TV Review: Gavin & Stacey

This rather ordinary sitcom would not have garnered the acclaim and award recognition that it has were the British comedy landscape not so bereft of exciting scenery at present. G & S is popular because it is about ‘everyday people’ and it is ‘warm’ and ‘cosy’. ‘Funny’ is never the word that anyone will use above all to try and convince you that Gavin & Stacey is actually worth watching. This show is not understated and brilliant; it is a comedy with no comedy and represents little more than a syrupy cuddle on the sofa.

That’s not to say that a warm and fuzzy sitcom is a bad thing; in an age where most comedy shows are engineered to shock and offend or make the viewer squirm with embarrassment, a show with a more wholesome and traditional flavor is actually quite refreshing. However, light-hearted entertainment though it may be, Gavin & Stacey is actually too nice and bland to be funny. It is more in the ‘mildly amusing’ camp, which, again, isn’t necessarily something negative.

For those who don’t know, the groundbreaking premise is that Gavin and his family are from Essex (and are stereotypical and therefore hilarious) and Stacey is from Wales (so her family are stereotypical and therefore hilarious). Gavin and Stacey become a couple in a boy meets girl comedy that is unfortunately as pedestrian as it sounds. There is fun to be had in the vaguely diverting nothing-else-on sort of way, but nothing remotely imaginative enough to evoke any real excitement.

The greatest disappointment is that the comedy is so sub-par. Jokes are so badly telegraphed (as is the case in most current BBC sitcoms) and any other humor is generic, insipid, predictable and downright lame. One wonders how mediocre a show has to be in order to not get huge ratings and win awards in the UK. Some of the US comedies are in a different stratosphere to shows like this; NBC’s worldwide smash hit Friends had its share of treacle moments and spent a lot of time in the romantic comedy genre but it was funny in a way that Gavin & Stacey can never even hope to be.

In essence, Gavin & Stacey is a show about middle of the road people, living middle of the road lives and is aimed squarely at middle of the road Britain. It has an endearing charm that has enabled it to tug at the heartstrings of an awful lot of people, and that is a very good thing indeed. It is undeniable that Gavin & Stacey has the charm all of its own. But perhaps that shouldn’t be enough; there are numerous shows that do this sort of comedy better.

GRADE: B-