Coming of Age

OK, I'm an American (Anglophile) with some good taste. I enjoy independent films, art, and theatre, however there are times I enjoy the occasional comedy situation that is FAR from reality. I think those who gave this show a 1 out of 10 really need to take their own age into consideration before berating the show. Yes, I think most of the material is dry and objectionable, but that is what make the show gratuitous fun. The show has thankfully been commissioned for a third series coming in 2011. I think Ellen Thomas, who plays the principal, is brilliant; she was the best permanent addition to the show! This is the type of comedy that some either love or loathe, but if some find themselves loathing, give "The Inbetweeners" a try; that may be a better choice.

...and that's saying something! This is a horrid sitcom that should put it's writers to shame. A sex comedy involving teenagers, a horrible subject manner that relies on sex and gross out jokes.

Coming of Age is about five friends, Chloe (Anabel Barnston) and Matt (Tony Bignell), Jas (Hannah Job) and Ollie (Ceri Phillips), and the local idiot and troublemaker DK (Joe Tracini) who somehow get to do A-Levels. Chloe and Matt are best friends, and start a relationship; but both take their time before taking it to the next level. Both are immature, Chloe is very much in childish things whilst Matt acts as like a 14-year-old boy who just wants to have sex without thinking of the consequences. Jas and Ollie are very different, and have a very active sex life together, often experimenting. DK is idiot who show gets to do A-Levels at a sixth form college, and his mission in life is to harass the teachers, and pretty much finds way to expose himself to women. He is the worst case example of a chav.

The creator and main writer of the show is Tim Dawson. He was 19 when the show was commissioned and his only writing experience was for Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps. Those are warning signs straight away. The theme of Coming of Age is that it focuses on Sixth Form students (i.e. 16 to 17 year olds), having a lot of sex, and the comedy based a round the subject. I am a firm believer that sex comedy around teenage sexual behaviour should never a subject of overt comedy. It might be work as a dark comedy, but this show wasn't aiming for that. This was the show that Cruel Intentions 2 would have been. Sex comedies like American Pie work because the focuses is on 18-year-old, so are at least adults. As well as the subject matter, the humour itself is so weak. It is basically sex jokes, which are really poorly done, and other types of vulgar humour which wouldn't entertaining a child with low comic standards. Examples of the humour include a boy examining another boy's genitals with their girlfriend walking in, jokes involving girls and their sexual toys and people being able to play musical instruments with their bottom. This isn't even the low common denominate of humour.

The programme is also really out of wrack with reality. This is not what Sixth Form/A-Level students, because for a start they trend to be people who want to stay on in education and do well. A kid like DK would never ever go to sixth form, he properly never even pass his A-Levels. Chloe is way too childish to be considered normal and could have and should have been played as a typical fashion conscious girl. Some sixth form couples may be sexually active, but nowhere need the levels Ollie and Jas are and I doubt many would get up to kinky escapees. If they do then possibly something very must have happened to them. The best sitcom are often to some sort of reality which people could relate to. Examples are Peep Show, Friends and Only Fools and Horses. There is something you could believe in. They is often also some sort of drama in the best comedies and the characters are able to grow and have relationships, even in surreal ones like Scrubs or the final episode of Blackadder.

This is a horrible show that is a curse on our TV screens. It even more of a shame because there are so many talented people who are trying to break into the entertainment industry.

Most bad shows I can safely ignore. Some, though, generate such an astonishing reputation for awfulness that I can't help but do some minor investigations; in the case of 'Coming Of Age', I was left staggering away reaching for the mouthwash.

No disrespect to nineteen year-olds out there, but they aren't ready for proper jobs. I know this because much of one of my old jobs was spent dealing with problems caused by the nineteen year-old employees. I really feel sorry for the writer of this show, whose career has opened with a critical evisceration that he might have avoided had he been out to see the world for a bit before putting pen to paper. Successful it may be, and I don't doubt that his bank balance is looking a fair bit healthier than mine is a the moment, but in decades to come when people look back at the 2000s to snigger at how old and uncool everything was then it'll be shows like this that are first in the firing line. It's like a modern version of 'On The Buses' in that respect, only with added smarm and a mystical vision of the demographic it's aiming at.

There is nothing, literally nothing, in this show that doesn't come back to sex eventually. Take a look at the clips on Youtube - the ones put up by the BBC itself to promote the show - to see for yourself. Take a look at the episode titles ("I Suck Coppers") being one of the cleaner examples) for more information. And this is where the real problem comes: this is technically known as "adult humour", but the appeal seems to be limited to thirteen year-olds staying up past their bedtimes on a school night. Check out the comments on the aforementioned Youtube pages, the majority of which consist of "I tried that line on my teacher and got detention...", for evidence that the target audience and the actual audience don't always match up. I don't blame the audience for being too young to know how they're being talked down to. I don't blame the writer for being too young to know how to create characters, resulting in a show where everyone is based around a single defining characteristic ("the dizzy one", "the one who's even more obsessed with sex than everyone else", etc) and every line plays to that. I do blame - and here comes the root of my irritation - BBC Three.

BBC Three is, ostensibly, a channel for young people. It's problem is that it's run by a group of people who have no idea what young people are and whose market research doesn't appear to have involved any. This has resulted in a channel devoted to an entirely phoney vision of youth that doesn't exist outside its own programmes. No wonder "young people" are a notoriously difficult to attract for TV programmers, since the "young people" the programmers have in mind don't exist and never have. There are enough idiots out there to just about keep BBC Three in business (I'm thinking of the people who "won the chance" to record their own continuity announcements, saving the channel the trouble of having to pay people to do them like everyone else), but I'm technically young enough to be part of the target demographic too and I feel vaguely insulted to have this aimed at me.

It must have felt like Christmas at BBC Three when this script came along. Someone from their target demographic writing for their target demographic? Brilliant! The work does itself! Unfortunately though, as long as it keeps chasing imaginary audience figures who fit into neat little pretend pigeonholes, its output is going to continue to embarrass people. Not that they'll ever acknowledge this of course - I'm a statistical anomaly you see, so I can be safely ignored. The channel's idea of what its audience is appeared to malfunction in the face of the show's critical sandblasting and they commissioned another series anyway, so I suppose the kids'll be happy about that. If only the show was actually aimed at them.

To think at one time the BBC was know for it's great comedies like Fawlty Towers or Black Adder, Red Dwarf and Only Fools and Horses and countless more. But now The BBC seems to lower their bar each time with what the exhibit on BBCThree. Although to be fare we should all be aware that if a programme was any good the BBC would put it on one of their real channels. Coming of Age has managed to make Two Pints look mature, now you could say 'That's the whole point it is about young adults' well then have a look at a far more sharply written comedy on CH4 'The Inbetweeners'. This is dumb, crude humour, no wait Family Guy and the Young Ones had dumb crude humour they where still funny. What is it with this? Oh it's just not funny in the least it's like a sitcom that's been written by a 12 year old.

BBC as a license payer I expect a refund.

How this ever got made is beyond me. It is not at all funny. The humour is below the level even of a teenage boy who'd laugh at the mere mention of anything to do with sex. It's simply pathetic and childish jokes that almost make me feel embarrassed for the writer, knowing that someone has written this thinking they're funny. If the writer was trying to be controversial, then he's even failed there, it's not funny, it's not offensive (except to human intelligence) it's just bad...so very very bad. And just to add to the misery the acting is awful, if there is a single redeeming feature of this show i haven't found it.