Blandings

I will easily fly in the face of recent opinion on this show. If you want Jeeves and Wooster, then just watch your old DVD:s. I'm sure the ambition was to make this series as funny, but even if it can't quite reach up to that level, it's still good quality entertainment.

We have great actors, relaxed performances, fun guests - and a huge fat pig:) Pretty happy right there:)

I'm not a Wodehouse purist or expert, but I still have a feeling he would have appreciated the efforts to make his writings worth checking out for a new generation. Give it it a shot, and don't be so jeevesed off!

Saunders is always a fave but her lines omg. Her threats and superficial social climbing and Farthing and Spall are spot in. Poor put upon Butler Beach is such a great foil. Wow I laughed out loud a lot. Enjoy. Downtown Abbey gone off the rails.

We should not, I think, judge Blandings by the standards of realistic contemporary comedy. I agree that characters do not seem realistic in some respects and that the acting and effects in Season 1 are more artificially (Freddy's forelock rising and falling at the sight of a pretty female, for example), but both seasons have grown on me--I like them both. Both butlers Beach are wonderful, each in his own way. But both seasons are based on Wodehouse's brilliantly comedic language and absurd plots and unforgettably archetypal characters--plagues in the form of aunts/sisters, guardian-crossed lovers, butlers with more sense than their employers, frivolous young men who live for nightlife and fall in love with a succession of pretty young women, and leading male characters of the upper class who have a hobby-horse (in this case, the Empress) and are one cartload shy of a full load of fertilizer. I only wish there were 10 seasons of this delightful fluff.

I don't care about comparing or contrasting this series with literary masterpieces. I care about how enjoyable it is to watch character actors do their thing. And these actors do not disappoint. Their presentations are so well done and so well matched it gives me great pleasure to watch nostalgically the antics of the British upper crust makes a consistent dash toward lunacy in logic as they refuse to face reality during the great Victorian Age which in truth mimics some of the sexual innuendo to be found here. I hope the series gets the chance to find its feet. This show is an intellectual delight, especially if one enjoys the poetics of words, the sounds they make, and the sub-textual meanings behind them in a given context. The writers must have enjoyed themselves immensely while struggling to put the strings of expressions together to help develop the characters and their relationships to one another. "Lmao", in a dignified manner, of course.

I had high hopes for Blandings based on Jennifer Saunders' involvement. While she is quite good, the whole cast of regulars is excellent.

Unfortunately the first couple of episodes were just so-so and may have put off some reviewers who were in a rush to judgment when writing up their overly critical posts here. And there are a few occasional characters, like Baxter, who seem to not be quite on a par with the others, but their short-comings are more pronounced because the rest of the cast/characters are so excellent.

By the third and fourth episodes, the actors seem to have found their pace and settled very well into their characters. Timothy Spall is fantastic. Freddie, Beach, the maniacal gardener ... all of them are great in their roles and are laugh-out-loud funny.

Yes it is silly and yes it is quite different from the earlier Wodehouse inspired productions. If you want to see Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry playing Bertie and Jeeves, then this is not a rehash of the slower paced, repetitive, 1950's, I Love Lucy style Wodehouse that they did so well. If that's your cuppa' ... and I enjoyed that series too ... then by all means watch them. Comparing the two serves no useful purpose.