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Teachers

 
 
Danzig: He Pitys the Fool!
08:03 / 14.08.03
Just wondering if anyone else watches this?

I have only just discovered it recently(I think it's the second series being shown at the mo)and I think it's great. I can't decide if it's the sheer stupidity of some of the characters, or the fact that I know people who are teachers and are just like this.

So what do you think? Funny Ha-Ha, Funny Peculiar, or Just plain Tripe?
 
 
The Natural Way
08:43 / 14.08.03
It's the 3rd series. It's okay, but the first series set up an arc where Andrew Lincoln's character, who from the outset behaved like a kid, went through the process of growing up.... But "Fuck that!" the producers/writers cry, "Let's make them ALL kids!" Twas a bit grating at first, but I'm more used to it now. Entertaining enough.
 
 
that
09:44 / 14.08.03
I dunno about it anymore. I used to like it, but the first ep. of series 3 was incredibly fat-phobic (and before anyone cries 'they're meant to be utter fuckwits', I *know* they're meant to be utter fuckwits...but there was something about it that crossed the line, several times, from 'look at the utter fuckwits' to genuine fat-phobia. To my mind). And then this week, poor old whatsherface, er, Penny, the blonde woman - "you can't be a decent person if you try and look 'your best'" (not a direct quote, but the gist of it). And this from the most sensible person in the bloody series.

Kurt and the PE teacher bloke are very slashy, however. And it is a bit funny. But I miss Egg - sorry, Andrew Lincoln's character, whose name in 'Teachers' I can't remember.
 
 
Ganesh
13:52 / 14.08.03
I'm really enjoying the new series so far. They've got rid of the characters which annoyed me (sorry to see the back of Jenny, but Andrew Lincoln's character was immature-annoying and his psychology teacher friend was smug-annoying; the supposed gay teacher was just generic-annoying) and they've introduced other, interesting ones.

I know what you mean about the first one, Cholister. I thought it also exemplified what is, to me, 'Teachers' most irritating characteristic: its tendency to split gender along sitcom/advert lines, so the males are entirely unself-aware, useless, infantile and pathetic, while the females are sensible, self-assured, insightful and mature. Thus, in the first episode, we have Kurt and Brian (both of whom I love to death) reaching new heights of fuckwittery, while New Girl copes with all the 'fat' stuff inhumanly patiently, with nary a twitch of irritation.

Penny is, perhaps, the exception to the gender split (although even she is a better manipulator than the hapless males who stare at her tits), so it was perhaps inevitable that her character receive an overhaul. I didn't read her dowdy image as "you can't be a decent person if you try to look 'your best'"; I saw it more as a reluctant (and possibly experimental) attempt to develop new interpersonal skills by removing or offsetting those upon which she normally relied ie. her appearance. I'm assuming she'll revert at least slightly to type by next episode.

They really need to do something with poor old Bob. Surely he can't sleep in his car for the whole series?
 
 
suds
17:09 / 14.08.03
i think teachers is really good. my favourite thing about it is the donkey that hangs out in the cafeteria and how the pupils in the background do weird shit. the thing about teachers is that it makes me feel kind of depressed, like how when i would feel after watching the office, just that going to work and not enjoying it and then sitting in a pub and not enjoying it thing. it was *really* depressing when that teacher just died in the staff room and no-one noticed! and then afterwards one of them said, he's dead, so what?
 
 
Warewullf
17:32 / 14.08.03
It's really, really good.

The surprising harshness of the language somehow always manages to surprise me. The background stuff is excellent, though. The little things like last night's ep where two teachers kept the kids waiting in the hall and it you can see of the kids cooking beans over a little gas fire.

And yeah, poor old Bob. He's keep getting mankier looking each episode and I'm wondering how far they'll push it...
 
 
Strange Machine Vs The Virus with Shoes
21:56 / 14.08.03
I love “Teachers”. Apparently “egg” is coming back, I miss Sue though. However, the fat Geordie lass is great! I thought the last show was pretty good, it showed how incompetent the education system is, in terms of bullying/intimidation, even the teachers are intimidated by the bullies of the school, just like prison.
 
 
knickers
07:07 / 15.08.03
I thought Andrew Lincoln was brilliant, and was afraid it would get dreadful after he left. But I've watched on the odd occasion since and was quite surprised that it wasn't totally dreadful, so I might continue watching more regularly. I just love the surreal things that go on in the background: they make me giggle like a little girl.
 
