It's really hard for me to rate this one. I really love Ade's previous work and I don't usually watch family sitcoms. If this was a family sitcom without Ade, I would probably think of it as average - not terrible but definitely not brilliantly original either. Something like "The New Adventures of Old Christine". When there's Ade involved, people are expecting a lot more than that. I remember Vyvyan screaming: "No! We're not watching the bloody Good Life!". Rejecting the classic sitcom format was one of Ade's defining characteristics. Ade is a brilliant writer and actor and he never starred in a comfortable, clichéd sitcom before. Maybe that's the reason he seems so out of place in this show, a show that is trying to appeal to the masses. Ade is usually confined to anarchic, alternative shows and characters, while the format of this show represents everything that he was being opposed to during his career. I guess I can understand that he wanted to do a character that is a bit more serious and age appropriate.
I'll try to judge this show on it's own merits. There are a few funny moments here. I liked the first two episodes, especially the sequence of jobs he performed in the second episode; but a good portion of this show has that "seen it before" feeling. The supporting cast is not doing it any favors. Actress playing the daughter is clearly overacting, she reminds me of Emma Bunton in Ab Fab. The son is unlikeable and the Chinese roommate is a borderline offensive representation of Asians. Still, it's much better than Lindsay's My Family and a majority of American sitcoms. All in all, this show is not as terrible as a lot of people seem to think, it's just not Ade's style.
I'll pass on giving it a numerical rating.
