Still Game & Best Bits

[Jack Burton]

Can't help but agree. It's supposed to be a comedy based around pensioners, yet half the air time is now given to "young" people. 

I'm guessing that they are running out of stories to base solely on Jack and Victor. There is only so much that can happen to two old duffers from a scheme without it being ridiculous or unrealistic.

I thought the latest episode was ok. I didn't think it was anywhere as bad as made out in some of the comments. Navid and Boabby are two interesting characters and the idea of them switching jobs was a good one. There was still some funny scenes during the episode.

On the negative side, Fergie's voice was very annoying and there wasnt really any need to shoe horn Methadone Mike in to the episode.

[accies1874]

I'm guessing that they are running out of stories to base solely on Jack and Victor. There is only so much that can happen to two old duffers from a scheme without it being ridiculous or unrealistic.

I thought the latest episode was ok. I didn't think it was anywhere as bad as made out in some of the comments. Navid and Boabby are two interesting characters and the idea of them switching jobs was a good one. There was still some funny scenes during the episode.

On the negative side, Fergie's voice was very annoying and there wasnt really any need to shoe horn Methadone Mike in to the episode.

If they didn't put Mick in it, people would be going mental (not on here, but probably the degenerates on Twitter) asking where he was.

[We Are Pars Fans!]

Awful episode but on the whole series has been good. Still look forward to it coming on

[GordonD]

1 hour ago, Jack Burton said:

I'm guessing that they are running out of stories to base solely on Jack and Victor. There is only so much that can happen to two old duffers from a scheme without it being ridiculous or unrealistic.

Agreed. Though I'd rather see an episode focusing on the other characters than have Jack and Victor careering downhill in a tin bathtub on wheels, Last of the Summer Wine-style.

[19QOS19]

I'm shocked folk are having a go at the continuity. Still Game has brushed things under the carpet because it's not a comedy that follows a story from week to week. Not telling us why/if Mick lost his job is hardly a big deal. In the past they've failed to mention lots of things:-


Sinead being in Manky Frankie's house as a young girl. Later we see her dad isn't Frankie. Who the hell is he to her?

In episode 1 Victor refers to his son as "Ma wee Jamie!" when in actual fact his son is named John.

Frankie the bookie is outed as Stevie by Tam and Winston. From then on he's referred to as Stevie and no mention of Frankie every crops up.

Naveed has a van put through his shop window but is fine and never mentioned again.

Winston kicks away £32,500 and we hear no more of it.

Shug puts a hole between Jack and Victor's flats. We never see the hole again.

We never see any pensioner venture into or mention the rooftop Gairden.

Tam is lifted in "Cairds" but we're never told his punishment.

Winston is kidnapped in dial-a-bus but is fine next episode.


It's not reached the heights of the past (and it was never going to) but it's still one of the best comedies on the box and given the laughs the show has gave us I reckon they deserve a bit of slack.

[19QOS19]

I'm guessing that they are running out of stories to base solely on Jack and Victor. There is only so much that can happen to two old duffers from a scheme without it being ridiculous or unrealistic.

They've done a few episodes/scenarios that could be classed as ridiculous (for pensioners certainly) but have pulled it off.

The 3 that spring to mind:-


Being locked in Hyperdales and burning it to the ground.

Using a ladder to climb over an 8 foot metal fence to get into a park.

Going down a river in a dinghy.


I'd rather see them doing some daft whacky shit rather than focussing on young characters' story for a whole episode. With a title like "Still Game" you come to expect them to be doing stuff they'd be more likely to do in their 20's. That's the whole point for me.

[paranoid android]

If you look back at even Seinfeld - for some, the sitcom by which all other must be judged, it's brilliant, but it's also flawed and a bit clunky at times.

It's about trying to write, rehearse, record, and edit a series on a budget under time constraints - the Seinfeld team referred to it as the egg and spoon race - you're trying to get to the end without dropping the egg - sometimes, though, you do drop it, and...'splat!'

Few BBC comedy unit productions are great - Still Game does much better than most.

[Gareth_Glasgow]

They've done a few episodes/scenarios that could be classed as ridiculous (for pensioners certainly) but have pulled it off.

The 3 that spring to mind:-


Being locked in Hyperdales and burning it to the ground.

Using a ladder to climb over an 8 foot metal fence to get into a park.

Going down a river in a dinghy.

