Peep Show 4: a bit desperate

With all six episodes built to what was hoped to be some sort of monumental final episode wedding extravaganza, the fourth series of Peep Show has been the first to have a truly conventional story arc. Viewers have overlooked the slightly dodgy episodes with plots based around desperate attempts to make Mark and Jeremy’s actions more extreme as they waited for the greatest car crash wedding since Britney/K Fed. We saw Jeremy eat a dog (for no real reason), Mark going feral in a car park (in an unlikely change of character) and the whole show just becoming a bit too silly. Much like the new Derren Brown series it was paired with on Friday nights, ideas had been sacrificed in favour of extreme scenarios.

In the end, the final episode was just more of the same. Mark and Sophie’s wedding was predictably disastrous, while Jeremy pissed himself. That was about it. This series has been a bit Mitchell-heavy throughout with Robert Webb restricted to playing bit parts as the vacuous Jeremy. It’s a disservice to Webb who, although maybe not as funny as David Mitchell, puts in a brilliantly desperate performance as Jeremy which deserves more screen time. Perhaps now the “el dude brothers” are set to be reunited in series five, the problems we have seen over the past six weeks will be remedied.

Josh Widdicombe – editor www.suchsmallportions.com