It's comedy all the way as John Byrne checks out new ITV sitcom The Delivery Man (Wednesdays, UTV Ireland), and the returning Louie (Thursdays, Fox) and Silicon Valley (Mondays, Sky Atlantic)
Whenever I'm taking in a new ITV comedy I brace myself. Over the years they've been consistently poor and for every Harry Hill there's been a dozen Keith Lemons. Assuming the worst, I tuned into the first episode of The Delivery Man (Wednesday, UTV Ireland) and got a very pleasant surprise. It's not bad at all.
Naturally enough, given that it's ITV, the show is unashamedly mainstream in its approach; nothing wrong with that once the laughs are there. Darren Boyd stars as Matthew Bunting, a former police officer who's undergone a major personal makeover as he's gone into midwifery.
There were the obvious jokes about him being a man and a midwife, which brought viewers back to the mid-1970s. But at least it wasn't done in a nudge-nudge manner, all winks and 'By gum, he's a bloke!'. That would've been unbearable. But it is a classic fish-out-of-water set-up, so the writers can be forgiven the odd On the Buses moment.
Bunting's first day on a maternity ward had him showing his good side by being very helpful towards a teenage dad-to-be who had to be sneaked past the parents of his pregnant girlfriend so he could spend time with her and their child. If you think that hiding under a hospital trolley is funny, you'll love this.
Oddly enough there was also a scene where he discussed the anti-spermicidal aspects of Dr Pepper with a female colleague (played by Irish actress, Aisling Bea) which, while funny, seemed quite out of place, particularly in a maternity ward. And the cameo about the Kindle and waters breaking was just not funny.
The cast also includes former Cold Feet star Fay Ripley as the predatory divorced senior midwife. Alex Macqueen - who was great in both The Thick of It and The Inbetweeners - plays a pompous obstetrician more interested in playing golf.Take Me Out host Paddy McGuinness is Bunting's best copper mate. I've seen worse - a lot worse. Let's see how they get on after a few more episodes, after the obvious well has run dry.
Back for a fifth season, Louie (Thursdays, Fox) followed the show's now traditional pattern. Bookended by some stand-up, it follows the fictional life of Louis CK, which is apparently based on his reality. In a typical post-Seinfeld mood, it's not exactly a Capra-esque journey and many of the people involved, including Louie, make bad calls, do stupid and selfish things, and there can be a lot of shouting and embarrassing sexual experiences. Yeah, so it is pretty realistic.
This time around Louie tells his therapist that he's had enough of new experiences and is finding it increasingly difficult to engage anymore. But instead of just giving up, which would be a sensible approach, he decides to join what's called a pot luck (it's a bring-your-own-grub, casual dinner party) for the parents of kids in his daughter Jane's class.
After joining the wrong party, and then re-arming himself with some KFC, he finds his way to the teacher Marina's apartment, and ends up leaving the party at the same time as her heavily pregnant surrogate mother, Julianne.
The mother-to-be invites Louie to share her taxi as Marina's paying for it, invites him in to her place and, before Louie has time to take his jacket off, he's having sex with Julianne as her waters break. Cut to Louie in the maternity hospital as he's getting tongue-lashed by Marina.
So, after a quite experimental fourth season, it's back to basics with Louie. But it's hard to knock this show as CK writes, directs and stars. He gets an awful lot right on what's probably a miniscule budget.
The big treat for me over the last few days was the return of Silicon Valley (Mondays, Sky Atlantic), an Entourage for techies as six lads develop a music app start-up company called Pied Piper. Along with Brooklyn Nine Nine, it's one of the best sitcoms of recent years, and the opening season was so good it put a lot of pressure on season two to deliver. Especially since the loss of Christopher Evan Welch, who was hilarious as quirky venture capitalist Peter Gregory. Sadly, illness forced him out of the show and he died of cancer in December 2013. Yep. In Real Life.
Fair play to Mike Judge and co, they didn't just write Gregory out of the story. They gave him a ridiculous death, and a rather pompous funeral, where several of his contemporaries either plugged their businesses or told lies about their relationship with him. Gregory's main rival, and former friend, Gavin Belson, led the hypocritical charge.
Belson, played by Matt Ross with the kind of acidic vigour that Zach Grenier brings to David Lee in The Good Wife, also got the line of the episode at a board meeting when he angrily remarked: "I don't want to live in a world where someone else makes the world a better place!"
Richard (Thomas Middleditch) and Erlich (TJ Miller) do a great double-act when they represent the Piped Piper crew at meetings with various venture capitalist groups, and discover that the best way to deal with a negative offer is by responding negatively. "You negged a neg!" says Elrich, in a eureka moment. Miller's character is central to this show, as he's a combination of Seinfeld's George Costanza and Kramer: a complete a-hole who cannot be ignored because he simply can't shut up.
Silicon Valley is hilarious, full of great lines, and satirizes a group of egomaniacs, geeks and greedy buggers who – between them - are basically in control of the world right now. I should be scared. Instead, I'm smiling. I hear episode two is amazing.
John Byrne
