Season 2, Episode 2: "Jeremy Makes It"

Mark is one uncomfortable Nazi

Jez almost gets paid for his work, while Mark makes friends with a racist.

Thoughts:

- I don't want to say this definitively, but this could be the best episode. Mark's racist friend, the lengths to which Jez goes to get his commission, the positive interplay between Mark and Jez, Sophie and Jeff shenanigans - even Super Hans - it all comes together for a very solid show.

- I think this is Tony's last appearance. It's a thankless, minor role, but in his own, understated way, the actor squeezed the most out of the material and made it work. I mean, so far as he could with a few background walk-bys and a line or two.

- Super Hans felt that sex with Toni was "spicy," whereas Jez found it "clinical, more like."

- Super Hans' doing crack shocks Mark and Jez. I'd always thought that he did crack (and more) anyway.

- Gog and his success thus-far (such as it is) underlines just how pathetic Jez is. The actor is good at playing a loser with a chip on his shoulder who's made it big; in spite of his successful business, he's still just a loser punching above his weight.

- The actor who plays Daryl is also in the Mitchell/Webb film, "Magicians." There are a few Peep Show guest actors who show up in that film - which I don't exactly recommend, I should say.

- Daryl is one of the more memorable guest characters. We really need to see more of him.

- Jez' first song that Gog listens to is awful. This continues the subtle running gag that Jez and Super Hans' band is unsuccessful because it's just terrible.

- This is the first episode where Johnson really does something as a boss, in this case investigating the "racial incident" with the sausage.

- Both Jez and Mark call Super Hans simply "Hans." One supposes that must be his real name after all.

- Jez' behaviour while placed in a position of authority (in the recording studio) is very amusing, particularly the way he loses it when it starts to go bad. This is a side of him we rarely see, as he never seems to have any real responsibility.

- The recording studio has the same blue "Fire door, keep closed" stickers found on all the doors at JLB, which leads one to wonder if they're not using the same location for both buildings.

- If even Jez thinks racism is wrong, it must be; though he is careful to allow an exception for "racist horseplay."

- It's interesting Mark knows the word for the pieces in Tetris, tetriminoes. A quick web search reveals that this is an actual mathematical term for them, rather than a jazzy, made-up marketing word, as I'd thought.

- "Political correctness gone mad" makes another appearance.

- How, exactly, does the Gog story end up? When we leave it, Jez and Super Hans are about to beat him up for money.

- One feels a bit sorry for Daryl as he's kicked out of JLB. Hopefully he finds some way to come back in the future.

WW2 references:
- Messing around at work, Mark pretends to be Barnes Wallis, while Daryl is the Ruhr. Sir Barnes Wallis invented the bouncing bomb that destroyed the Mohne and Eder dams, flooding the Ruhr valley. Mark is delighted that nobody has actually mentioned the film "The Dam Busters," which chronicles this event. A bit too on-the-nose for a man who wishes such information was common knowledge.
- Mark and Daryl being in-costume as Nazis at the WW2 re-enactment, of course.

UK references:
- Before smoking crack, Super Hans tells Jeremy to relax because it's not "Blue Peter," a children's show on the BBC.
- Daryl is a big fan of Jeremy Clarkson. Clarkson seems to be a right-wing, almost libertarian, anti-EU, anti-government sort of fellow who hosts Top Gear, a TV show about cars, and seems to appeal to the common man. The closest analogue I can think of might be Don Cherry, yet I don't think that's entirely accurate or fair to Cherry. He's mentioned earlier, in the first season.
- A "cash point" seems to be the UK term for an ATM.
- Thierry Henry plays for the French national football (soccer?) team.
- "Savage" may be David Savage, an English footballer (as they say).
- Mark thinks that Daryl must play his cor anglais in the "BNP jazz combo." The British National Party, I take it, is sort of like the old Reform Party, only more honest about being racists.

Just a couple'a lads playin' baseball

Lines:
There are way too many great lines and exchanges in this one to catalogue, but here are a few (remember, I transcribe them because I love you):

- Jeremy: What have you got in there?
Superhans: It’s a bit of crack.
Jeremy: Crack? Crack, Superhans?
Superhans: Relax, it’s not Blue Peter. Just having a nice little relaxing smoke of crack.

- Mark, on having to work the phones for a weekend at JLB: "Saturday shift. I thought we had people in Ireland to do this for us."

- Mark: What’s Hans doing?
Jeremy: He’s honking on his crack pipe.
Mark: Crack?! I’ve got company.
Jeremy: Oh relax. “Oh I’m Mark, I’m in the 80s, I’m dying of heroin in a puddle in the corner in an advert.” Drugs are fine Mark, everyone agrees now. Drugs are what happen to people. Shut up.

- Mark, unable to believe Jez' order: "Four naan, Jeremy? Four?! That's insane."

- Super Hans' idea for the Honda track: "What we have to do is create a powerful sense of dread."

