Feel the Force

From the opening credit sequence, sung by the two female leads I think (Doon MacKichan, incidentally, is so far nowhere to be seen) this first episode of new Scottish sit-com "Feel the Force" was awful in every way. The two leads have the comic subtly and timing of a fatal school bus crash - and the script is full of bland, grey non-jokes performed with mugging repetitiveness (and two vaguely funny ones in the whole half hour; although the Chinese Madonna gag was driven into the ground and then stamped on until dead). There's no plot, or characters, and the only thing of real interest in the whole show was: HOW DOES AN ORDINARY POLICE OFFICER MANAGE TO AFFORD A FLAT IN EDINBURGH NEW TOWN? Really, this is bad. Scotland, hang our comic heads in shame. With England constantly churning out fine sit-coms and comics, BBC Wales riding high on the back of Russell T Davis, and the Irish geniuses of Linehan and Matthew still casting a long shadow over TV comedy in general - why is Scotland still trying to rewrite old "Naked Video" scripts? With a few exceptions (some, but by no means all, of the work of the Scotch & Wry and Chewing the Fat mafias) we never seem to be able to make people laugh. Rikki Fulton relied upon old Two Ronnies scripts, and Scotland's only true comic genius, Armando Iannucci, left after 18 months of making cups of tea for other people as a trainee at Radio Scotland.

Since the year 2000 we've had 'Caledonian MacBrains', 'The Karen Dunbar Show', 'Overnite Express', 'Meet the Magoons', 'Snoddy' (another police sit-com) and about eighteen thousand episodes of 'Still Game' (or 'Still Going, Oh Christ, When Will We Stop?' as it will soon be called). None of these have ever shook the world like Ricky Gervaise, Simon Pegg, or even Peter Kay (he's relatively crap now, but still better than Ford Kiernan - can't we sent a raiding party down to Bolton and steal him as a true Scot?) One day, we should have a sit-com to rank alongside 'Fawlty Towers' or 'Hancock'. And if you think that's unlikely, or we'll only ever appeal to people within 30 miles of the Clyde - ask yourself ... why?

What's everyone's problem with this? Why should silly scattershot humour without an 'ironic' or 'post-modern' or 'adult' twist suddenly be so taboo? Some of the comments about it misrepresenting the police force etc are just pathetic. It's obvious 2 minutes into any episode that the show is meant to be far removed from reality and is more in the slapstick visual tradition of silent film and the absurdist bungling comedy partnerships such as Laurel & Hardy, Abbot & Costello etc.

Yes it is definitely hit and miss. But it makes such a change to be able to watch a sitcom which looks good visually, is not studio-bound, without canned laughter, and without all the horrible anodyne PC humour of BBC1 comedies or the 'ironic' hipness of Channel 4 (ie swearing, vulgarity, pointlessly random hand-held camera-work and flashy editing).

Being Scottish but working in England I found myself having to apologise for this show. The best explanation I could come up with was that it was only made as a jolly for everyone involved, a method of filtering cash to friends and family. The alternative is too frightening - that the people who made this show actually find it funny. Unfortunately, recent television history suggests the latter is more likely, as "Feel The Force" is only the latest in a series of sitcoms that plumb such depths that they would need a Robert Ballard expedition to find where they end.

Before any other sitcoms can be produced in Scotland the U.N. need to get involved - torture in any of it's guises should not be allowed in a civilised country. Perhaps we can get a U.N. resolution to bomb the production facilities putting an end to all this misery and cruelty. The alternative, that BBC Scotland will commission a writer who is both literate and funny, hire actors who can act, and a director who can direct, is so far-fetched that it can be completely disregarded.

And if anyone involved in this show happens to read this review, I say to you, "Seek help. You are a sad, sick individual, and you are not just hurting yourself, but are making a lot of people very unhappy".

I came across this by chance after watching The Book Group which also stars Michelle Gomez. Its obvious this has a few haters but I gave it a chance, simply because Michelle hasnt ever been in anything bad I've seen so far. She plays mental like no other woman, Green Wing is probably her most well known role.

So whats the issue? Well it seems that the fact this is women in the key roles thats the problem for some. Some guys simply refuse to engage with funny women. I would bet that had the central characters been played by guys they would have no issue with it. You also cant fault the writing, just look at her credits which include Veep, Succession and The Thick Of It. Sorry but the standard here is very high.

It would be interesting to see what the same people who rated this low thought of Smack The Pony.

I gave it a chance and I am currently binge watching it on Youtube.

Its funny as long as you can cope with women being funny. Which is obviously too much for some....

Saw two episodes of this show on BBCA and really laughed! It's a pity that they aren't showing it any longer. The two police ladies getting fired and having to wear signs to advertise for a golf shop while trying to persuade a guy against committing suicide...it was hilarious! I'm surprised to see such distaste for this program by other reviewers. Maybe we watched different episodes. I'm hoping they'll release it on DVD so we can see more episodes. I actually enjoyed it far more than other British comedy I've seen (Are you being served and Keeping up appearances, for example).

The only other British shows I bother to watch are Hustle and Midsomer Murders. Anyway, I'd recommend giving it a chance and making up your mind instead of following reviews. I just hated to see this show get such awful reviews when my opinion is that it was worth watching.