The First Team

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.

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.

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.

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

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.