It's pretty neat that this show exists at all. I like Basil himself a lot; the jokes are bad but that's part of the schtick and he manages to send up that persona of English Aristocracy but in a way that is oddly affectionate. He's a fox who dresses like a fox hunter; that's funny to me.
In a way, this show just feels very CBBC. But it is also its singular thing. You probably couldn't get a less pretentious show with its very candid fourth wall breaks and frequent self deprecation. If you ask me they abuse the amount of times you can excuse a blatant plot convenience by just saying "I didn't write this rubbish!" but it's no-brainer fun.
It began all fun and games but in the middle seasons, there came a certain malice in the writing. You know the sitcom writers that just think misery and everything going wrong is just automatically funny? Well there's more than a bit of that.
They outgrow it before the 5 season thankfully (more or less). I liked it when the show began with Basil telling a cheesey joke on the stage but the show makes many changes in its 5th season.
I respect that actors move on and kids grow up. I actually liked Lucy bringing some youth to the thing. It was those animated interludes that I found highly questionable. They were all a bit...kids menu if you know what I mean. For the 6th season they used a lot more visual humor in these but the new title sequence was cool.
Molly could be a supercillious little shrew when she wanted to be and yet I still felt a longing for her.
Dave as a character made sense when he was "Delboy Trotter for the teletubbies generation" in the sense he wasn't terrifically good at business and karmic retribution came back to bite him. Dave as the successful Oligarch just got old quick.
Liam was a reasonable replacement of the iconic Mr Steven.
Ella was nice but the show already had Molly as a straight-girl so I understand why Madison came in. The anti-american overtones irked me. What those guys ever do to you, Basil?
