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The First Team

Definitely written for a knowing football fan audience, I think this was very funny and even more so if you are football fan.

Great comic acting, great timing, great script.

Very good sitcom, really enjoyed, would love to see a second series of this, funny in most places, would recommend

First 2 episodes are utter drivel, but gets better and funnier. Last episode takes a turn for the weird though. Would watch if they make a second season.

While the first team may have been billed off as a premiership division team, their players did not come off as responsible premiership soccer based players. Something I would like to believe the directors went for when taking into account the petulant behaviour of soccer players in the 21st century. The training base appeared to be a soccer training base found on the Welsh border and Wrexham but I might be mistaken. The show was well directed and the acting was good, especially from the older heads, but it was just very enjoyable from the soccer aspect of things. It just appeared to miss that spark. An amicable effort however.

The BBC's glossy new football sitcom from the scatalogical mind of the In-Betweeners is what you might expect. Crammed full of psychotic characters, cringeworthy awkward moments and unexpectedly bleak crevices.

It's not reinventing any wheels but by largely sticking with the three solid leads (earnest optimistic Mattie, doleful overwhelmed Jack and vain manchild Benji) it proves strangely compelling. Although with that focus you sacrifice more time with some of the rest of the cast who become somewhat abstract caricatures. Will Arnett, in particular, just seems oddly pointless here and most of the big plot beats of the series just drift past without leaving much impact. None of three have any stake in them, particularly.

I'm no football fan, but there were some interesting points within about the fan-club relationship and frankly very little actual football beyond that. Dotted throughout the six episodes you also get some excellent cameos - from interesting character comedians like Phil Wang and Tom Bell to actual Jason Williamson off of Sleaford Mods.

In its rush to both be an embarrassing character comedy and a comment on contemporary professional football, it does neither particularly well and therefore will likely never enter the premier league of decent sitcoms. It does retain a wonky charm in its three earnest leads, if it goes into extra time le'ts hope we get more of them.

I watched the trailer, thought it looked awful. Read reviews, sounded even worse. Gave episode one a watch just to see how bad it could really be but ended up watching all six in a day. This show is not that funny but I found myself fairly invested in the characters and seeing what stupid situations they got themselves in. to. I laughed out loud maybe twice through the whole season and there is some really bad delivery, especially from the American actor but give it a go. I want to watch the next season.

Honestly, this show is really not as bad as some of these reviews would have you believe. Coming from the guys who wrote The Inbetweeners, you should have some idea of what to expect and there are some clear similarities. It's this very reason that makes this show difficult to judge on its own merits.

Starting off, I would say that If your a fan off The Inbetweeners, it doesn't mean you'll definitely like The First Team. However, most of what the the writers did well with Inbetweeners crosses over nicely here and it's a show that is definitely not without it's own charm. There are a few false notes here and there but I expect this is show just finding its rhythm.

OK, so there are some issues. One of which is that the characters are a lot less relatable. Apart from the fact the not everyone likes football it's also set in a world most of us know nothing about. The Inbetweeners has tons of relatability as most of us do know what it's like trying to get by at school and not quite knowing where to fit in socially. Since a big part of comedy is about how well one relates to something, this is mostly why the humour falls a tad flat sometimes. These characters are also (to different extents) already successful so we're not rooting for them the same as the Inbetweeners boys or sympathising nearly as much. Playing professional football in any capacity is successful compared to most people so the underdog thing doesn't really work here. Very hard to feel sorry for someone being paid 25k per week.

One thing I really like is that the writers didn't go with a narration v/o this time. This show really doesn't need it so they made the right call, in my opinion. Formula wise, it operates on a very similar level to The Inbetweeners and it moves along at a nice pace and doesn't drag or get boring.

The Mattie character is quite similar to Will in the sense that he is kind of a fish-out-of-water with all this madness going on around him where he's the only appearing sane. The way he responds to people when they say something stupid, for example, is exactly like Will. He is, however, more likeable, in my view, and Jake Short does a great job playing him.

This show definitely deserves a second season. It will be interesting to see where it goes. Don't believe the haters. It's not a classic by any means but if you like football and a bit of gross out humour then it's definitely a fun watch.

Like millions of others, I was a colossal fan of The Inbetweeners back in the day and when I first heard about the concept of this series along with who was writing it, I got very excited. I wasn't going to kid myself - I knew that it was going to be difficult for Iain Morris and Damon Beesley to match the dizzy heights of The Inbetweeners a second time around. However, after watching The First Team, I come away from it feeling rather disappointed. This is a sitcom about a group of young footballers with a lot of time on their hands who find themselves in a multitude of embarrassing situations that threaten to damage their reputations. Unfortunately, it ended up sailing wide of the target.

