Last weekend I saw some standup. It was a variety show, a sort of mix-tape of live comedians, held together by a compere and lapped up by an audience of regulars who knew all the running jokes that clearly happened every time this particular night was on. As a newcomer, I was baffled at first, then I started to pick up the gags and the jokes everyone was waiting for. In the end, I got into it: people in skintight bodysuits dancing to Jason Derulo at random points was indeed funny! I kept expecting I Hate You (Channel 4) to have a similar moment of reckoning, a point at which its odd blend of surreal-ish visual gags and toilet humour clicked into place. But, three episodes in, I couldn’t face watching any more to find out.
This is the latest sitcom from the creator of Friday Night Dinner, Robert Popper, who has contributed to most of Channel 4’s best comedies, from Peep Show to Spaced and The IT Crowd. It is female-led – how modern – and follows two flatmates, Rebecca (Melissa Saint) and Charlie (Tanya Reynolds), as they walk around east London’s prettier streets saying slightly spiky things to each other. I did start to wonder what it was actually about because it meanders around a premise, rather than committing to one.
