. At this point it seems to be quite a grim concept, so I'm curious to see how things go down in the next episode. [/QUOTE]
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