On paper, The First Team is a very good concept and it's conceivable that you would be able to formulate an amusing sitcom from the potential scenarios available. However, this fails to do so on a number of occasions - the supposed big punchlines of an episode rarely hit the mark or provide any sort of big laugh. The dialogue between the characters seems unnatural with lines often being poorly delivered. And out of the three main characters, there isn't a single one of them that really stands out. For the most part, they're all pretty bland.

The story primarily revolves around Mattie Sullivan; who has just been signed by the club from Sporting Kansas in the MLS. However, no-one seems particularly enthused by his arrival which leaves Mattie confused as to why he was signed. This does lead to some humorous scenes featuring Will Arnett (who was consistently brilliant throughout) - the standout moment being when he tries to erase Mattie's signature by licking his thumb and rubbing it on the contract after he learns that Mattie is not a US international. Apart from that, the comedic moments featuring our protagonist are very few and far between. The rest of the episode feels like a watered down version of Will's first day in The Inbetweeners; with Mattie trying desperately to fit in with a crowd that aren't going to accept him easily. He finds friends in the incredibly shy Jack and Benji; who epitomises the stereotype of a modern day footballer and like I mentioned earlier, none of these characters really bring anything big to the table although Jack did grow on me as the series progressed. Mattie's plotline in this episode culminates in a rather predictable scene with him thinking that the manager is dead when he is in fact just asleep. This was the supposed to be the big set piece of the episode and it didn't provide any laughs.

The quality of the episodes do improve as the series progresses but the standout moments are sporadic to say the least. The episode setups have a lot of potential but they can't seem to extract the humour and as a result, the episodes fall flat. It feels like you're waiting for them to take it up a notch and it just never happens.

On the positive front, Tamla Kari's performance as no-nonsense Head Of Press Olivia Talbot was very impressive; providing the vast majority of the humour when cutting the boys down to size. As previously mentioned, Will Arnett was hilarious in his role as clueless chairman Mark Crane and I felt he was very underused. Arnett was a huge draw for this series so it's possible that he had other commitments but I felt like his character should have been utilised further. Chris Geere was also impressive as the positive-thinking Chris Booth but like Arnett, was also underused throughout the show.

The reason that The Inbetweeners was so successful was because Iain Morris and Damon Beesley stuck religiously to the 'Write About What You Know' concept; pulling multiple stories from their youth and channeling them into incredibly relatable characters that made us all cry with laughter. This is exactly where The First Team falls down. The characters in this show live in a totally different world to the everyday man and as such, the identification of ourselves in these characters has been heavily removed and whilst that doesn't always mean that a show becomes less funny, it has removed a key ingredient of what made Morris and Beesley so successful in the first place.

I don't want to sound like I'm directly comparing it to The Inbetweeners because that would just be unfair but if you're relying on three characters as underwhelming as Mattie, Jack and Benji to carry you through a show, it's always going to be a difficult watch.

Maybe the one liners where too subtle for most people but I found it very entertaining and had plenty of laugh out loud moments. The Inbetweeners was like a bands first album for the writers. Fans always look at the following album as not quite as good as the bands debut,but in fact the 2nd album in a lot of cases is way better,or near as dammit. (Motley Crue,for example... ) To be honest if you don't like this show then you cannot be a fan of The Office (UK),Extras,Life's Too Short and After Life.

This is basically the inbetweeners, but instead of a public high school, it's a Premier League club. The main characters are identical to that of Will, Neil & Jay. The humour and dynamic is also identical;

A bunch of not-so-bright youths repeatedly find themselves in hilariously compromising situations and go on to yield hilariously ridiculous results.

Totally understandable if you don't like it. Its not everyones cuppa. But what I don't understand are those reviews that say they love the inbetweeners but hate this. They're practically the same show.

If you're after British frat-boy comedy, then step right up.

After some Shakespere? Look elsewhere.

Couldn't even finish watching the first episode, it was that unfunny.

What a waste of Chris Geere (Jimmy Shive-Overly in the wonderful TV series, You're the Worst) and Will Arnett (Gob Bluth in the exceptional TV series, Arrested Development).

