Simon & Miquita - IT IS OVER

... and so on

Isn't it much more rockist to suggest that pop music is something to be taken seriously though?

British television - the best in the world

"Oroight, we've got Westloife, just after me Bovril"...

I'm never quite sure if I'm making this up, but was Lauren Laverne the original Popworld presenter?

I believe she hosted a similar show that was a precursor to Popworld entitled simply "Pop".

hate simon tho

I think she's fine

It's all about personal taste I know but she isn't any of those things

Cathy, nil points. She was 16 all along.

Amstell is going to pursue stand-up!

Every time I've seen these two they have asked the same questions, used the same insults, etc. Often it is the pot calling the kettle black.

A little piece of me died that day.

Mentalists with the ability to record telly.

Bah, too mauch hate on here for the best music show on telly (proper telly at least, I don't have satellite) this decade.

i've never seen them on Saturday mornings. PopWorld was a Sunday late morning show, good for hangover etc. - they started showing it at night as well. My S & M fizzled out about eighteen months ago but Miquita is still a lovely. Nobody mention Rip Rig & sodding Panic please.

(why?)

Isn't this a rule most people observe in their day-to-day lives anyway?

anyone see grandmas house last night? i liked it actually. he is funny in it, and likeable etc, but he cant act at all. if they have gotten someone else to star in it, it would have been taken up several notches.

Still able to cry a tear over Popworld not being on tbh and Alex Zane is still at the top of my TO PUNCH IN THE FACE list if I ever see him.

Still able to cry a tear over Popworld not being on tbh

really?

t4 should just die in general.

idk you could always not watch it

or they could just die

from the UK comedy thread:

Simon Amstell verdict? Not watched it yet.

― heterosexist matrix of desire (Gukbe), Monday, 9 August 2010 15:44 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I really liked it but the dude cannot act to save his life. 8/10

― a hoy hoy, Monday, 9 August 2010 15:44 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Just did a quick google to find out what you're on about (no tv) and read this
http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/news/a258605/simon-amstell-i-might-flee-the-country.html
and it doesn't even tell me wtf the show is!

― Not the real Village People, Monday, 9 August 2010 16:08 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I had to turn it off ten minutes in. Just couldn't take how stilted it was and i love Amstell in Popworld/Buzzcocks guise.

― Number None, Monday, 9 August 2010 16:34 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Once I got over the sitcommyness of it I quite liked it, and Glen from TTOI was brilliant. Reminded me of Chris Tarrant though.
It just seemed like Simon Amstell had gone round to a random family's house and was doing the sarcastic interviewer routine on them for a telly program.

Alex Zane is still at the top of my TO PUNCH IN THE FACE list if I ever see him.

Being a Camden resident I've seen him a number of times. Would you like me to deliver a message, or perhaps arrange a meeting, if it happens again?

He's in Edinburgh just now. Pop down the Pleasance Courtyard for a pint, and you can punch away to your heart's content. There's some stiff competition around, right enough.

(I haven't watched Amstell's comedy thing yet. I will do so very soon, but I'm not holding out much hope of enjoying it)

I only lasted about 15 minutes of that simon amstell sitcom. way too stilted and awkward. plus I've heard him do that line about the cat becoming a mascot for his loneliness before -- totally fell flat in the show.

I like Amstell and have a higher sitcom tolerance than most ILXors but, uh, yeah. Too high a ratio of "please zoom in while I hold my About To Say Something Really Hilarious face for 3 beats" to actual funny lines.

Still laughed a couple of times and will probably watch it again next week, if someone revives this thread and I am bored, like.

Guardian review was kind of otm: if you are that stilted when playing a character which is basically yrself then maybe rethink the big acting career.

(ooh, listen to me, with my big comedy skills, acting talent and highly successful email-filing career of my own)

he does have pretty much only the one expression/tone which puts him at a bit of a disadvantage with the whole acting thing.

I feel sorry for comedians who can't act. Still not as bad as Paul Merton's sketch show though.

Not bad - it has the family awkwardness bit down well - but I wish the action would speed up a bit.

amstell is a swirling vortex of acting inability

yeah but it kinda works, given that he's playing himself being uncertain and awkward about making the move to acting.

yeah it does kinda work and wouldn't work without him - it helps that all of the supporting actors are pretty much stellar to a one

The supporting cast make this work, I think you could substitute Simon with Russell Howard, although that would take it to 'junior Martin Freeman' territory.

I feel sorry for comedians who can't act.

The traditionalist in me is suspicious of comedians who can

I thought last nights was the best so far.

I spend half the time watching this show wondering if Simon seems that awkward around people in real life. Occasionally the rawness of his performance contrasts to the acting around him in a very striking way.

I agree that it seems to capture the awkward yet cosily familiar nature of family gatherings well. I'm not sure what to make of his apparent un-acting, but the rest are indeed wonderful.

A show about North London Jews drinking tea should be exactly in my comfort zone but I find this pretty unwatchable. I've tried two episodes and couldn't make it to the end. Amstell's wooden but the rest of the family are just doing chronic early-Mike Leigh Style funny voice acting. Very grating. Front was very good in TTOI, can't get around how awful she is here.

I dunno. I think it works, mostly.

i watched the first 3 minutes of an episode on iplayer and had to switch off it was so bad. like an even worse version of that crummy CYE ripoff jack dee did. and yeah front seemed so bad in this, really hamming it up 70s sitcom style. amstell himself is a terrible terrible actor, so uncomfortable to watch. the schaddyfreud inside quite likes this as he behaved with such unjustified cuntiness on buzzcocks, nice and just to see him flounder in this.

I think it scores over 'Lead Balloon', because it's easy to feel sympathetic to Amstell's character most of the time, while Rick Spleen was just a hateful tosser.

Watched the last episode on a Billy the Swygg recommendation but I'm afraid it was very poor - too schematically a Jewish London version of Royal Family, right down to the house layout.... but without any laughs.

I liked Grandma's House by the end of the run, it was smartly written and I got used to Amstell's anti-acting (though it helped hugely he was surrounded by talented UKcom character actors).

Just finished Grandma's House and thought it was great on-balance. Intricate overlapping dialogue and terrific performances except for Amstell, but then Seinfeld couldn't act for shit either and it didn't do him any harm. Obviously I'd have preferred a better actor in the role but the role IS Simon Amstell so…

I do think his acting improved as the series went on. Obviously not to the extent that he could actually be mistaken for an proper actor or anything.

Yr not supposed to be mistaken for a "proper actor", you're supposed to be mistaken for "someone not trying to remember his next line, but (re)acting in a normal human manner."

I warmed to this a bit, but didn't really like the last episode. Thought maybe the series could've had a more interesting plot arc than "Simon was right all along", I guess.

Impressed by what a truly repellent creation his cousin was. Skin-crawling.

Is it all off iplayer already? I only watched the first couple.

i guess they don't keep stuff on there for a month anymore? it now looks all fancy and confusing, like they gave it over to an enthusiastic intern who didn't think that it'll be used by people who aren't technology geeks.