Great show but got too nasty for me.

As a teenage boy in the 90's this show sort of passed me by as I was always more into shows like Bottom but I decided to give it a bash and devoured all the seasons in a couple of weeks.

Must admit, it's a great show and all the characters are brilliant. Joanna Lumely impressed me the most and she actually had me in stitches quite often.

The first 3 seasons were amazing but it kind of fizzled out after that. Still funny though but not quite as funny as the early ones.

I think the biggest flaw with the show was that Eddie basically just turned into a complete *beep* with regards to Saffy.

The appeal of the show to me was that I always got the impression that amongst all the chaos, self absorbed behaviour and embarrassment deep down they all really loved each other and when it came to the crunch they'd all be there for one another but it was clear that Eddie just didn't care about her daughter or anyone else and so I sort of stopped liking the character and therefore the show itself.

In fact I felt a little uncomfy watching most of season 5 and in "Exploitin'" when Saffy started to cry after being tore into by Eddie and Patsy I said "Right that's enough!" and just turned off becasue it was pretty much just glorified bullying by that point.

There's a big difference between being comically irresponsible and a bit naughty to just being plain nasty and the show became just that. It wasn't comedy anymore, it was just watching two horrible people with no redeeming qualities and a really nice girl getting shat on and that wasn't enjoyable to me. It would be fine if it were another unlikable character getting it in the face or the show was more surreal like Bottom or The Young Ones but it wasn't.

There was some redemption in "Cold Turkey" which showed Eddie almost making an effort and it was quite a nice episode overall with a good contrast but it should have ended there as I didn't enjoy anything after and I don't know what Saunders was thinking with the prison thing for Saffy.

Can't deny it's cultural impact though and there's plenty to laugh about here but the best comedy is always about flawed characters lined with moments of sentimentality and as far as I could see there wasn't just zero growth from any of the two main characters but they actually regressed into being totally unlikable.

Seasons 1-3 are a must watch but I doubt I'll watch past that again and I'm unsure if I actually want to see the film now.