 
DaveBCooper
09:24 / 18.08.03
Hadn't seen a full episode until the other night, so can't compare with the past, but : really enjoyed it. Will be back for more.
 
 
The resistable rise of Reidcourchie
14:44 / 18.08.03
I must admit I'm missing Susan (?) and Egg and feel that each season has got slightly worse but it's still good enough to watch.

One of the best things about Teachers is asking your friends who are Teachers if that's what it's really like. For some reason that question upsets Teachers.

Sadly I don't think it covers the remarkable levels of substab=nce abuse amongst the Teachers I know.
 
 
Jub
10:32 / 19.08.03
Although Simon (Andrew Lincoln) was irritating, I liked the fact that he was the main character and there was an element of seriousness to the humour. There was a point to each episode as he tried to make sense of it all - albeit in a very selfish way.

The fact that they've lost three of the strongest characters, ie, Simon, Susan (who I saw on the tube a while a go, woo hoo) and Jenny means they have to develop the others more, and I think this is what they were doing with Penny last week.

It is funny this series but it's a pale reflection of how it was when it started. It seems they've sacrificed the thoughtful bits for fart jokes.
 
 
Ganesh
10:42 / 19.08.03
Guess the previous "thoughtful bits" kinda passed me by...
 
 
All Acting Regiment
12:16 / 19.08.03
Right, I was school age when teachers came out, and i'm college age now, where as everyone else is an adult. ha ha maybe this will be a different perspective.

I just thought that the "kid" characters, i.e. the students who were taught by the teachers- were just the same as you might find in a "made for kids" program- just cliches really. Slutty Girl, Fat Boy- they were all there. My problem with these characters was that, for example, you don't see any other side to slutty girl- but hey everything else was good.
 
 
Tryphena Absent
12:58 / 19.08.03
My mother reckons that Teachers is madly accurate... understand she started her career in Brent at a school that had Colditz written on the sign. She swears by the bits with the evil headmistress and the staff sneaking away to smoke. I used to know a teacher who took a couple of her sixth form students out in the car at lunchtime for a sly cigarette. If anything it seems underplayed.

I love that donkey that appeared in the last series. That kind of thing used to happen all the time at my secondary school. Not with donkeys but you'd get props from the drama department appearing all over the place and kids wandering around when they should be in lessons and blatantly flaunting the fact they were truanting.
 
 
Goodness Gracious Meme
13:35 / 19.08.03
I like it, in a 'switch off critical faculties way'. especially re the gender/sitcom thing...

My teacher friends (who i guess are about the same age/career stage as this lot) loathe it without exception. Agree with Reid, Teachers is great for bringing an instant rant out of them...

but if we're talking slash, the 'jenny/susan flatsharing' storyline was glorious... annoying boyf coming between them, lingering looks, angst mmmm
 
 
Ganesh
08:32 / 18.09.03
Last night's episode, featuring the temporary return of beardy-weirdy Simon, followed the by-now-familiar gender rules of 'Teachers': male character appears and is an utter twat (albeit an utter twat in different ways from Kurt and Brian), reminding me how much Andrew Lincoln's character (despite the pleasingly gratuitous naked arse shots) used to annoy me. The new female character, on the other hand, is cool, sussed, completely sexually-confident and in no way threatened by anyone else, male or female. Business as usual, then.

The only exceptions to this rule are Matt (bit wanky but not as pathetic as the other male characters) and Penny (bit needier and less secure than other female characters) - so it's perhaps not terribly surprising that they ended up shagging over a hot photocopier.
 
 
Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo
02:35 / 21.08.05
They've just started showing this here in the US, and I watched the first three epsiodes...and it follows a lot of the standard sit-com-type ideas (main character's daydreaming coming to live, love/hate relationship, main character a generally nice average joe/slacker) but the writing is pretty crisp, and it feels more real than a US sit-com.

Most reviews I've read of it is that the first two seasons are really the only ones worth bothering with...is that accurate?
 
 
Ganesh
08:56 / 21.08.05
I'd say so.
 
  
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