Detectorists

Andy and Lance live in a rural English backwater that on the surface seems boring and uneventful. Mackenzie Crook's genius is to show us the comic gold that lies beneath. I'm not talking of the Saxon gold that our two heroes are searching for, but the ups and downs they face on their journey through life.

While gently making fun of our two under-achievers, the humour never belittles them. Their male obsessions are given a dry, melancholic and often wistful comic voice. Andy and Lance are well meaning, but they can also be naive and boring, loyal and selfish or just total dick heads. However, they are also strangely endearing.They are like us and we learn to love them despite their faults and eccentricities. Loved it!

?..........But I love this new series. It's not a laugh out loud comedy, but it makes me smile throughout and the half hour episode is finished far too quickly. It's a gentle comedy based on the lives of a metal detectorist club and the characters in that club. There is a mad farmer with imaginary dogs who gives the two main characters permission to scan his fields, except the paddock. No one is ever to go near the paddock! I wonder why? His wife did disappear many years ago, but I have a feeling that will have nothing to do with his aversion to paddock diggers. The characters have been written so well and the direction, also by McKenzie Crook, are intriguingly watchable. Mr Crook is a talented man and after only two episodes I know this will be a favourite with me.

Mackenzie Crook's Detectorist's is not your average Sitcom, over the six episodes of the first series it delivers central characters who are desperately melancholy, yet intelligent. There are very few cliché's in this series. The story evolves, as do the characters with warmth and depth. The humour is dry and the belly laughs are few and far between, but what I found was a comedy of great sensitivity, with emotional depth and was ultimately deeply rewarding.I hope that if a second series is developed that it doesn't deviate from it's path because Detectorists (there's no apostrophe in Detectorists) really is gold. Detectorists is probably the most complete comedy sit com of all time, it's gentle humour really shines.

Most people wouldn't even begin to watch this series due to the basic premise of this show. A couple of Brit buddies roaming around fields, looking for stuff with metal detectors. Truly, that is the LEAST of what this show is all about. The metal detector element, just enhances what is truly great TV.

This is a brilliantly written, humorous, witty show that is actually about people. And how their lives, interactions and their humanity pedal on show after show. The casting is phenomenal! The scripts are fantastic! The cinematography is amazing considering the low budget. This is a comedy in large part, but the hook is in how the weave a fine tapestry of feelings, human nature and humor into each and every show. This a Masterpiece.

Once you start, there is no turning back. I personally can't wait for a season 3....4.....5.....6......7.......8.....

There is one uncredited star in the Detectorists, its the British summer. It does exist, and somehow they managed to film the whole thing in glorious summer.

I've just watched episode 3 of the second series, and its a bleak November day at the time of writing this review. Just seeing the warm sun & verdant greenery brings a smile of nice things remembered. Add in some brilliant writing, top notch acting, mild eccentricity and a dash of the absurd, and the result is something very special.

A great example of the humour in the Detectorists is in the episode I've just watched. Without giving away anything, Lance tells Andy about the time his bed was cut in half by an ex girl friend who used a chainsaw to do the deed. After a pause Andy asks "Lengthways or sideways?". No expression of surprise, no mention of why Lance (a very mild mannered man) has ended up with his bed being cut in half. No questions about what sort of person the ex was nor how Lance could have ever provoked her to do such a thing. Lance and Andy acted like it was a perfectly normal thing that could have happened to anyone. I laughed out loud.