The examples you've given there are all from Series 5 and 6 when the show had gone into a pretty obvious decline already. If anything, they should be keeping it simple and focusing on writing decent dialogue for the core cast. I don't think it's a coincidence that the second episode of the new series was the best by far, and it had Jack and Victor as the focus of most scenes with Tam, Navid etc. having a few lines here and there.

[19QOS19]

The examples you've given there are all from Series 5 and 6 when the show had gone into a pretty obvious decline already. If anything, they should be keeping it simple and focusing on writing decent dialogue for the core cast. I don't think it's a coincidence that the second episode of the new series was the best by far, and it had Jack and Victor as the focus of most scenes with Tam, Navid etc. having a few lines here and there.

Following a tramp around the town/a tramp pretending to be a secret agent.

Phoning Innes to run the neds out of town.

The whole scheme stealing leckie.

A group of pensioners building a garden on top of the flats.

And to a lesser extent, the one where they go on a first aid course.


I don't disagree with you that a good dialogue is the key to a cracking episode. I'm just not against episodes where they're doing daft things as there have been numerous occassions where they've done it successfully.

[54_and_counting]

4 hours ago, 19QOS19 said:

 

 

Following a tramp around the town/a tramp pretending to be a secret agent.

Phoning Innes to run the neds out of town.

The whole scheme stealing leckie.

A group of pensioners building a garden on top of the flats.

And to a lesser extent, the one where they go on a first aid course.


I don't disagree with you that a good dialogue is the key to a cracking episode. I'm just not against episodes where they're doing daft things as there have been numerous occassions where they've done it successfully.

this, the 5th episode of the first series had them ransacking the house of a supposedly dead guy and abusing their regular local postman in the process who failed to identify any of them at all

thew storylines have always been a bit over the top, but they picked the right characters to do it with, thats what made it funny

[ajwffc]

On 30/10/2016 at 00:49, D.A.F.C said:

Dat ginger bird though.

Louise Stewart

[SlipperyP]

That was just shite, last few episodes I've at least had a little smile at some point. Some brutal lines. The stories have been shite so far.

[Newbornbairn]

Thing is, "Still Game" is tired writing performed by third-rate panto actors. When was the last time you saw any of them in another programme of any quality?

 

Compare it with "Only Fools and Horses" - a city-based comedy with lots of colourful characters. The main actors were far, far better and carried the show when the poorer actors (Casandra) couldn't cut it. The writing was sharper and, dare I say it, actually professional with scenes being set up properly. Jack & Victor are two-dimensional and limited compared to Del boy and Rodney.

 

Look at Naveed's "fall" - walking slowly backwards whilst painfully delivering some unnecessary line before doing a stage fall.

 

Compare that with doing it properly - 

 

 

 

We cut Still Game a lot of slack because it's Scottish. If it were based in Bristol with English third-rate actors we'd be panning it.

[SweeperDee]

Thing is, "Still Game" is tired writing performed by third-rate panto actors. When was the last time you saw any of them in another programme of any quality?

 

Compare it with "Only Fools and Horses" - a city-based comedy with lots of colourful characters. The main actors were far, far better and carried the show when the poorer actors (Casandra) couldn't cut it. The writing was sharper and, dare I say it, actually professional with scenes being set up properly. Jack & Victor are two-dimensional and limited compared to Del boy and Rodney.

 

Look at Naveed's "fall" - walking slowly backwards whilst painfully delivering some unnecessary line before doing a stage fall.

 

Compare that with doing it properly - 

 

 

 

We cut Still Game a lot of slack because it's Scottish. If it were based in Bristol with English third-rate actors we'd be panning it.

Pish. Only fools and horses is probably the best British sitcom of all time; nobody on here is really comparing Still Game to that. What we are saying is that it's better than what's been on tv in the past 10/15 years or so.

[DA Baracus]

Only Fools and Horses is average at best.

Still Game is far superior.

[Newbornbairn]

Parochial pish.

Anybody catch West Skerra Light? Directed by Greg Hemphill and actually funny. Jack and Victor need to be packed off to Dignitas or die in the traditional Glasgow manner -  in a lift surrounded by a puddle of pish.

[Dominique Malonga]

Only Fools and Horses is average at best.

Behave.

[DA Baracus]

29 minutes ago, Dominique Malonga said:

 

Behave.

 

You behave.

Never really rated Only Fools and Horses.

[Bert Raccoon]

Only Fools And Horses is superior but even it got shite towards the end.

[YER SISTERS YER MAW]

Only Fools And Horses is superior but even it got shite towards the end.

They should have ended it when they became millionaires. That was the perfect ending. It went a bit downhill after that.