- Jeremy (after his “band” has recorded an awful song for a commercial): Look, no, alright? That’s… not shit, but just… no. (Superhans lights up his pipe) Hans, you realize we’ve only got 39 minutes left.
Superhans: Oh, right, now we’re “working” it’s not okay for me to smoke my crack.
Jeremy: Yes, exactly. Exactly.
Superhans: What, so next you’re going to boot me out for not wearing a jacket and tie?

- (Mark and Daryl are posing as German troops at a War re-enactment)
Daryl: I mean, democracy’s all very well, but it’s weak and it’s decadent. You need a strong leader.
Mark: Uhh…
Daryl: I’m in character.
Mark: Oh, yes. Yes right. The… Fatherland needs the… Fuhrer. Oh god, I’m even boring when I’m a Nazi.
Daryl (after someone inspects their little War setup): Jesus. Classic rubbernecker. Absolutely no interest in military history. Might as well be checking out fucking sea drills down at farm museum (or something to that effect).
Mark: Still, it’s nice to get out of the city, isn’t it?
Daryl: Oh yes. It’s nice to get away from it all, isn’t it? The work, the smog, the graffiti.
Mark: Yeah, the traffic, the noise, the hassle.
Daryl: The car alarms, the cash points, the Blacks, the Pakis, the Jews.
Mark: Oh… yeah, yeah… I mean, that’s what we all want, a racially pure nation.
Daryl: Exactly. I mean, all we’re saying is "England for the English," right?
Mark: You mean… Germany for the Germans? You mean… this is a… are we…
Daryl: Rights for Whites. That’s not too much to ask, is it?
Mark: Is this… real now?
Daryl: We’re on the same wavelength, right? Everyone thinks it; the difference is we’re not afraid to say it.
Mark: Oh shit, oh bollocks, of course. I can’t just make a nice, normal friend. Oh no, that would be far too simple.
Daryl (to a guy who, presumably, runs the War re-enactment): Heil Hitler!
Mark: Uh, heil?
Guy: You’re not supposed to do that, Daryl. You know you’re not supposed to do that!

- Mark: Listen, I might just… pop down to the Chinky. You want anything?
Jeremy: From… uh… no, I’m alright, thanks.
Mark: What about from the Paki shop? You want anything from in there?
Jeremy: The Paki shop?
Mark: Yeah, I don’t normally go there. They’ve always got the Wop box on.
Jeremy: Mark, what the hell are you talking about?
Mark: Yeah… that’s not on, is it? What I said, it’s not alright, is it?
Jeremy: Well, no.
Mark: And, obviously you don’t think there’s a global Jewish conspiracy controlling everything.
Jeremy: What, you mean am I a racist?
Mark: Yeah. If you think that, and say those things, you’re a racist, aren’t you?
Jeremy: Well, yeah.
Mark: As it turns out, Daryl is a racist.
Jeremy: You sure he’s a proper… you know, it wasn’t just racist… horseplay?
Mark: No, because I was in the tent with him for ages and we talked for a long time and it was mostly on racial classifications; head measurements and so on.

- Jez, coming to Mark for a favour after blowing his commission: "I've basically been very, very foolish and have spent all of our advance on drugs and shoes, and I really need to borrow quite a lot of money..."

- Super Hans, feeling the shakes: "Crack, gimme crack... I'll suck for crack!"

- Says Super Hans in his shakedown of Gog, "Nice packet of Crunchy Nut you've got here. Pretty expensive, as I recall," before he pours it out on the floor.

Season 1, Episode 6: "Funeral"

Jez' finest hour

In this, the first season finale, Jez deals with his own mortality while Mark gets some traction with Sophie.

- There's a shot of Jez on Toni's bed while she speaks to him, reversed as she's looking at him from her mirror. Very clever. Jez is wearing a t-shirt with numerals (which show up clearly in reverse) to highlight this.

- Uncle Ray's favourite book, an excerpt from which was read at his funeral, is "Scorpio Patrol." Peep Show has always had a very interesting outlook on the working class.

- Jez' aunt Liz officiates at Ray's funeral, but his parents (one would expect his mother to be there, at least) are nowhere to be found. Obviously the producers felt that adding Jeremy's parents in an episode that didn't really deal with them would detract from the story they wanted to tell. This is perhaps why we don't really see Mark's parents at his wedding, too.

- Liz gives Jez a disappointing look when he begins his Enya speech (surely one of the best Jez moments). One gets the impression that she expected him to make a spectacle of himself at the funeral. Perhaps Jez is the black sheep of his family? Not hard to believe.

- Awaiting the results of his test (to see if he has the same genetic disorder that condemned his uncle to an early death), Jez becomes fatalistic and takes up smoking, just like Mark in the previous episode. In the fifth season finale, Jez similarly takes stock of his life and adopts uncharacteristic personality traits in response.

- Mark refers to his penis as "Captain Corrigan" for the first time.

- After many episodes, Mark's irregular testicles are dealt with. As it turns out, he has a "large hydrocele," which seems to be an accumulation of fluid in his balls. It's implied that he has this dealt with ("I intend to have an operation"), and I can't remember one way or another whether it's ever mentioned again in the show.

