Gavin and Stacey, gave up after 5 minutes

[ssd]

Couldn't see what's funny about it, gave up after 5 minutes.
Bit cringey

I’ve watched all 3 series of many times and love them, but I was disappointed. It felt very contrived and badly written. The proposal had me shouting at the telly...nessa would never have done that.

I thought it was very forced at first, really cringe and fake and I felt dismayed but it warmed up and enjoyed the rest. DD who has never seen it before even laughed out loud a couple of times!

Do we not have the watershed any more though? Had to keep pausing it as my 12 year old wandered in and out . . . not impressed at him seeing them normalising weed smoking with the most ridiculous /nasty character being the only person who isn't happy with it. I know that weed IS considered pretty normal these days but I don't want DC exposed to "everyone does it" messages at this age . . . thought there wouldn't be anything to worry about at an 8.30 start.

Rsnt over!

See I don’t think the old Nessa would have done that. But the current Nessa who has co-parented successfully with Smithy for 10 years... I think she might.

It’s 10 years on, people do change and mellow in character. The only thing that grated for me was that Smithy had the same car.

I couldn't stop staring at Dawn's face.

Was shocking.

I watched Sally4ever recently and it took me ages to realise that the lead role was actuality JD!!

Just wish Smithy’s sister and Dave Coaches had been in it too so they would have had everyone

Was it just me that thought the tattoo Nessa did on that bloke's back looked like Dave Coaches? I thought that might have been the kne reference to him but then I was analysing everything to see if they were adding past jokes into the script!

Loved it! 👏👏👏

And the fat suits make sense as I was sure that James Corden isn't that size in real life now he's made it big in America.

I liked it but then I hadn't
got myself hyped up, it won't live up to people's expectations if they build anticipation in their heads.

The thing with smithy and nessa was they always were on the same page especially with the parenting but didnt always realise it. I thought the scene receiving the gift from their son was lovely (and he was just lovely and even looked like them ) I think nessa would have softened after 11 years.

Gavin and stacey were always the rubbish ones....

We had a few laugh out loud bits, it was like meeting old friends after a long time, everyone was a bit awkward but we all settled into it.

We loved it.
Agree that Smithy would not be driving that same car, he likes his "labels" he would be in a second hand Audi by now.
Also no way did Pamela buy a decent egg buttie at Knutsfod services, the food is grim there.
Loved the taps, that Nessa sang the Male part of Fairytale in NY and the Calipos.

On the whole, after watching it, i thought How pointless, and why the cliffhanger?
but i hate to feel that way, and was interrupted by family members, so will have to watch again, on my own.

I didn’t cotton into Harry Shipman, but you kids caked Harry and Meghan- what’s the other kid called?

Two kids named

It got better towards the end but was pretty lamentable on the whole and relied on old jokes and tropes.

MrsJBaptise oh maybe, I will assume the tattoo was him then .

I love the fact it wasn't all wrapped up nicely in a now at the end, I like ambiguous endings.

I'm baffled by people who have never seen a single episode before and yet they snuggled down to watch the Christmas special? Surely nothing would make sense. How would you understand the back story, the in-jokes, the relationships, the hidden meanings? I didn't understand Sonia - was she meant to be horrible - she didn't seem that bad, probably just nervous and intimidated by meeting such a close knit group. If she was really that shallow why would she want Smithy and not some flash City type?

Loved the references to Chinese Alan and Budgie. Loved the yogurt and Calippos. Didn't love Dawn's puffy pillow face.

I think it’s hard with one off specials the job is to reintroduce the characters and explain where they’ve been for ten years. It’s hard to cram that into an hour and make it slick.

At the end of the day, when all said and done, I loves it I did. Not as slick as the series but it’s not going to be.

I too, like pp, struggle to comprehend how anyone is going to enjoy any Christmas survival, if they haven't seen the original series.

I mean seriously? What you did expect? idiots!

I didn’t cotton into Harry Shipman, but you kids caked Harry and Meghan- what’s the other kid called?

Think it was Caitlyn?

I loved it. Nothing cringe about it all.

The best bits were the little details ... the way Stacey said, when she’d lured Gavin to the Island ‘we’re Stacey and Gavin’ (not Gavin and Stacey!), the kids’ names Harri and Megan, having Nessa and Bryn swapping the male and female singing parts...

In terms of the bigger story line I agree with pp it was clunky, but then it’s very different writing an hour long one off special. The 30 minute episodes in the series enabled much more convincing storylines and character development. This felt like a lot had to be crammed in: making references to 10+ years ago while also bringing us up to speed with where the characters are now.

Also agree with pp that the fact Corden has become famous in the US has distanced him and taken a little of the charm away.

Having said that I do think there were some great touches. It was a big risk resurrecting it especially giving it all the hype.

Didn’t like the ending though... no way would Nessa propose. It could have been really touching if she and Smithy had been having the usual tense dialogue and sniping at each other and then she’d just in the final seconds blurred out ‘I loves you’ and then cut to the credits. But to repeat it and then go down on one knee was overkill and detracted from what could have been a brilliant cliffhanger

I didn't notice a thing about Dawn's face! She isn't an actress I normally see in anything else and she just looked the same to me really.

I also didn't notice the gags in the kids' names! I just assumed he was harry for Harry Kane and DH noticed the Spurs gag in the password at the beginning.

I did, however, notice they got the lyrics wrong to Fairy-tale of New York (accidentally I assume) and noticed some of Pam's malapropisms.

I thought the episode was better when all the cast were together : the bits with Gavin and Stacey were dull : but twas ever thus!

OP - Is that you Mrs Brown?

Anyone got a theory for the name Sonia? It's not a common name so I wondered why they chose it.