Episodes; Del Boys and Dealers – TV review

Episodes has taken the 'sit' out of sitcom and become the sort of show it used to make fun of

Three episodes in and the third series of Episodes (BBC2) has settled in comfortably. Which is rather the problem. The main charm of Episodes was always its awkwardness. Initially, Sean and Bev were the outsiders bringing their English reserve and idiom to the sledgehammer of the Hollywood TV industry; now, though, their accents apart, they are both native LA. They've long since ceased to care about the show they are writing and are jaundiced insiders in the dream-factory, churning out second-rate scripts in exchange for first-rate money. In short, a key part of the sit has gone out of the sitcom: Episodes has become exactly the type of show it used to have a pop at.

It is, at least, still a com. Tamsin Greig, Stephen Mangan and Matt LeBlanc are all wonderfully good actors with near-perfect comic timing, so there are still plenty of laughs to be had. Just not as many as there used to be. It's become routine. The scripts feel a bit saggier, though it's possible that's part of a meta gag in which writers David Crane and Jeffrey Klarik are mimicking the trajectory of Sean and Bev's own writing. If so, it's a dangerous game.

The key faultline is that Episodes has written itself into a cul-de-sac. There's nothing left to it apart from a series of relationships and most of the interesting things that can happen have already happened. Sean and Bev have split up, slept with other people and are now back together-ish, while Matt is just Matt. There's some fun to be had in the ongoing "Will Sean, Won't Sean, ever get a stiffy again?" saga, but you feel that Greig and Mangan are working overtime trying to make it funny. They know each other so well that they can finish each other's sentences and gags; more worryingly, so can I. I'm not even sure I'm that bothered whether Sean does get a stiffy or not any more.

Towards the end of this episode, Bev told Carol that she and Sean wanted to get Pucks! canned so they could go back to England. I couldn't help agreeing. Except we know that's almost certainly not going to happen as the BBC has already commissioned a fourth series. Like Sean and Bev, Episodes has become a victim of its own success.

I'm aware we reviewed Del Boys and Dealers (BBC1) last week, but there's nothing new around – it's as if the channels haven't realised there's still a couple of weeks to the start of the World Cup and have gone into premature shutdown – and this Real Deal without the added orange of David Dickinson continues to astonish. Not so much in the excitement of the chase, but in its cast of characters. In particular, Sharon and Al. If you thought you'd seen the best of them last week, you were in for a treat when they went to France.

"People like buying rubbish," said Sharon. "The more shit it is, the more likely they are to buy it." That should pull in the punters. Neither Sharon nor Al were at all keen on France. Or the French. "Don't ask me about it," said a tormented Al. "He had a bad experience in France once," explained Sharon, before they headed off in their trademark hearse. Which seemed like a wise choice, as they appeared to spend much of the time between Calais and Abbeville driving on the wrong side of the road.

Having arrived at a bijou auction house, Sharon picked out a pair of ornate lamps, tastefully arranged as costumed black servants. Unfortunately, it only then occurred to her that neither she nor Al could understand a word of French and so had no idea when their lot was coming up. Luckily, they missed it, which saved them the worry of having no idea how much they had paid for it.

Undeterred, they went off to get something to eat. "Don't have that," warned Sharon. "It might have squid in it. I'm sticking to the pot noodle I brought with me." Quite right.

Anxious not to go home empty-handed, they bought an old wheel and a scythe from a junk shop. "I'll definitely get a 700% mark-up on the wheel," Sharon assured us. Just as well. Because by the time she'd paid for the French trip she'd only be £50 out of pocket.

Del Boys and Dealers is one of those programmes that pretends to do one thing but actually does another. It's not about the deal, it's about the cruelty in exposing the limitations of some people's dreams. It also happened, in its guilty way, to be a great deal funnier than Episodes.

John Crace

The GuardianTramp

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