tommy+casey4ever
New member
If you meant me, I was merely asking if it was the same not making any kind of comparison as I hadn't seen the pilot.
I like a fair amount of those shows too, but am baffled as to what you saw in Phone Shop that is remotely comparable to any of these shows. All the characters are cookie cutter, so much so 4 of them have the exact same personality traits. The others are lazy caricatures of played out stereotypes, the final 'gag' was stretched out for what seemed like minutes and led up to the most obvious punchline ever crafted. It replaced wit with as much swearing as it could (I've no problem with being a filthy mouthed arsehole as I am one myself, but it's not a replacement for jokes) and there's absolutely no subtlety to it whatsoever. Also: it simply isn't funny, nor does it even seem to try to be. Starting a series with 2 people shouting through a stuck door only made me dislike both characters than provide any laughs.
Brass Eye, Barley, Day Today etc are fantastic works of satire, even if Barley was harshly critiqued due to it's timing, Curb Your Enthusiasm is an incredibly well made and thought out follow up to Seinfeld which was absolutely the best multicamera sitcom of the 90s and League of Gentlemen pushed boundaries of taste and packed in a fair amount of surrealism. Phone Book has more in common with the generic, lazy ITV sitcoms portrayed in Extras than any of these shows.
I like a fair amount of those shows too, but am baffled as to what you saw in Phone Shop that is remotely comparable to any of these shows. All the characters are cookie cutter, so much so 4 of them have the exact same personality traits. The others are lazy caricatures of played out stereotypes, the final 'gag' was stretched out for what seemed like minutes and led up to the most obvious punchline ever crafted. It replaced wit with as much swearing as it could (I've no problem with being a filthy mouthed arsehole as I am one myself, but it's not a replacement for jokes) and there's absolutely no subtlety to it whatsoever. Also: it simply isn't funny, nor does it even seem to try to be. Starting a series with 2 people shouting through a stuck door only made me dislike both characters than provide any laughs.
Brass Eye, Barley, Day Today etc are fantastic works of satire, even if Barley was harshly critiqued due to it's timing, Curb Your Enthusiasm is an incredibly well made and thought out follow up to Seinfeld which was absolutely the best multicamera sitcom of the 90s and League of Gentlemen pushed boundaries of taste and packed in a fair amount of surrealism. Phone Book has more in common with the generic, lazy ITV sitcoms portrayed in Extras than any of these shows.