Mountain Goats

Sat down on Friday night to see what was on, decided on this new 'comedy' offering on the BBC, after 10 minutes of childish humour accompanied with canned laughter and terrible acting i had to come to IMDb to check it's rating; I was shocked to see it has 6/10, i feel it should be much lower than this.

It feels like something of children's TV, i wouldn't actually rate it so low if it was shown in the evening, but for 10:30 at night, i want something a bit less childish and something more intellectually humorous, deeper characters.

The quality of the BBC comedy used to be so much better than it is now, maybe it's just my older years (26), they don't seem to have made/shown anything genuinely funny in years.

I missed the Playhouse pilot (Miller's Mountain) partly because the 'comedies' that I did see in that season were awful and therefore I never got as far as this one.

So, coming to Mountain Goats fresh I was surprisingly pleased. I am English, but have always had a liking for Celtic humour (Still Game, Chewin' The Fat, Rab C) so warmed to the characters early on. Although to be fair the relationship between Conor and his mother, in the first episode, was more akin to Last of The Summer Wine humour and somewhat tiresome a times. But, three episodes into the first series I am enjoying Mountain Goats greatly.

It is clear that the production team had the concept clear in their head from the start and the mix of study work and exteriors is well worked to provide a depth to each of the weekly set ups.

The acting is, as you would expect, from a comedy of this sort best described as 'broad'. There will be no calls from the RSC but that has been the problem with far to many comedies of late where the fun as been replaced with introspective study rather than belly laughs.

Mountin Goats follows the theme of 'Mrs Brown's Boys' and Miranda. Just get the laughs, no matter how stupid the set up. And no, I am not claiming that Mountain Goats is in their class, but it delivers a good belly laugh every few minutes therefore it does it's job.

The cast work well as ensemble headed by Jimmy Chisholm as the titular lead from the pilot. But for me it is the deadpan delivery of his lines by David Ireland that works for me. His 'vajazzle' scene was very funny.

I like this and I want more if it. Fingers crossed that the Beeb gets enough 'numbers' to enable BBC Scotland to fund a second series of this show.

7/10

I watched the 'Original' pilot episode called 'Millers Mountain' - an attempt by the BBC to draw in new comic-writing talent... it wasn't bad. Not great, but viewable.

This 'Pilot' is, however, absolutely terrible - a fact that is somewhat baffling, when you consider that the main actors are the same. A small part of me wonders whether the BBC have forced some kind of comic-lobotomy upon them? The timing, acting and overall performances are well below the standards set in the first Pilot.

I cannot accept that the same actors should perform so well in one, singular, episode and not in the next without having to resort to cursing either the writing or directing - the only alternative would be to assume that the actors themselves had decided to 'wooden - up' in order to sink their own careers.

I will watch the next two episodes, partly because I have some sado- masochistic tendencies, on the hope of finding a resolution to my question.... that said, I will be back!

I have watched several episodes of Mountain Goats now and each time look forward to the next one more.

This really appeals to my sense of humour in a way that not much comedy does these days.

It feels comfortably familiar as if I've been here before even though it's entirely new and even if I can see some of the jokes coming it's so I can enjoy them the more. I haven't even noticed the studio laughter others have complained about.

Perhaps the first episode wasn't the strongest, but as the series unfolds we get to understand the characters more and enjoy watching the situations unfold.

This may not be high art, but I enjoy it and look forward to the next episode - and that's what I want from a TV sitcom.