Outnumbered Xmas special

[Rollergirl11]

BBC1 9:40 pm. Who’s watching?!

I really enjoyed it. Especially Ben, and the phone contract joke. I have older teens now and found it relatable. I think the cancer storyline was fine, mirrored a lived experience in our family, enabled the concept of the kids starting to think about the grown ups.

@Bellyfullofbiscuits I sat there wondering when we will stop paying DS’s phone bill!

I was looking forward to it and unfortunately it did disappoint. I was wondering when the story was actually going to get started, the parcel plot line was tedious and then it just seemed to end without much happening.

Has been interesting to watch this and Gavin and Stacey as I feel like I've grown up with both but G&S was much better by a country mile.

Loved the original. This was very disappointing and almost embarrassingly bad.

Which bits did people laugh at? Genuine question!

How??

The inclusion of Jane was just mind numbingly dull. Jane was never a great character. They would have been better off bringing back Sue's sister Angela.

Agree that it was nice seeing Ben as a responsible adult and he carried the lot of them. Sue was just incredibly annoying and a lot of the script seemed so forced and unfunny. Jake has always been the weaker of the child actors and he was dreadful tonight.

It was always a massive risk following the sublime Gavin and Stacey finale last night. Such a shame as I've always loved Outnumbered.

I'd like to know that too. I didn't even smile for a split second, and turned off about 27 minutes in. Couldn't stand any more of this crap.

Just watch it on iPlayer?! Or do you live in 2002?

It was nice to see them again but nothing special. The cancer storyline went nowhere much. Jake looked awful but then suddenly reconciled with his gf out of nowhere, Karen stopped being funny after she hit puberty (she's just a nasty piece of work) and Ben was unexpectedly considerate. As for Jane.......the 'joke' is always the same with her.

And the new house seemed remarkably similar to the old one, except from outside. So not sure of the point of that.

Going against the grain here.

We enjoyed it.
Mind, the dc are the age of my dc, and we very much related to the 'trying to get them together on one date for a meal together'.
We have 3 dc too, and very, very, very much related to the series when it first came out. (dc, obviously the same ages then too).

And in ours. DH looked at me to check if we are still paying the 'kids' (22 and 25) phone contracts, and was genuinely surprised that we are 😂😂😂

My thoughts too. It was clear it would be rather different from the original series, but I enjoyed seeing how the children had grown up.

Gavin and Stacey had a much better premise to work with, and characters that were still “live” and recognisable from the original series. So it succeeded brilliantly last night, whereas Outnumbered was just a bit of gentle comedy.

I didn’t mind the cancer storyline just didn’t find it particularly funny but didn’t find the earlier series funny either. People really liked Miranda too I guess and I never found that funny.

I’m sorry, I can definitely understand why you didn’t want to watch it.

We thought it was terrible and unfunny.
I think it would have been funnier with Ben being a dad now rather than Jake and the child being similar to how he was. Jake is a weaker actor so I’m not sure why they had him in a more prominent role and he does look like he’s on drugs or Ill. Jane could have been mentioned in passing through a phone call or something instead of being in the show. They didn’t even mention Angela.
The cancer storyline could have worked if it was part of a series instead of a standalone episode.

I was looking forward to it as I loved the series originally and rewatched with teen ds but it fell flat. On the other hand Gavin and Stacey which I wasn’t originally huge fan of was brilliant.

I’d have thought a significant proportion of the population have had or been on the receiving end of the cancer conversation, so like others I didn’t appreciate having that catch me out on a comedy.

I’ve always loved Outnumbered, although I recognise it can never live up to the early years when the kids were little. There were a few good character moments, but overall I found it too slow and not funny enough.

Whereas we loved G&S last night - DH is watching it again right now in fact,

What's that meme?

It was awful. None of the “kids” can act but Jake is the worst by far. The cancer storyline was depressing and Jane was just irritating. The box storyline went on and on (it wasn’t funny in the first place let alone the umpteenth time) and Sue was just wet. I was also endlessly distracted by her awful hairstyle.

This one

Another one who did not appreciate the cancer storyline. Telling your kids you have cancer is NOT comedy. It just bought up all the horrible memories of having to do that in real life.
I agree there were lots of ways it could have been better.
I think they could have swapped the roles over so the original kids had to ad lib with their own kids would have been fun. They could even have recycled some of the old conversations (especially from original Karen).

Yes her hair! Not good. I felt like it portrayed them to be quite "old"....They are early 60s maximum.

DH pays his mum’s phone bill. He’s had to have words about her phoning up the Loose Women completion lines.

we liked it - Outnumbered was never the same careful clever scripting of Gavin & Stacey and other shows - I think it is unfair to compare them.

Outnumbered has always been a snapshot of this family's life - less sitcom-like than other family shows.

My Dad was diagnosed with cancer on Christmas Eve a few years ago and has died from it - so I understad those who dont find cancer to be something they can laugh at in a Christmas special - but we found the programme funny on the whole.

There were funny bits. Ben did carry it for the kids, but he often did.

It just seemed like we had stepped into a little snapshot of the Brockman's life - it wasn't meant to be anything else than a pop in to see what is happening with them. No massive plot or big drama and we appreciated that as it was in keeping with the show.

I enjoyed it a lot as a piece of nostalgia and closure; but I think, if you'd watched this episode as your first time ever seeing the programme, you probably wouldn't bother seeking out the earlier series.

I can see how the cancer storyline might have been a bit too much for those who have been affected by it, but it isn't meant to be like (the excellent) Not Going Out or (the presumably enjoyable to some people) Mrs Brown's Boys: it's a mixture of comedy and pathos, rather than continual set-ups for non-stop gags - just like Gavin & Stacey, as it happens.