Peep Show is a highly original effort in the world of British Comedy, and the trick it uses aids it as one of the funniest comedies of the last 10 years. You do need to be slightly thick-skinned to appreciate it though...
Mark and Jeremy are 2 loser flat-mates. One's got a turgid office job and is in love with a colleague, and the other, Jeremy, is the leech without a job and failing miserably to do anything worthwhile with his life.
On the face of it sounds not unlike Men Behaving Badly, and there are the 2 women both guys respectively pine for; one being the aforementioned colleague of Mark, and the other being the next door neighbour who Jeremy is desperate to 'have'.
However, Peep Show does 2 things which make it quite unique and laugh-out-loud funny. Firstly it adopts a first person perspective so we see the action not as a 3rd party, but from the very points of view of the characters. Not only this, but we hear their thoughts as well, which means we know what they're really thinking as opposed to only hearing what they actually say. This is a terrific twist and provides genuine hilarity throughout.
The second aspect it adopts is adult humour, and by this I don't mean Viz. It uses sexual situations, drugs, booze, and political incorrectness as incredibly risqué and dark humour, and goes beyond anything I've ever seen before, certainly in sitcom land. It's plainly obvious why it gets an 18 certificate (UK).
Furthermore, the acting itself is absolutely great, and is incredibly conducive to to the script. Because of the strength of the script and the supreme acting, there are many genuinely toe-curling embarrassing moments (But never fail to make you laugh, as opposed to just making you cringe), along with some awkward silences where, for a moment, you actually sympathise with the characters because you 'are' them. But normal hilarity resumes soon after...
This is a terrific series, and genuinely funny. It will not be to everyone's taste, but if you can laugh at yourself you can laugh at this.
Highly recommended.
