Symbolises the decline in the quality of British sitcom production!
Britain has a long history of sitcom making that dates all the way back to the late 1950s. The heyday of British sitcom production was probably the 1960s and 1970s, with such TV shows as STEPTOE AND SON, DAD'S ARMY, ARE YOU BEING SERVED?, ON THE BUSES, GEORGE AND MILDRED, MAN ABOUT THE HOUSE, RISING DAMP, PORRIDGE and countless others being very popular examples.Since the heyday of British sitcom production, there have been big changes. Whilst British sketch shows and stand-up comedy shows have still been going strong over recent years, the situation comedy has fared less well. The past 20 years has seen a notable decline in the standard of British sitcom production, with MR. BEAN being a notable exception.
MY FAMILY symbolises the decline in British sitcom production. It is simply an abuse of the word "comedy" to pass it off as such. On dozens of occasions, I have tried to view an entire episode of this TV series and have never succeeded. I've endured a few clips every now and again whilst going through channels but simply cannot bring myself to see an entire episode of this show. Even MY HERO, another modern sitcom, fares better than this rubbish. And that show isn't much better.
The biggest problem with this excuse for a comedy is Robert Lindsay. His acting is bad enough as I found out from a really terrible TV show named Jericho, which not surprisingly disappeared into total obscurity after one short series. But, his comedy skills are even worse. He is simply not funny and his presence on the screen is incredibly annoying for most of the time. His character merely seems to appear on the screen during the middle of a very mildly entertaining scene and utter ridiculous remarks that are simply not funny and completely out of context with what is happening, but are strangely always followed with the obviously canned laughter. He basically utters insults at his family and the audience is expected to find this tripe funny. His character is not in the least bit likable and nearly always contains expressions on his face that are kind of a cross between misery and sarcasm. See the show and you'll get my meaning.
Zoë Wanamaker might be good as an actress, but comedy is clearly not her forte. Having said that, she is much less annoying than Mr. Lindsay and probably manages to say one thing funny in an entire episode. In fact, I long for her presence on the screen during Mr. Lindsay's scenes just so her character can send him off somewhere.
The other characters are not really worth talking about. They are supposed to represent fragments of a "disfunctional" family. Instead they come across as total morons who no one wishes they were unfortunate enough to have as relatives. The actors playing them clearly have little talent and have made very limited career progress outside of this TV show. One of them got out after a few series and has done some acting in very boring "drama premieres" aired on ITV 1. Two others have worked on the TV soap opera, EastEnders. As for the actor playing Michael, he looks like a Harry Potter reject who missed his way.
The scripts for this show are absolutely terrible. Let's just say that whoever penned them is no John Cleese. As another commenter has said, the individual episode plots are terrible and focus on very simple objectives such as "what should I do this weekend?". The individual jokes and gags (if you can call them that) are all predictable, poorly-timed and poorly-executed.
Overall, MY FAMILY symbolises the Americanisation (read dumbed-down culture) of British sitcom production and is not worth the time or the effort of even the most die-hard fans of traditional British comedy.
score 1/10
manchester_england2004 9 January 2009
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2004510/15107
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