Agnes Brown (Brendan O'Carroll) is the loudmouthed and vulgar matriarch of the Brown family who often meddles in the lives of her adult children with the best of intentions but more often makes matters more complicated and worse than before.
Mrs. Brown's Boys is an adaptation of the character Agnes Brown created by comedian Brendan O'Carroll that was inspired by O'Carroll's real-life mother. The character began as part of a Radio play by O'Carroll and O'Carroll expanded on the character in books, a feature film adaptation titled Agnes Browne with Anjelica Houston in the titular role, and a series of stage plays before being adapted as a TV series for the BBC. Mrs. Brown's Boys has been notoriously divisive with audiences loving the series as passionately as others hate it, and critical reception has been mostly skewed negative. To a degree I understand because Mrs. Brown's Boys as well as O'Carroll's comedic style are very broad, very exaggerated, and often based on stereotypes and in a way, Mrs. Brown feels, as others have pointed out, not too dissimilar from Ricky Gervais' fictional When the Whistle Blows sitcom from his TV series Extras. I guess you could say that Brendan O'Carroll is UK/Ireland's answer to Tyler Perry down to the fact he's cross dressing as this traditional but foul-mouthed matriarchal character and that his audiences love him while critics loathe him. I guess where I personally stand on the show: I know it's not good, but I love watching it and I think it's because of the chemistry of the cast, the live studio audience, and the very loosely structured style of the show that makes it kind of endearing despite itself.
Despite Mrs. Brown's Boys featuring time worn sitcom tropes and plots that will be very familiar to those immersed in the format, there is a level of awareness to the tropes used and the fact that the show is very minimalist that earns it a lot of leeway. Mrs. Brown's Boys typically only has three sets for any given episode, and it gives the show a very theatrical quality that immerses the viewer especially with its enthusiastic audience. But what makes the series especially unique is that all the mistakes, flubs, and outtakes are kept in the show with no edits. Because many of the cast members are family and or friends of O'Carroll (including his wife, daughter, and son) O'Carroll will often break the verisimilitude of the show's atmosphere for comedic effect by interacting with the camera and sound operators or sometimes purposefully flubbing a line and acknowledging the awareness of living in a sitcom universe. The fact that so many of the cast are friends or family in real life and the very loose nature of the show works to show's benefit in creating a lot of goodwill and add to that the moments of genuine sincerity such as semi autobiographic elements (O'Carroll's son in real life is dyslexic and there's a moment in Mrs. Brown's boys where she finds out her son is Dyslexic that's quite heart wrenching in context) there's a lot of sincerity to this show you don't find in lesser sitcoms.
Mrs. Brown's Boys has been lambasted by critics for a myriad of reasons and I'm hard pressed to disagree with the critics stances of the show, but at the same time there's a passion and energy to this show that really can't be denied. Yes it's silly, ridiculous and based on well worn tropes and stereotypes, but its committed to the delivery whilst also being loose and having fun with the mutli-camera live audience sitcom setup. Mrs. Brown's Boys is the TV version of fast food, sure it's not good for you and there's better options available, but we all need that empty calorie binge now and again.
