I was poking around on iPlayer trying to delay doing some work when I stumbled upon this. It was a lucky find. I know that just about any sit-com can be deconstructed in to a series of cliches and that you can map it's individual elements to previous successful programs but if it works - it works, and this one did. Looking forward to the next episode.
shareI enjoyed it too
shareI just found this on iplayer also, not quite sure why it wasn't publicised more but it's really nice to find little gems like this.
shareYes, a rare find - a sitcom that isn't too stereotypical. I've been a fan of Sarah Alexander since 'Couplings', although I think Inca is, by far, the funniest character in the programme.
shareReally enjoying this programme. Excellent cast.
shareI'm enjoying it too but there's not enough Gemma and Billy in it for me.
It's getting a bit frustrating that absolutely nothing is happening between them week after week. I realise the show is called Me and Mrs Jones and the 'Me' in the title could be any one of the men in her life, but I really like the plot line involving her and Billy and would prefer to see more of that and less of her son's shenanigans.
Pity it's only six episodes.
I stumbled upon it and it seems so did the head of BBC comedy a decision which he probably now regrets!
Its that man again!!
The comments on this thread so far, with the exception of the one by Prism10, are not very representative of what the main newspaper critics thought of the series. You can read some of their comments here:
http://www.comedy.co.uk/guide/tv/me_and_mrs_jones/press/
Personally I thought it was complete pants and only bothered watching it for the scenes featuring Vera Filatova. How can anyone possibly relate to a lead character like this? She's got two young daughters but is deliberately flirting with an immature lad about half her age (her grown up son's best friend) whom she has allowed to move in to the family home with her and the girls (so they obviously don't have Sarah's Law in her part of the world then!). At the same time, she's also dating another man who is in her own age group!
I think we might be more willing to accept her as a sitcom character if she was up front and totally shameless about her cougar ambitions, like Doreen from Birds of a Feather. We don't need to accept Doreen's morality to be able to accept her in the context of a sitcom. However, in Me and Mrs Jones, we are supposed to believe (I think) that she's not really lusting after this boy at all. Rather it is her absolute scattiness that constantly leads her into these provocative situations. I don't buy that. I might possibly be more accommodating if it was someone naturally comedic like Miranda Hart in the lead role, because she would probably have everyone laughing so much that we wouldn't be dwelling too long on the inconceivability of it all. The problem is that Sarah Alexander is not naturally comedic. She may have successfully played parts in comedy sitcoms before, but that is not the same thing. I just don't know where she's meant to be pitching this performance but it is not a female character that I have the slightest bit of affection for.
How ironic that Andrew Anthony of The Observer said that watching this made him yearn for reruns of Wendy Craig in Carla Lane's Butterflies, for that comparison had crossed my mind too. I watched Butterflies when I was just an eleven year old schoolboy. I had absolutely nothing in common whatsoever with the character of Ria and yet somehow I still managed to relate to and sympathise with her mid-life crises and secret yearning to have an affair with Leonard. The writers of Me and Mrs Jones should be made to sit through every episode of Butterflies and not put pen to paper again until they've fully understood the ingredients needed to make a successful and popular sitcom.
It is hard to choose a 'most inconceivable plot line' from this series, as there have been so many, but for me, the winner surely has to be the scene at the parents' evening, where the ex-husband's new mistress, Inca (played by Filatova), joins the mother and father in the interview with the girl's form teacher, while dressed in sexy, tight-fitting leopardskin mini skirt. Then she becomes bored half way through and gets up and leaves. I'm not complaining about Inca's skimpy attire, as I would surely have switched off otherwise, but does anyone think that if this had actually happened for real, the mother of those children would have so willingly allowed the scantily-clad mistress to join her and the father in the meeting with the teacher? It is simply absurd.
I think perhaps your comments would have been more suited as a 'user reveiw'. Not sure why you kept on watching something you clearly don't like. As for Billy, I have watched many series etc with Robert Sheehan in them, and always thought he was a good actor. This is the first time I've seen him in a more 'grown up' part, and totally understand why Gemma would lust after him :)
TBH if I found it as 'pants' as you did I would've looked elsewhere for entertainment.
PS. Might've been a good idea to post a SPOILER warning.
Yes, but generally speaking newspaper critics are a bunch of arses so what do they know ?
But regarding your comments I can’t help thinking you’ve missed the point. The mum is not deliberately flirting with an immature lad. She is attracted to a ridiculously (but comedically acceptable) mature, perceptive and generally nice younger man. It’s not what she wants, there are no cougars on the loose in this version of suburbia but that’s what’s happened.
In fact everyone is very nice, or at least well intentioned, with the exception of the Doon Mcackichan character who popped up in the last 5 minutes.
Actually perhaps that’s the point of this sit-com – it’s nice and gentle it’s not about twisting someone through cringingly embarrassing situations – which so much comedy these days – all the critically acclaimed crap – is based on. The two most sensible people are the couple in the centre of this little domestic storm trying to find the right thing to do whilst flawed characters around them flutter about causing problems.
I enjoyed Butterflies in it’s time, also Solo and similar comedies. If you have to break sit-coms down in to genre than I think this program is a worthy addition to them.
Suchaki- THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN! The series started with 3.13 million viewers in October but ended with just 1.72 million viewers and has just been cancelled by BBC1 after the first series. Full article here:
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a444189/me--mrs-jones-dropped-afte r-one-series-by-bbc-one.html
Who cares what newspaper critics think. TV shows are made for the viewing public, not for newspaper critics!
shareStumbled on this 'cause I couldn't find my remote after watching HIGNFY, it was good find.
"Don't BS me, don't soft sell it"
"I killed someone"
"Ok maybe you can soft sell it a little bit"
I sort of deliberately stumbled upon it after catching a brief promo at the ending of a recorded episode of HIGNFY and seeing that Sarah Alexander was in some comedy. I hadn't seen her since Coupling so I eventually dug around and found this series. I won't analyze the show to bits as I actually enjoyed it in spite of its failings. I'm sorry they gave it the chop after just the one series though.
Eeek!!! I'm getting dressed.