Review: Pramface 1.4

6 days ago

6 days ago

This image isn't from this episode. But I really don't care.

Pramface - Series One, Episode Four - Man of the Moment

This week saw the first actual fulfillment of the show's premise. The appeal of Pramface's concept was the interaction between Jamie and Laura, the two main characters, and for the first three episodes this has basically amounted to bad stalking. Man of the Moment was the first time that we saw the characters really gel, with an emerging odd-couple dynamic. The rest of the characters fell into the same irrelevance and cliché that's killed the rest of the series.
     Jamie and Laura attend childbirth classes. The over-active teacher is admittedly quite funny, and I loved seeing the relationship between the two leads instead of just their friends. It's been arranged for Jamie and his parents to arrive at the Derbyshire household for a meet, and Beth is showing off her date with a Hollywood Atheist stereotype (not making friends with me, Pramface), as well as Mike. These two characters feel like they're desperately trying to cling to relevance at the moment. While there are awkward motions at the Derbyshire's theres a bisexual joke at the date as Mike tries to impress a hot girl. (Keeping it classy, Pramface.) That however did lead into a funny joke where Mike discovered that the hot girl's gay friend was his date instead.
      Angus Deayton flirts with Jamie's mum, they argue over what's going to happen once the baby is born. There's the boring sitcom misunderstanding moment between Jamie's mum and Angus, while Mike is tempted into a bisexual threesome. After some boring arguments, there's one moment of physcial comedy as Angus is stabbed with a carving fork. The date storyline did have a decent end, but it was still characteristic of a long line of Pramface's problems. Laura announces to her parents that she's going to stay at Jamie's.
      It was certainly a more solid episode, with only two storylines, and I saw some shoots poking through that might have a chance of improving Pramface's squalid record. But it's still a bad mix of terrible characters making clichéd jokes and boring sitcom situations. I was expecting so much from Pramface, and I can really say that this series hasn't provided television with anything it couldn't do without.

Thanks.