I actually really enjoyed this show. Ok it's basically the same formula as The Inbetweeners but transposed to the context of a football club. You have the same basic characters - the fish out of water geek, mr thinks he's more attractive than he is, mr nice but dim. Had it's share of cringeworthy moments but a high number of laugh out loud moments too. It's the kind of show that could improve further as it finds its feet in future seasons or could just fizzle and run out of ideas. Let's hope season 2 comes along and delivers

Wanted to like it given track record of those involved (Inbetweeners) - but it was a disjointed mess without a good comic setup, decent comic characters or good jokes. Not at all sure who it's aimed at - too puerile for a mature audience and not savvy enough or well-enough observed for young adults. Cast didn't have much to offer and story-line was dull and unfunny with a poor pay-off. Won't be tuning in again.

Absolute Crap

Watched 2 episodes and didnt even crack a smile.

Dont bother. Watch Mike Bassett for a football comedy

It's the funniest comedy I've seen since (guess what) The Inbetweeners. Morris and Beesley know how to write comedy and excel in portraying the lives of young, Premier League footballer with too much time on their hands. It's not as funny as The Inbetweeners (there are clear similarities with the writing so what's not to love?), but was it ever likely to be? People seem to think everything this double act do will be as iconic as their first sitcom. Stop living in fantasy land. Remove your Inbetweeners-tinted glasses and see The First Team for what it is: funny!

Where to start...

I had high hopes, The Inbetweeners is one of the funniest comedies of the last twenty years.

The concept itself isn't a bad one, it's not been done before and could have had worked.

But... it's a disaster, not just bad, embarrassingly bad.

Boring two dimensional characters with zero chemistry between them. Where are the jokes? I managed two episodes and didn't laugh once.

I'm genuinely shocked how bad it was given the quality of the writers previous work.

Avoid.

Cannot understand all the people giving this a 1/10. Is it as good as the inbetweeners? Of course not! This has some real funny bits, good characters and based around football. What more is there to like?

As a huge Inbetweeners fan I was hopeful but this series lacks any humour and reduces football to nothing more than a caricature of its worst excesses. You form no attachment to any of the vacuous characters, the acting is poor, as is the script and you find yourself yearning for it to end. The poorest 'comedy' currently on TV, spend your time watching repeats of the Inbetweeners instead.

They saw the success the aforementioned had and tried to replicate it, the BBC, and instead produced this. If you haven't already seen Ted, do, and then you can cringe as hard as I did at The First Team, which isn't the first after all.

If Plebs met Ted lasso you get the first team. It's outstandingly funny and well done. The comedy hits perfectly. I WANT TO SEE MORE. The writing is superb.

Don't get me wrong, I loved the inbetweeners - the series were better than the films, but they weren't bad at all. This on the other hand, is god awful. Terrible writing, terrible acting, terrible everything. Give it a miss.

Hyped up by using "from the writer of The Inbetweener's" you were expecting it to be hilarious but failed . It was just average and would not surprise me if no more episodes were made . The Inbetweener's was just awesome & everytime they compare something to it , it has to be awesome .

From The Inbetweeners to this! Just absolutely awful. Not funny, terrible characters and very disappointing. Def worth a miss!

I viewed this with an open mind. It does seem that most people are comparing it unfavourably with The Inbetweeners. This is unfair as it a different style of show. Where The Inbetweeners was below the belt crude at times, The First Team is more gentle humour with a splash of the crude thrown in.

The three main characters are likeable and really work well together. The supporting cast are also excellent. The storylines and jokes are decent enough, some are more slight chuckle then belly laughs but there are some really funny moments. Jack McMullen pulls of shy and awkward brilliantly.

If you only watched the first episode or even a few minutes then I would suggest giving it a real chance as it gets better over the 6 episodes. It isn't easy to launch a new comedy. Even The Inbetweeners wasn't an immediate hit.

I hope it gets a second series.

Much like a young English prodigy, the First Team had a lot of potential...

• On paper it'a a great premise
• A few laugh out loud moments, best one for me was episode 1 with Cesare exclaiming "I not pr*ck, THEY pr*ck!"
• It is very watchable despite its flaws
• The central three are somewhat likeable

But also, much like a young English prodigy, it proved a damp, forgettable squib...

• poor choice to have an American protagonist in my opinion. Jake Short doesn't quite have the comedic chops despite giving it his all, and the yanks don't really 'get' British football
• another reviewer praises the female character who tries to whip them into shape; I thoroughly disagree - she's painfully unfunny, her delivery is forced, and she's utterly unlikeable.
• the show wastes a good premise with gags that miss the mark 8 times out of ten, and I spotted a number of recycled inbetweeners jokes in there.
• when in doubt, it opts for gross out / shock humour

It's a shame they couldn't give Will Arnett more screen time (presumably he'd cost too much).

Overall, a bit of a disappointment, but I'd be interested to see what direction a second series would take (though I am doubtful it will be renewed).