We have all been there. You are talking to a member of the attractive sex, and you decide that they are “The One.” You see yourself telling one another your deepest secrets over a few weeks and you just know in ten years time you’ll be together, probably in a passionate embrace: soul mates. Hang On! This is just a person you saw at the bookshop, and your a five-minute conversation mostly involved the price of textbooks. You realize how ridiculous you have been and resolve to forget those notions.

Peep show is a sadomasochistic, Odd Couple-style sitcom which focuses on the irrational thoughts that we all have. It follows Mark Corrigan, an anal-retentive white-collar slave, and his roommate Jeremy Osbourne, an aspiring rock star who plays the tambourine. As you would expect in any buddy comedy, the pair have a genuinely close friendship despite their insanely irrational dating mishaps. Bizarrely, they set up a love rival by claiming he defecated in a swimming pool; make out with each other (despite being heterosexuals) to impress their respective love interests; get married out of embarrassment; get married again for administrative reasons; and go on a date at a funeral.

Though eccentric and outstandingly funny, the show’s brilliance lies in its use of the first-person narration. The story finds identification and engagement through Mark and Jeremy’s thoughts since they are as irrational as anybody else. Because of the disturbingly real (and therefore irrational) screenwriting, you actually feel for them. You cringe as Mark walks towards his long-time crush to give her a picture he drew of a heart with a swastika, which he somehow tries to rationalize as a good idea. You bang your head against the wall when Jeremy assumes that because syphilis is “symptomless,” it must therefore be harmless.

The dual narration ensures engagement with these pair of misfits as they grow and develop. It gives the series its edge, and makes it hysterical. Peep Show is highly recommended.

A seventh series of Peep Show has been commissioned for 2010.

Jarrod Harvey