seen-it: Outnumbered (Series 1)

What a great find this program was (though a referral more than a find to be honest). And it's a great present to have received on my birthday! We were very disciplined at only watching one episode a week rather than having a gluttonous "Outnumbered" fest!

Having seen series 2 first didn't spoil anything. And one of the great things about the program is how well each episode stands alone.

Plenty of laugh out louds - the particular outstanding favourite has got to be the family day out to the farm! The correspondence between the mini-me's and the characters is almost uncanny - but shows what a good job the writes have done with getting the empathy level spot on.

Don't feel it was quite as good as series 2, but it's marginal. And it's a bit of a shame it tried to be quite so poignant at the end ... bit like when boy bands go for their ballad stage!

Not sure it's destined to be get as many repeat showings as "Alan Partridge" & "Fawlty Towers" but it's definitely not a single watch series either.

seen-it: West Wing (Season 2)

There were some pretty weak episodes near the beginning with some pretty implausible & out of character stories, plus a few highly contrived events. But things get redeemed again - including the unlikely Ainsley Hayes character.

Danny - the reporter, and the annoying political consultant whose name escapes me, both disappear without a trace!

Think I'm getting to recognise which writers do the best episodes and seems they let some fresh blood have a go at writing some. But Aaron Sorkin seems to be the key name to look for. The best episodes are definitely those revolving around political drama rather than personal interest storylines.

It was great to see the 4 episodes we must have missed out when we rented it last year - made lots of the later storylines make much more sense. Which serves to highlight how hard it is to 'dip into' ... it would be almost impossible to start watching WW mid-series or mid-season.

The climax is good though nowhere near as dramatic as the first season's. And it'll be interesting to see how they write themselves out of the kind of plot 'black hole' they seem to have concluded themselves with [who is possibly going to vote for him now?!]

seen-it: West Wing (Season 1)

Definitely made more sense 2nd time around! A very good choice of Christmas present by me I think.

The characters get really well established and the storylines are all pretty much top class. Sam & the call girl is the one that always seems the most implausible. And the end of season climax was just as gripping 2nd time around which says something.

It's definitely worth all the accolades it. Good, thought provoking, adult drama. What TV was meant for really. It's only weakness is that the characterisations are so strong and the storylines so interwoven that I can understand why I was turned off by it when I did see some of it on TV - unless you watch it all, it's hard to watch each episode as a stand alone (it can be hard enough when you have watched them all!).

There's still quite a few episodes where chunks of dialogue make no sense to us either - coz of jargon or US specific politics.