Suburban Shootout

I'm on a quest to watch everything Ruth Wilson has acted in. She's brilliant and steals this show as well. Here she hams it up tremendously as a ditsy/nutty sex pot. She plays the daughter of one of the gun toting old ladies who sets her sights on the son of another (Tom Hiddleston in an early role). While a fun idea this would've been better suited for a 30min short film. Old ladies touting guns and having turf wars in a quaint little town gets really old really quickly and they couldn't possibly have stretched this out further than the two seasons that were made. While fun and sometimes even brilliantly so this has a tiresome undercurrent of male bashing. Points subtracted for that. Besides that this is a mostly fun watch but it does get old and towards the end of the second season my interest had severely waned and I found myself surfing on my smartphone while glancing at the screen every now and then. Watch it if you are curious about early appearances from Tom Hiddleston and Ruth Wilson. Especially Wilson is broad camp to the hilt and she plays it wonderfully.

"Stepford Wives" vs "Suburban Housewives" or perhaps an English "Twin Peaks" - you'd understand the connection if you REALLY watched "Twin Peaks". The acting is rich, the comedy black and the content adult. If you enjoy bloke comedy then you will recognize a few faces. It doesn't take long before you are well entrenched into the story line and you'll be thanking Oxygen for running two episodes back to back.

Overall theme: Joyce and her husband have moved into a small English city (it has a church, so it's a city) as he has accepted a position as chief constable. Two factions of housewives are contending for influence/control over Joyce and ultimately, her husband's influence over local law enforcement. Each gun toting faction uses a different method of influence, fear and intimidation vs conscience and moral duty.

The supporting characters (more a case of caricatures) are campy and carried out by actors and actresses with the same commitment to their role as Don Adam's "Maxwell Smart".

Highly recommended.

This TV series has not aged well now that there's a "suburban shooting" nearly every week. The show might make more sense if set in West Texas where the gun culture is like a religion, but in domesticated England? Nope. Rather than playing comedy seriously, the actors know they are in spoof and mug accordingly. It's rather sickening to watch considering the subject.

I kept watching just to catch TH, but he had not gotten passed his teen years' ungainliness when this was filmed. He had bad skin and un-brightened teeth with little muscle tone, kinda shocking to see him as he was then compared to later. He got better looking.

I was channel surfing and ended up on Oxygen when this was on. It's housewives meets mafia how these women control their town. Odd twists and good acting make this a highly entertaining piece of the BBC. One of my favorites, second only to Xena: Warrior Princess. Once upon a time, Two best friends come home to find their home vandalized. From then on they take a vow to stop crime in their own vigilante style. Camilla goes to far, and it results in two gangs of housewives battling it out in suburbia. All the little details are funny, from how the 'gangmembers' get their own parking spot at the grocery store and ridiculous discounts through intimidation. I would highly recommend this show.

I hail form Greece and being part of the European Union (at least sometimes I think we are) we are no strangers to true British comedy. From the Kenny Everett show, to Men Behaving Badly, Only Fools and Horses, to the Benny Hill show and of course the Black Adder, along with numerous VHS tapes and occasional screenings of Monty Pythons's movies, we've seen and heard it (almost) all. But then a hidden gem like this comes along and brings a bright and nutty smile on one's face again. From the seemingly peaceful little British town and quiet paradise of Stempington comes a colourful array of innocent housewives, leading an ordinary and boring life. But things are much different below the surface, with gun totting criminals, naive police enforcement, corrupt officials, deviant old ladies and sex crazed menopausal wives, springled with asylum seeking refugees and cheese loving French gangsters, this series has it all! From bonkers crazy themes, to surprise attacks of equal amounts of laughter and mayhem, often at the same scene, it is a truly hilarious and darkly satisfying black comedy, promising to entertain you as only british comedies can. Before Vicious came into play, it is truly a marvel to behold. A special nod to then just aspiring actors Ruth Wilson (Luther/The Affair) and Tom Hiddleston (the name needs no introduction nowadays) as the Romeo-And-Juliet-esque doomed lovers, who show us a very different and comic performance than we are accustomed to...