Count Abdulla

As a fan of the vampire genre, I have seen just about every interpretation, but by far this was one of the best. As the recent entries of Interview with a Vampire, What We Do In the Shadows and Reginald The Vampire, this show adds another viewpoint that we normally don't see. As this series masterfully blends the culture clash trope with the Vampire comedy, as we find a female Vampire with a East Indian fetish who just so happens to bite a down on his luck Indian doctor, which is where the series gives a nod of the hat to Scrubs. As this concurrently running tropes altogether should not work but this one does. As the delving into the world of Muslim families will remind viewers of Bend It Like Beckham and Ramy but recently having seen Polite Society, this absolutely harkens to many of that brilliant movie's themes. I can only tell the viewer to give it a chance as it will surprise you just how funny and insightful it is while carving out its own niche in the vampire genre.

A muslim vampire doctor...thats as funny as it gets.

There are some "jokes" but they are from the 70s. All been done to death many many times before and werent funny the first time around either.

Some social issues do get raised too, but as subtly as a sledghammer, which I expected.

Its a 1 joke tv show because the writer is not a comedy writer. Hes a Cambridge history graduate. Probably a nice guy but not a comedy writer. I guess he got an opportunity and took it, fair enough. But it didnt work this time.

People are scoring it 10 for reasons known only to themselves. 10 means perfection!! Check the shows below and then ask how people scored this a 10???

Curb you enthusiasm 8.8.

Friday night dinner 8.1 Everybody hates Chris 7.5 Fresh prince 7.9 Office UK 8.5 Chappelle show 8.8 Fawlty Towers 8.8 Key & Peele 8.3.

League of Gentlemen 8.4 Inbetweeners 8.4.

Watch 1 episode of Count abdullah and then look at this list and ask yourself how you would score it compared to those shows.

The 30 minute episodes are a perfect length for this fast paced series; I only planned to watch a couple of episodes and ended up watching the whole series. Yes, there are some of the usual Asian jokes (overbearing mum etc...) but in amongst the comedy, there are some serious issues too which elevates this from just another funny but ultimately forgettable show. I also love how this is such a different take on the whole vampire genre - the usual posh pale vampires only make an appearance later on and even then, they aren't the main event. Great casting too - Kathy the Vampire had me in stitches. I'm curious as to what season 2 holds after the fantastic end to this first season.

This series will be like marmite for most people . You'll love it or hate it , I don't think there'll be much in between.

It is well cast and we'll played. Jaime Winston is the best vampire I've seen in a long time. Abdulla and his mother time things to perfection and are great . The supporting cast are excellent.

Some aspects of the humour are actually quite cheesy and the more serious folk will see them as cringe worthy. They're not they're probably meant to be that way with some brilliantly human behaviour observations ( you do need to listen and watch carefully at some points). A specific example is his mate the Imam. Whatever he comes across as he is fiercely loyal and he gives us more than a few laughs whilst we work him out.

The whole thing is played for laughs and has a mix of cultural and religious observation with some great lines. It is not offensive although I have no doubt some will manage to see it as that with lines such as "how can I be a Muslim halal vampire". You find yourself laughing with them, not at them.

As I said, marmite but you won't know until you've tried it.

A British/Pakistani GP is bitten by a vampire and hilarity unfortunately doesn't ensue. On the positive side its nice to see a comedy exploring and set in the British/Pakistani community which is much under-represented on our screens.

I'm just not sure this will work for a broadstream ITV audience as its been written in a very niche vein. Its not a patch on C4's 'We are lady parts' - Nida Manzoor's anarchic and irreverent music comedy about a Muslim female punk band, which deservedy won her a Bafta last year.

The script could have been better with more laughs and often seemed more concerned with virtue signalling than being funny.

Might have found a bigger audience on C4 or BBC3 as its main appeal will be to a much younger audience than ITV gets.

Nothing special about the production values and no stand outs in the cast, overall a disappointment - hard to see being re-commissioned.