I recently discovered through Hulu the British TV series “Peep Show,” which has apparently been going on for years, but I’d never heard of it. It’s reasonably funny, but uses a kind of annoying fish-eye camera effect.
What I’m wondering is, why the title “Peep Show”? In my experience, a peep show is basically a stripper or a sex show that you can watch through a window whose shade rises and falls as controlled by a coin-operated machine. The premise of the show doesn’t seem to have anything to do with that.
A peep show need not be pornographic. I assume the series is called that because it’s a voyeuristic look inside the lives of these two characters, often through first-person perspective (with that fish-eye effect) which echoes the effect of an old fashioned peep show.
Fantastic series, by the way.
ETA: Here’s a BBC News article about the rise of “peepshow” television, in which the term is being used as a synonym for something like reality TV.
This gave me a chuckle --'In one of the early episodes, Jezz is often flipping channel and when he cones across The Joy of Painting, he refers to Bob Ross as “God” – “Ooh, what’s God doing?”
Later, when Mark is faced with a difficult choice, he decides to flip on the TV and base his decision on what “God”'is painting.
I wonder, is this Bob Ross = God thing a broader thing in British pop culture or was it just something the show’s writers came up with?
I just want to say that Super Hans is one of the greatest tv characters ever, and the episode where they go on that boat and have the “problems with the dog” is one of the funniest episodes of tv that I can ever remember. There were some slow spots and parts I wasn’t into as much (more in the later seasons) but I love the show.
And I do agree that it’s called “Peep Show” because we’re so intimately involved in the lives of Mark and Jeremy, and the filming style has them looking at the camera and talking directly to us on occasion.
Something the show’s creators came up with, I reckon. I’d never heard of Bob Ross until this post. It’s certainly not a name that has any pop culture resonance for me.
For a show that’s so heavily focused on sex, I find myself wishing that at least one of the main characters was seriously hot.
Elena was probably the hottest character, but was hardly in the show. Nancy, Big Suze, and Zahra are passable, but again, have very limited screen time.
But the principal characters – Mark, Jezz, Sophie, Super Hans – are all positively repulsive. It’s more horrifying since so many of the shots are extreme closeups of their puffy faces and horrible teeth. Maybe that’s part of the joke.
You guys realize that the show is filmed from the perspective of the narrator right? Like, they actuallymove the actor aside and replace him with a camera for most shots or in some cases the actors wear a helmet-cam. Hence the “peep” show - you’re peeping through someone else’s eyes.
Peep Show is my absolute favorite sitcom from the past decade. I’ve watched the entire 6 season run 4 times through now. It’s just…wow.
Does the phrase “happy little trees”?? pulykamell, I’ve never heard anyone use the term peep show in a non-pornographic way either, which lead me to be confused about what this show might be about too.
And ordinary means Hollywood Ugly on TV. Especially when you see them in those extreme closeups.
Not that I had time to tell in the clip I watched. Too much camera movement to actually have time to see anything. I do not get this trend. Real people don’t see that way.
I have also never heard ‘peep show’ in a context that doesn’t refer to the sex shows mentioned in the OP. I want to zero in on this line of pulykamell’s post because it seems to me that the voyeurism of the show’s concept is the reason for the title.
It’s also an uproariously funny show. I was watching it on Hulu in my living room and was unable to contain myself from laughing until I couldn’t breathe. My mom kept asking me if I was okay, then asking me what was so funny.
I’m a fan of pretty much everything Mitchell and Webb have done. I originally discovered them through the radio series, The Mitchell and Webb Sound, when I was playing around on the BBC Radio Player. The Mitchell and Webb Situation is another one worth looking at. The farming skits are one of my favorites.
However, yes, all three of these other Mitchell and Webb projects are written by Mitchell and Webb and are skit-based comedy, so completely different feel than Peep Show.
No, but then again, I’m not subjecting the television viewing public to extreme closeups of my face.
Jezz is supposed to be a reasonably successful “puller,” but I can’t see how any woman (or man) who gets a closeup view of his jack-o-lantern grimace would stay that close for very long.
I’m mentioned Peep Show tons of times in threads about British TV. Fucking amazing.
Favorite epi has to be the season finale (5th?) where they end up eating the poor girl’s barbequed dog. Yes, it was absurd, and you saw it coming, but it didn’t make it any less hilarious.
He became a minor pop icon among the type of people who watched a lot of educational television growing up. He was a very very mellow painter who demonstrated a kind of “under painting” technique (I don’t know the correct terminology, but he started by painting his canvas white and using various kinds of brushes and knives to work in underpaint in to soften his images).
His demeanour was very smooth and calm and he always talked about putting “happy little trees” in his pictures, which all had a kind of sameness to them.
I think “God” is a brilliant nickname for him.
I watched it on Hulu. It’s moderately good. I was disappointed with all the recurring bits, like Numberwang, which was only slightly funny the first time, but then kept reappearing in nearly every episode and became completely unfunny.