Stressed Eric

When I first saw the advertisements in the t.v. guide,it said "Bad than Bart"and"Spicer than South Park".When I saw the first episode,it was boring.This was another cartoon that failed trying to beat The Simpsons.Also,this show lasted for a few weeks.Also,the show was unfunny as well.I suggest that you watch The Simpsons to see jokes that do make ou laugh out loud.

This is a class program. It was all everyone talked about when it was on, but I am dismayed to hear that Eric's wonderful London/middle class accent was dubbed for the American version! Plum, forgotten plum, but a plum never the less!!!

There was a big hubbub about Clerks being cancelled after 2 episodes. The same fate befell this show and nobody cared. This was an absolute gem of a show and I was the only American guy who watched it. The Perfects are so damn funny. A lot of the humor is so stupid that you can't help but laugh. The funniest is when the donkey explodes for no reason at all. PUT THIS ON DVD!!!!!!!!!!

A TV programme which doesn't seem to have got the recognition it deserves, which is a pity, as it is the best original creation for years. The series is based around Eric Feeble, 40-year-old divorced father who, as the title suggests, is forever under strain. At home he has to cope with his alcoholic au pair, autistic son and a daughter who is allergic to just about everything. Added to that are Eric's hippy ex-wife who keeps turning up when he least expects it, and next-door neighbours the Perfects, who seem to make it their business to out-shine Eric at every turn. At work things are no easier. The quite irritatingly handsome and wonderful Ray Perfect is a highly successful executive at Eric's place of work, Eric's secretary is forever on the telephone organising her social life, and the boss. P.P. (who is incidentally my favourite character in this series, apart from Eric himself) rules the business with an iron rod. Other regular characters include Eric's psychiatrist Doc (an age-ing swinger) and elderly neighbour Mrs Wilson, who's trips out to post a letter always end in disaster.

There is plenty of biting humour and some great comedy moments. Storylines include a nativity play, an old flame of Eric's turning up, a desperate hunt for a potato, a parents V pupils cricket match and many more. What makes this series stand out is the fact that comedy is combined with darker undertones, reflections on the pressures of modern-day life and the cast of interesting, genuine and often not unsympathetic characters. A second series was broadcast in 2000. Let's hope for a third.

One London critic asked "Is there anybody who finds this programme in the least amusing?" Shockingly, the answer's yes. Then again, there are people who think Macy Gray is prettier than Cindy Crawford.

This painful series debuted in 1998 on BBC2 in prime time with hype on the scale of that given to the Millennium Dome and with much the same results - the British answer to "The Simpsons"? Yes, if "The Simpsons" was stuffed with mono-dimensional characters (including the title character), had such non-clever ideas as calling an all-around wonder man Peter Perfect (the Perfect Family, geddit?), sported pretty poor animation, and was tedious and unfunny to boot. I made it through two full episodes of the first series before giving up, and I was amazed that the BBC commissioned a second series two years later.

The first series was a blot on the otherwise spotless record of Klasky/Csupo, and I was glad to see they had nothing to do with the new series - but it hadn't advanced a jot. We still had the useless Eric stumbling through life without arousing any sympathy, we still had the lineup of unappealing characters, we still had the slow-as-molasses stories...

That American guy was right. BORING.