Waste of time

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

The first must-see film of the year.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

People may not know that Brendan O'Carroll created the whole concept for this show in 1992, first made as a radio broadcast, then he wrote four books, one of them being turned into a movie starring Angelica Huston, and then becoming a touring stage show, but finally in 2011 his creation became a television hit. Basically Mrs. Agnes Brown (Brendan O'Carroll) is an Irish widowed foul-mouthed matriarch with five adult children: only daughter Cathy (Jennifer Gibney, Brendan's wife), son Dermot (Paddy Houlihan), gay son Rory (Rory Cowan), son Mark (Pat Shields), son Trevor (Martin Delany), and who looks after Grandad Harold (Dermot O'Neill). She also has various in-laws and grandchildren, her best friend is Winnie McGoogan (Eilish O'Carroll, Brendan's sister), and Dermot's criminal friend Buster Brady (Danny O'Carroll, Brendan's son) is a frequent visitor. Mrs. Brown runs the household, she likes nothing more than meddling in the lives of her children, she is never lost for words, always uttering profanities and caustic remarks, and there is always chaos somewhere around her, but she always has her heart in the right place. Also starring Amanda Woods as Mark's wife Betty Brown, Fiona O'Carroll (Brendan's daughter) as Dermot's wife Maria Brown, Gary Hollywood as Rory's husband Dino Doyle; Fiona Gibney, Jennifer's sister as Sharon McGoogan, Conor Moloney as Father Damien, Emily Regan as Barbara, Coronation Street's Susie Blake as Hilary Nicholson; Jamie O'Carroll, Brendan's grandson as Bono Brown, Mark Dymond as Mick, Derek Reddin as Dr. Flynn and Gary Lilburn as Father Quinn. Particular features that make this comedy different to others is not just the lead character breaking the fourth wall and talking to the audience, but production mistakes, fluffed lines, tomfoolery and cast laughing and smirking are not all edited out, they are included in many episodes and add to the great laughs. O'Carroll is a fantastic writer and producer, and as Mrs. Brown he is just a fantastic character, Dibney as his only daughter is always great as well, many of the supporting cast do very well also, it is very cool that many of O'Carroll's real family and friends are included in the cast. This programme has always divided opinion from audiences and critics alike, it's like Marmite, you either love it or hate it, admittedly when I first saw bits of it, it didn't look like my sort of thing, but once I tried I absolutely love it, and it does draw in huge audiences. It's a fantastic mix of a standard sitcom format, foul language, slapstick, stupidity and playing with expectations from production recording and the studio audience, it is no wonder that it has had many high-ranking Christmas specials, toured live and had a hit movie, it's a great situation comedy. Very good!

There's no other way to put it, Mrs Brown's Boys is pure garbage. It's the typical low brow, garbage sitcom format: a 30 minute trough of recycled jokes, tired gags, one liners and non-sequiturs thrown out at random to entertain a lowest common denominator audience the BBC tends to shamelessly target nowadays. It's the result of a ratings driven BBC that's unwillingly to take risks and is consequently stuck in the pastIf you've ever watched Ricky Gervais' Extras, Mrs Brown's Boys will feel inherently familiar to Gervais' character Andy Millman's sitcom 'When The Whistle Blows', a similarly catchphrase driven, low brow comedy show a result of BBC meddling.

I feel like I'm losing my mind... everyone seems to love this and I can't even begin to comprehend why. Now I love British comedy like the Mighty Boosh, Monty Python, Peter Cooke & Dudley Moore, IT Crowd, Facejacker, Brass Eye... the list goes on. This is just insulting: it's like a laugh track surgically stapled to some painfully unfunny situations. Most of the humor seems to hinge off the fact that the main character is a man dressed up as a woman. Imagine that! The absurdity!! What will they think of next?! I can imagine this would've been a hilarious concept back in 1950 but come on. And I don't have any problem with crude humor... if it's funny and has a purpose rather than just being there to facilitate a knee jerk awkward giggle response because the basic material isn't up to scratch, which is what we have here. Maybe the era of quality British comedy is over and my tastes haven't 'evolved' that far yet. Anyhoo, rant over, I'm going to rethink a few things.

So far I have seen up to series three and it has been a blast Mrs browns boys gets more funny each series and I can't wait for more! The way she acts and everyone else in the comedy just make it more hilarious every time. This in my opinion is one of the best comedies I have ever watched, and the dimwitted granddad makes it all the more funny. But the most funny is of course Mrs brown herself. In fact it's so good I got all three series on DVD including some of the live shows. I am looking forward to seeing series 4 in the future. I can't even imagine how much more funny it can get in series 4 but I'm sure they can and will, Well done!