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<blockquote data-quote="Mel O&amp;#039;Drama" data-source="post: 383146" data-attributes="member: 23">Series Seven is almost painful to watch so far. I managed one episode last night and tried another this afternoon. Part of me wants to just get it over, but it&#039;s almost soul-destroying to get through. The third episode, The Ticket Machine, is easily my least-favourite episode of the entire run so far. It&#039;s dire.Arthur&#039;s absence is felt. It&#039;s perhaps less noticeable than the broader characters, but without him the importance of his scathing put-downs and disapproving looks is clear. As the only non blood relative (and so a relative outsider) in the household , Arthur added layers to the dynamics. More importantly, the cast has lost a terrific actor with a delivery that is sorely missed. Stan has inherited his lines about Olive being a &quot;stupid great nit&quot;, and it just doesn&#039;t work.Stan&#039;s absence just highlights how caricature-ish the rest of the characters are, and they suddenly all feel meaningless. There are endless attempts at slapstick physical comedy with Stan, Jack or Blakey which simply isn&#039;t well done enough to be funny (it&#039;s not even funny in a bad way. It&#039;s just bad and feels like a waste of my time).Olive&#039;s character seems to be have been pushed to the Nth degree which, again, exposes the limitations of the performer. It all feels very out there and anything goes, but it feels that nobody is accomplished enough to pull it off so it feels rather like watching the series performed by an am-dram team with writers&nbsp; who think they know what funny is but actually don&#039;t. And perhaps I am.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mel O'Drama, post: 383146, member: 23"] Series Seven is almost painful to watch so far. I managed one episode last night and tried another this afternoon. Part of me wants to just get it over, but it's almost soul-destroying to get through. The third episode, [I]The Ticket Machine,[/I] is easily my least-favourite episode of the entire run so far. It's dire. Arthur's absence is felt. It's perhaps less noticeable than the broader characters, but without him the importance of his scathing put-downs and disapproving looks is clear. As the only non blood relative (and so a relative outsider) in the household , Arthur added layers to the dynamics. More importantly, the cast has lost a terrific actor with a delivery that is sorely missed. Stan has inherited his lines about Olive being a "stupid great nit", and it just doesn't work. Stan's absence just highlights how caricature-ish the rest of the characters are, and they suddenly all feel meaningless. There are endless attempts at slapstick physical comedy with Stan, Jack or Blakey which simply isn't well done enough to be funny (it's not even funny in a bad way. It's just bad and feels like a waste of my time). Olive's character seems to be have been pushed to the Nth degree which, again, exposes the limitations of the performer. It all feels very out there and anything goes, but it feels that nobody is accomplished enough to pull it off so it feels rather like watching the series performed by an am-dram team with writers who think they know what funny is but actually don't. And perhaps I am. [/QUOTE]

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