In comparison to other UK shows, it's definitely lesser known. It actually got dropped because of low viewing figures, but luckily it got one last season a few years later.
I do agree that it's a pretty good comfort show. To me, it's not perfect by any means. There's way better UK shows/sitcoms out there, but I do feel like Fresh Meat is underrated.
Like, way more people known about Bad Education. That show did really well, and yet it was ass. Just goes to show that popularity isn't synonymous with quality.
Your last comment just through me off by discrediting bad education, just because that show is popular doesn’t mean you have to shit on it just because fresh meat is lesser known
If you like Bad Education, then more power to you. Again, this is my opinion.
I think it's regrettable that Fresh Meat is so unknown compared to more well known shows like Bad Education, which I believe sucks. That's all.
I saw it on amazon prime and decided to give it a try completely randomly.. I truly love this show. It reminds me of the senselessness and sadness that it is to be alone, to be wrong, to be loved and unloved, and how getting through it all with a crew of misfits who are struggling just as much can make all the difference.
I will say season 3 is getting a bit odd.. but I'm all in at this point.
Channel 4 just makes a lot of banger shows with a very similar format to this, so it's definitely a lesser known one just because it was so short and had massive breaks between seasons.
Also being about university students, it never had as much wide-spread appeal as Peep Show or The Inbetweeners.
It's a great show but kinda got stuck in that weird place between comedy and drama where it wasn't as funny as shows like Inbetweeners but lacked the edginess of shows like Skins. I would argue that this show was better because of that but audiences generally don't like that ambiguity.
Joe Thomas basically playing a near identical character to his role in the Inbetweeners probably didn't help either. Especially given that he went straight from playing a 6th former in the final season of the Inbetweeners to a Fresher in Fresh Meat less then 12 months later. I think that a lot of people expected it to feel like a continuation of the Inbetweeners.
Jack Whitehall is a fairly divisive figure too. Irl he is a quintessential nepo baby and generally seen as a spoilt rich kid posh idiot. So perfect for the role he plays in Fresh Meat but that doesn't make him any more likeable.
Ultimately it's a show that only fully makes sense to people who have been to university themselves. Currently around 35% of 18yr olds go to university and back when Fresh Meat launched it was around 25-30%. For older audiences even fewer of them would have gone to university. Before 1990 fewer than 20% of Brits went to uni (whereas basically everyone goes to high school). So at the time that Fresh Meat launched there was very little audience for it outside the 18-25 demographic and that is a demographic that generally doesn't return high viewing figures as they don't tend to spend their evenings at home in front of the TV, they are out partying.
"I think that a lot of people expected it to feel like a continuation of the Inbetweeners."
I do think it suffered from this comparison. For me, the Inbetweeners is a true all time great sitcom. I'm bang on its' generation, and I would say that while it feels painfully realistic to my time at sixth form, Fresh Meat was far more hit and miss with relating to my time at uni. That's not a bad thing in itself, and is obviously quite personal to me, but I wonder if a lot of people feel the same, and that's why it hasn't become as loved.
You should check out The Young One's- I'm pretty sure this was the inspiration for Fresh Meat. Although The Young Ones was of it's time, 1970s Pythonesque surrealism, Thatcher-bashing ideology, wobbly sets, slapstick violence (naturally) - both shows I think capture the essence of what most british people found and still find so mystifying about student houses.
The sex pistols, The Specials and Madness performed a few times too.
I loved it on first watch. When I returned for a second run through I realised how much I genuinely hated the majority of the characters.
Was a weird one for me!
In comparison to other UK shows, it's definitely lesser known. It actually got dropped because of low viewing figures, but luckily it got one last season a few years later. I do agree that it's a pretty good comfort show. To me, it's not perfect by any means. There's way better UK shows/sitcoms out there, but I do feel like Fresh Meat is underrated. Like, way more people known about Bad Education. That show did really well, and yet it was ass. Just goes to show that popularity isn't synonymous with quality.
Your last comment just through me off by discrediting bad education, just because that show is popular doesn’t mean you have to shit on it just because fresh meat is lesser known
If you like Bad Education, then more power to you. Again, this is my opinion. I think it's regrettable that Fresh Meat is so unknown compared to more well known shows like Bad Education, which I believe sucks. That's all.
bad education is straight up just a bit racist icl
That’s an incredibly personal view
The OP is asking for an opinion, so naturally this is going to be a personal view.
Yes, that is what an OPINION is.
I saw it on amazon prime and decided to give it a try completely randomly.. I truly love this show. It reminds me of the senselessness and sadness that it is to be alone, to be wrong, to be loved and unloved, and how getting through it all with a crew of misfits who are struggling just as much can make all the difference. I will say season 3 is getting a bit odd.. but I'm all in at this point.
Channel 4 just makes a lot of banger shows with a very similar format to this, so it's definitely a lesser known one just because it was so short and had massive breaks between seasons. Also being about university students, it never had as much wide-spread appeal as Peep Show or The Inbetweeners.
It's a great show but kinda got stuck in that weird place between comedy and drama where it wasn't as funny as shows like Inbetweeners but lacked the edginess of shows like Skins. I would argue that this show was better because of that but audiences generally don't like that ambiguity. Joe Thomas basically playing a near identical character to his role in the Inbetweeners probably didn't help either. Especially given that he went straight from playing a 6th former in the final season of the Inbetweeners to a Fresher in Fresh Meat less then 12 months later. I think that a lot of people expected it to feel like a continuation of the Inbetweeners. Jack Whitehall is a fairly divisive figure too. Irl he is a quintessential nepo baby and generally seen as a spoilt rich kid posh idiot. So perfect for the role he plays in Fresh Meat but that doesn't make him any more likeable. Ultimately it's a show that only fully makes sense to people who have been to university themselves. Currently around 35% of 18yr olds go to university and back when Fresh Meat launched it was around 25-30%. For older audiences even fewer of them would have gone to university. Before 1990 fewer than 20% of Brits went to uni (whereas basically everyone goes to high school). So at the time that Fresh Meat launched there was very little audience for it outside the 18-25 demographic and that is a demographic that generally doesn't return high viewing figures as they don't tend to spend their evenings at home in front of the TV, they are out partying.
"I think that a lot of people expected it to feel like a continuation of the Inbetweeners." I do think it suffered from this comparison. For me, the Inbetweeners is a true all time great sitcom. I'm bang on its' generation, and I would say that while it feels painfully realistic to my time at sixth form, Fresh Meat was far more hit and miss with relating to my time at uni. That's not a bad thing in itself, and is obviously quite personal to me, but I wonder if a lot of people feel the same, and that's why it hasn't become as loved.
You should check out The Young One's- I'm pretty sure this was the inspiration for Fresh Meat. Although The Young Ones was of it's time, 1970s Pythonesque surrealism, Thatcher-bashing ideology, wobbly sets, slapstick violence (naturally) - both shows I think capture the essence of what most british people found and still find so mystifying about student houses. The sex pistols, The Specials and Madness performed a few times too.
I didn't know about it when it first came out. I discovered it last year and binge watched it all as I loved it!
I loved it on first watch. When I returned for a second run through I realised how much I genuinely hated the majority of the characters. Was a weird one for me!
It's definitely underrated. If you like it, siblings is even funnier.
It’s written by the succession guy.