“Friday night dinner” is hilarious. Whether it is the ingenious writing, the comical acting of the characters, or the uniqueness of every week’s plot line, I am left with tears of laughter running down my cheeks every week.
I have always been surprised by how little recognition this sit-com has got – if the brilliance of the whole program hadn’t gained the attention of most, I expected the famous faces within it to attract more viewers: Simon Bird (well known to play “Will” from “The Inbetweeners”); Tamsin Greig (known to have played “Maggie” in “Shaun of the Dead” or ” Beverly Lincoln” from “episodes”); and Mark Heap (who played the character “Dr. Alan Statham” in “Green Wing”).
Like many sit-coms, each episode follows a fairly similar structure: it is Friday night, and the two, now adult, sons of the family return to their childhood home to have dinner with their parents; except their evening never quite goes to plan.
The comedy of the show (similarly to “Peep Show” or “The inbetweeners”, both of which writer Robber Popper has been involved with) is based primarily on the characters finding themselves in various awkward situations. “Friday Night Dinner” is more family friendly than these shows, and so has substituted some more adult humour for ridiculous and unlikely situations – something which a few other critics seem to dislike but I find endlessly amusing.
The third series has been shown throughout July, putting it in my favourites, however I do think that the occasional episode did not live up to my high expectations created from the previous two series, so if you do decide to watch this show (and you definitely should) then start from episode 1 – they’re all on 4oD!
maisiesartblog 