Deux blondes et des chips

I can't understand why people have criticised this show so heavily because it's absolutely hilarious.

I missed the show the first time around and only recently caught a few episodes on UKTV. The very first episode I saw had me laughing so hard, I cried! I was immediately hooked and bought the first two seasons on DVD.

One of the reasons the show is so funny is that most people can identify with the basic situations the writer, Susan Nickson, looks at. In addition, the characters are all human, complete with some pretty awful flaws. Even the actors fit their parts perfectly. They're not all staggeringly beautiful and they're not the world's greatest thespians - most of them are newcomers to TV or have relatively little experience. Having said that, the main characters Donna (Natalie Casey), Janet (Sheridan Smith), Johnny (Ralf Little) and Gaz (Will Mellor) are all played brilliantly ...with perfect delivery and comic timing.

The humour is often very crude (lots of jokes about "bum love") and some of the "issues" looked at are a little tasteless (one of the newest characters has learning difficulties) but isn't this how real life is? How likely is the man in the pub - who's just sunk six pints - to hold back from telling a joke that is a little racist or sexist? How many people do we meet day-to-day that have old-fashioned views about people with learning difficulties, or hold weird misconceptions? The important thing to remember is that the show always treats its characters/situations affectionately in the end. The character with learning difficulties (Munch), for example, always ends up on top or always gets the care and attention he needs from his brother (Gaz) or other people.

If you're not easily offended and are reasonably up to date with youth culture, give it a try!

I found the first series unexpectedly funny. The writing is fresh and delightfully obscene! The young writer has had the courage to put lines and topics into a sitcom that have not been used before, but which people make jokes about all the time in real life. The cast, particularly the girls are superb and seem the fit the roles like a glove. So what if the show is a little like Friends, set in Runcorn - so long as it's funny! The show is let down by the laughter track - in an odd reversal of the usual criticism - it is not strong enough. I have been creasing myself with laughter with some lines only to hear silence from the recorded audience. The repeated viewing of the first series was even better - which is always a good sign. I am glad that the Beeb has agreed to a second series despite the criticism.

I have not seen the new series yet but I am looking forward to it coming to terrestrial soon.

'Two Pints' is hardly the show of the century and outside of the UK I doubt anyone would understand or enjoy the humour, but I love it for everything it is. The humour is very hit or miss, and sometimes too childish or exaggerated, but the rest of the time it has me laughing out loud.

What makes 'Two Pints' stand out to me is the fact that it's so honest. It doesn't shy away from anything, no matter how detestable it might be to others. Many of the jokes are filthy, there's open prostitution, alcoholism as a culture, scamming of the benefits system and many more things that other shows refuse to explore but that are very much present all over the UK. The characters are all hugely flawed, underachievers that are lacking in ambition, intelligence and integrity, but they're all endearing and relatable on some level, because they're just trying to do the best with what they have and know.

'Two Pints' needs to be taken and enjoyed for what it is. It's simple, it's flawed but it's funny and authentic and provides some light-hearted comic relief that's perfect for helping you to leave your worries behind for half an hour.

I was fifteen when "Hollyoaks" first reared its painfully unimpressive head. The thing that disappointed me most about that terrible show was that it had so much potential. "Two Pints... ", another waste of a good concept, has in its cast two actors from that show - Natalie Casey and Will Mellor, both acted as comic relief in "Hollyoaks".

The episode I saw today featured Janet (Sheridan Smith) thinking about becoming a student. I was watching, getting annoyed at the portrayal of students as ridiculously upper-class muppets, when somebody asked Janet if she knew what an NVQ was. "Not Very Qualified?" interrupted Donna (Natalie Casey). That isn't simply a poor joke. That is a poor joke which I have heard used to describe NVQs since I was sixteen. And they stole it from common use and slapped it in the middle of a sitcom as if they wrote it - and it was still the best line in the show.

The nadir of the episode came at the end (yes, it was downhill all the way). Donna had spent the episode trying to prove that she could remain calm in the face of any provocation. By the end, Donna and Gaz (Mellor), her boyfriend, were walking by a canal, while she tried to remain calm as he admitted to trying to cheat on her, and recommended she dress more sleazily. Wouldn't you know it, she pushed him in the canal! Did the writers actually sit around thinking "I know, what if she pushes him in - they won't be expecting that!" It was one of the laziest punchlines I've ever seen.

Yet I'll carry on watching "Two Pints... ", because part of me still hopes that one day they'll write a good episode, and that the post-school, pre-"adult" demographic will have found a voice.

The script is often shoddy, the acting sometimes atrocious, but if you are willing to look beyond these things, you might just find an intense, comedic rollercoaster charting the ups and downs of five twenty-somethings.

Starring Ralf Little (Perhaps the most famous of the five, due to the success of The Royle Family), Sheridan Smith (Reprising her role as Little's love interest), Will Mellor and Natalie Casey (Hollyoaks) and Kathryn Drysdale, a previously unknown face somewhat, we have a promising cast, who while may not have hit the mark quite yet, are certainly in line for a promising future.

Two Pints has a great variety of characters, some tedious, while others eerily humourous, the image of Donna's mother will forever haunt me.

"Have you ever experienced an older woman?"

Ugh, so in summary, while obviously not a frontrunner for many academic awards, Two pints has many golden moments, and perhaps in a few years, when the cast having been famed or forgotten, this show might get the recognition it deserves.