King Gary

This was a very carefully crafted mockumentary on life in darkest Essex. Very strong ensemble playing, carefully paced and a brilliant script.

I loved it, this could be a very successful sitcom and has some elements of Benidorm. Tom Davis was brilliant and threw himself into the dead pan and ironic situations.

Just watched series 1 and it was really great, I'm not sure why but this series reminds me of Sorry with Ronnie Corbet, I think perhaps because he always started with a personal plan and then it went awry, either way I loved it

Series 2, it was very funny but they really upped the cringeworthy elements. This style of exaggerated mockumentary is not everyone's cup of tea, just like People Doing Nothing or Mandy, but for those that do this was great, I laughed out loud so this tells you something.

The script was both inventive and sharp, I say haters stay away!

Tom Davis quite explicitly wanted to create a "working class comedy that doesn't punch down" and in King Gary, boosted up to series mode after a charming pilot in 2018, manages the brief quite admirably. Bolstered by a strong cast of comedy legends (particularly the hypnotically mannered performance of Laura Checkley and the evergreen Neil Maskell) the absurd scenarios, cringing observations about contemporary British culture and cartoonish foolishness doesn't always hang together terribly well but the core of it is the relationship between Gary and Terri. It's got a rare amount of heart and character beneath the crass foolishness that keeps me coming back for more.

Few episodes then it gets kind of ridiculous. I was ecstatic when I found this then after a few episodes unfortunately that went away. I did not know this was Tom Davis from Murder in successville ( which I quite liked) . He's really funny, the wife, the dad and some of the others but the writing got so pathetic I had to, sadly give up after about 5 episodes.

The underlying driver in the plot here is Gary Kings need to be seen as 'top dog' in the suburban cul de sac where he lives. Much merriment at his expense ensues as his various schemes are shown up for the vacuous and pointless shows of wealth and status that they are. Good laughs to be had here!

I watched the first episode on Friday and I had to go to IPlayer and watch the rest I couldn't resist. Chock full of of great actors, witty, excellent scripts and great pace. It's a good way to unwind after a long week, feel-good comedy that rightly deserves at least two more series. I have been laughing all day because of this and you can't have too much of that in your life.