New Still Game

This latest series was not nearly as good as the earlier ones . But I still count it as a must watch , and it still raises a laugh on occasion .

 

Im not Scottish and didn't grow up watching this but I've watched a couple of episodes of this series and it's cringeworthy. Each to their own though

 

The old ones are considerably better.

 

The last one was alright. It is still coming off as a bit contrived though. The magic of the old episodes was that the characters were believable and well-rounded, and the patter seemed natural.

A lot of the humour was particular to Glasgow and Scotland (and Glaswegian and Scots), and I think that has been necessarily dimished or lost because it is now broadcast UK-wide.

 

Time to call it a day.

 

Genuinely only thought one episode was actually funny.

Definitely feels like they’re trying too hard to get an English audience.

 

Absolute pish last night. Methadone mick has become an a terrible character.
Caravan one was funny and the first 3 had their moments

 

That callum is armstrong in 30 year btw

 

i thought the last series actually wasn’t that bad. But this series apart from the caravan one this has been pish. Methadone Mick is a *.

 

I really enjoyed the episode last night. Don’t understand all the hate for Methadone Mick.

Didn’t recognise Craig Ferguson at all at first

Was a bit of a surprise when he took off his wig and took his teeth out

 

Me either In my work I came across a lot of people with addictions who sounded just like him although a lot less erudite I think some people just don't feel comfortable with the character because it feels too close to home. It's his laugh that gets me

 

the yew tree quips near ended me

 

Yeah his laugh is fantastic

 

Thought there were loads of laugh out loud lines last night. Don't really get the it's not very realistic stuff, it's not a documentary ffs. Pretty much every episode has had really funny bits in it. What more do you want from a comedy?

 

I hadn’t until now.

 

He has grown a beard and his hair is quite a bit longer to when he was doing his chat show in America.

 

What made Still Game a cultural phenomenon, rather than another run-of-the-mill sitcom, was that it was grounded in Glasgow and Scotland - in its culture, language and people (probably the best example of that is Season 2, Episode 7: “Shooglies”).

There have been a couple of times where the script has noticeably been amended or written to accommodate a non-Scottish audience, which is fine in principle, but you lose something.

The characters were so well written and acted for the first six series, that you completely forgot that Ford Kiernan, Greg Hemphill, Jane McCarry, Mark *, Paul Riley and Sanjeev Kohli were in their thirties or forties. People were even fond of minor characters, like Pete. I doubt anyone would care if Mick were written out of the show because he is so one-dimensional. What happened to Winston?

There is the odd laugh-out-loud moment (Jack in the bath, last season), but most of the jokes fall flat for me now. The writing and acting is well below the level we had come to expect, and it seems to have lost a bit of its heart as well (listening to Jack and Victor reminisce about Glasgow in the episode above is not particularly funny, but it was the wee details like those that gave it its charm; most situations in the last two series are just played for laughs).

Maybe, I am being over-critical, but I have watched every episode from the first six series a dozen times over, and I still find them hilarious (I tend to watch them when I get homesick actually, which says something); I could take or leave the newer ones.