Not for the comedically weak of heart, this Britcom shows us how pathetic men really are — and how love only makes them doubly so.
Finally, a show for those of us who think too much. Right now, I'm even thinking too much about thinking too much, which only proves that Peep Show is the perfect show for self-conscious nutjobs.
Peep Show's basic premise focuses on two Odd Couple-esque roommates — Mark and Jeremy. Mark is neurotic, concerned about his abnormally weird testicles, and obsessed with not looking the fool — so much so that he always does. Jeremy is a laid-back slacker who thinks that he and his pal Super Hans are the next Chemical Brothers. So far, not too crazy. However, Peep Show — currently airing on BBC America — is a comedy unlike anything you've ever seen. Each episode is shot with hand-held cameras through the "eyes" of the characters, making you feel that you're seeing each moment from their vantage point. Adding to the intimacy, we also get to hear the two roommates' thoughts. In less capable hands, this would be shticky and unwatchable. However, in the hands of writers Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain, it's nothing short of brilliant. (And you've just gotta respect a show that has characters refer to the late, great PBS painter Bob Ross as God.) Throughout the six episodes of the first series, the show often left me giggling wildly with wide-eyed shock in the execution of both the concept and the content.
Letting us hear Mark and Jeremy's thoughts, every scene provokes acidic laughter as what they say (or don't say) is given hilarious context by their actual thoughts. But the show's comedy goes beyond this conceit. Each episode is a wallowing, kind-hearted look at how we're all pathetic and how love makes us doubly so. Mark's adoration for his coworker Sophie runs through this first series in a way that's as painful as any drama. Take the first episode when Mark saves a seat for Sophie and she accidentally sits on his hand. Instead of telling her that she's sitting on his hand, Mark thinks too much, waits too long, and then eventually is caught out in a way that makes it seem that he intentionally put his hand there. All Mark can think afterwards is: "Women don't want your hand under their bottoms, Mark. That's been established. That's a given. What a disaster." It's an interior monologue not too far from what all of us think. (Even today, I left a coffee with a friend feeling that I didn't say goodbye right.)
Jeremy, on the other hand, obsesses about making it in the music biz and making it with virtually anyone. The two obsessions converge in the first episode when Jeremy reluctantly hooks up with a music industry exec who he thinks might have cancer. It's painful, embarrassing, and funny as we hear him cheer himself on saying, "You're a sunshine coach." The strength of the show is the acting by David Mitchell as Mark and Robert Webb as Jeremy. Their performances are so finely nuanced in honest and funny ways that each laugh is laced with a slight touch of guilt. We feel bad for these guys, as if they were people you actually knew or if they actually were you.
Peep Show is not for the comedically weak of heart. The show deals casually with terminal illness, an inadvisable love note with a swastika, and evil children who shout "pedo, pedo" whenever they see Mark. It even touches upon whether the two roommates may be latently gay or perhaps even "bi-curious." It goes places that most sitcoms (or Britcoms, for that matter) refuse to go. And even when you're surprised or put off by where they've gone, you've gotta respect the large, misshapen balls they have to go there.
Diamond in the Rough is a weekly celebration of all those terrific entertainment possibilities being ignored by other media outlets.
