The Grass Definitely Is Not Greener On This Side (The Green Green Grass)

Member Name: bhayanid

Product:	The Green Green Grass
Date:	06/03/09 (99 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Pointless Characters, Unfunny Plot

Disadvantages: I really Can't See Anything Good That Has Come From This

I am surprised that I am the first person to write a review on this TV show, well actually by the time you have finished my review I am sure you will be able to see why.

For those of you who are not familiar with this show it is a spin-off of the legendary British comedy Only Fools and Horses. The characters used for the spinoff are Boycie and Marlene and John Sullivan is also back to write the script for this show. Could it really come even close to matching the greatness of Only Fools and Horses. In one word NO!.


Cast:

John Challis as Boycie
Sue Holderness as Marlene
David Ross as Elgin
Jack Doolan as Tyler
Ivan Kaye as Bryan
Ella Kenion as Mrs. Cakeworthy
Peter Heppelthwaite as Jed


Plot Outline:

Boycie and Marlene leave behind their glamorous lifestyle in Peckham after Boycie realises they are in serious trouble from the Driscoll Brothers. So they move to a farm in Shropshire which is full of lots of unusual characters. Will they escape the Driscoll brothers forever? Will they find happiness and friends in Shropshire. Well there is only one way to find out...


My Opinion:

Let me just start by saying that I don't hate spinoffs, I am not one of those people that will condemn shows and wish that they fail just because I loved the old show that it is a spinoff of. For example Frasier was a great spinoff and one of my favourite comedies of all time. Joey I was hopeful for but they just couldn't get the right formulae there, although it was not necessarily a bad comedy, it just did not work without the other friends. Therefore it was no surprise to see it cancelled. The Green Green Grass is still going strong and into its fourth season so you would think it is a good show, right? Well not necessarily, once viewing the show you will see it just full of one liners and very dopey characters that Boycie loves to use his one liners on. Also the dopey characters just say useless things that are 'meant' to be funny. The only aspect that ever bought a smile to my face was Boycie's infamous laugh, however they have bled that well and truly dry.

The problem is in this comedy and a lot of other British comedies these days is that they are just plain lazy. There was a time when John Sullivan was great and of course his work on Only Fools and Horses was fantastic. There were great characters, who were actually interesting and the jokes were not just based on stupid, useless one liners. The scripts were thought through properly and I just can not say that for the Green Green Grass. I know Americans have a different style of comedy, but I can guarantee you this much that if this was shown in America, it would not have survived beyond one episode. I believe I could write better scripts and firstly they need better characters. Look at some of the great comedies. Friends, Only Fools and Horses, Seinfeld, Fawlty Towers. They all had great characters that you could relate to and not just dopey characters that the viewers do not care about. Fair enough have one or even two of these characters, but don't make everyone like this apart from Boycie. There was a recent episode which was just a show full of lots of flashbacks from Only Fools and Horses and funnily enough Boycie and his family were barely in any of the scenes. It really made no sense and just basically summarises the standards to which this show has dropped to.


Overall:

I just find it sad how a great character like Boycie has a now tarnished reputation. The Only Fools and Horses name thankfully is not ruined by this nonsense and hopefully people do not really relate the two. It is hard to imagine that John Sullivan wrote both as they are really the opposite in terms of everything. Now there are some people who find this show funny, and at the end of the day this is just my opinion. However if I stop one person from watching this show then I will consider this job done. Thanks for reading.

Summary: Please Do Not Watch This