Sketch comedy is still alive! With Tracey returning and with Portlandia still doing crazy things every week, hopefully we are seeing a rebirth of what could be a really fun genre when done right.
The Judi Dench thievery/mischief bit was great, I like her Angela Merkel, but the laugh track is WAY TOO ANNOYING. It distracts from the subtlety when you hear the crowd erupt at every little bit.
A good first episode. Sketch shows are always a bit hit and miss and there are always going to be some sketches/characters that different viewers love/hate but this first episode had more hits than misses.
Both the characters you mention are sheer genius, Angela Merkel and the anarchic Judi Dench.
Tracey Ullman has stated that with this show she wanted to take advantage of the array of talented older actors available in Britain and it was great to see Gwen Taylor (of Duty Free fame) in this first episode.
Ullman shows a good range of comedy too, from the physical comedy of the aromatherapist setting fire to the place to the silent comedy of the callous woman passing the homeless beggar. We even got a nice all-singing, all-dancing homage to public libraries thrown in for good measure.
7/10
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Sparks Moran: "It was dusk. I could tell 'cause the sun had gone down"
This is definitely British humor because I found the majority of the show to be unfunny. In fact, the stupid laugh-track made it worse. Either it's funny or it's not but fake laughter isn't the answer nor does it entice the audience to join in.
Using older characters doesn't make it a new show. It's exactly the same drivel as her first go-round and the only good thing about that was The Simpsons.
It's not a laugh track. Each episode was shown to a live audience where their laughter was captured.
"The Tracey Ullman Show," as well as "Tracey Takes On," we're terrific shows, and they have the awards, not to mention all the careers they launched, to back that up.
There's only one old character in this new show.
I highly doubt you're even remotely familiar with Tracey's work which spans 36 years now.
I would assume there's at least some laughtrack and/or editing of the studio's laughter, if they do claim it is shown to an audience. For traditional multi-camera shows there's a lot of stopping between lines to wait for the laughter, but the pacing of this show is more like a single camera comedy which means we would potentially miss out on hearing some lines if there was actual laughing.
Plus, the laughs sounded pretty similar throughout the show.
Let me put your doubts to rest. I am over 40 and was privy to TU's emergence into American television. It was lackluster then and still is today.
As for the laugh-track, I have doubts that you are even capable of being remotely unbiased due to your love of the show. Listen to the laughs and you can easily hear specific cackles that are exactly the same throughout the skits. I do this for shows I actually like, too.
The first episode was certainly was uneven in tone.
Her glory days were Three of a Kind and that was three decades ago.
It's that man again!!
The makeup artists are amazing.
I had no idea she was the man in the coffee shop.
Tracey is brilliant!