- Big Suze's dildo is mentioned, which Jeremy evidently still owns. The Big Suze that we eventually meet in the third season doesn't strike me as someone who, necessarily, owns a dildo. But maybe that says more about me than anything else. I'll have more on this next episode.

- Jez tells Sophie that Mark calls her a "sausage muncher." This is the same lie that he tells Kallie in the fifth season's "crystal skull" episode.

- Jez making a pass at Sophie foreshadows his "snogging" her in Kettering, which itself precedes their having sex at the start of the sixth season.

- Just what is JLB's logo? I get the globe thing, but what is that blob that sort of surrounds it?

Robert Webb puts in a convincing performance as a man who doesn't want his stomach pumped

Some choice quotes, all from Jez this time:
- Jez, while trying to come up with a topic to talk about with his dying uncle: "Uncle Ray. Football... ciggies..."
- Jez, trying to use Ray's death to his advantage, with Toni: "Nothing could make me feel better about Ray's death, except maybe... one thing..."
- Jez: "Well, Mr. Dalai Lama, I suppose you've got to be a suck up if you haven't got your own country."
- While Jez is getting a hand job off Toni, after telling her he's got six months to live, he thinks to himself, "I am going to feel so low just as soon as this is over."

UK Stuff:
- Biro: Evidently, this is just what they call ballpoint pens.

Season 1, Episode 5: "Dream Job"

Mark is not in a good place

Mark takes a turn for the worse when he's passed over for a promotion at work. Meanwhile, Hans has a go at Toni.

Thoughts:

- Mark's line, "Why didn't I iron my fucking tie?!" reminds us all that casual swearing on UK TV is hilarious.

- This might be an obvious point, but Jez' clothing is often very fun.

- Barbara at JLB shows up again, I think, for the last time.

- Mark has a Silver Surfer figurine on his computer at work. Might he be a Marvel man?

- Super Hans introducing himself to Toni: "Hans. Super Hans." Aside from that being a hilarious line, it raises the potential that that Hans is actually his first name. In the sixth season, we discover that Hans has two children in Germany. This could all make sense.

- Jez and Super Hans wrote a song called "Bum Dog."

- Jez on Mark: "The human time-bomb."

- Mark going nuts and pissing on Barbara's stuff is incredibly over-the-top. I'm not sure if this sort of thing would fly in a later season.

- Mark mentions his "so-called childhood." This is a common refrain from him over the years, yet details are scant.

- Super Hans threatens to walk when he finds out Jez is going to be fired from his receptionist job. Naturally, he doesn't. He makes the exact same empty threat when Jez gets kicked out of the band in the fifth season's "crystal skull" episode.

- This isn't the last time that Super Hans steals Jez' woman.

- Toni's total lack of commitment to or real respect for Jez matches that of Nancy in the second season and beyond. The difference, of course, is that Toni is actually a funny character.

- The boys again watch Bob Ross on TV. This time, they're painting along with him.

- The line, "it's political correctness gone mad!" is something of a catch-phrase on this show. I don't know if it originates here, but Mark occasionally says it, usually when he's not allowed to do something he wants to.

- The "this was definitely a great idea" bit also shows up. Mark and Jeremy are often heard convincing themselves of this in later episodes.

- As Mark spirals into depression, he takes up smoking. Jez does the exact same thing in the next episode, as he faces the possibility of an early death.

- Sophie lives in quite a large home. I wonder what the situation is there. Perhaps she has roommates.

- As Mark and Jez are being chased away from Sophie's backyard, we have a shot from a dog's POV. A dog, incidentally, that Mark kicks to death.

- "Cock muncher" shows up here. I know this isn't Peep Show-specific, but this is the first place I was exposed to this extremely fine insult, and it gets thrown around a few more times over the years.

World War 2 references:
- Mark mentions Stalingrad.
- In therapy, Mark instinctively likens his father to the Fuhrer.

This episode is quite good, perhaps because Mark and Jez have two similar plotlines (troubles with women) that eventually become intertwined. I find the show works best when Jez and Mark are working together, rather than at-odds.

Season 1, Episode 4: "Mark Makes a Friend"

Mark finds someone to care about, for once

In this one, Mark develops an unhealthy interest in Johnson.

Thoughts:

- This is the episode with the series of great "the bad thing" flashbacks. "Floss is boss!" etc. Again, these flashbacks are largely from a third-person perspective, and have an odd blue tint to them. So while they quickly moved away from using these, at least they were consistent the few times they showed up!

- The flashback also has this weird, non-diegetic music. Again, these little stylistic things don't make it too far past the first season.

- The boys are watching Morse on TV. This comes up a few times as a pedestrian sort of show that Mark unapologetically enjoys watching, sometimes with his mother. Additionally, when Mark gets the best of the burglar in the fifth season's first episode, he thinks "I'm wrestling with the white working class. Morse never did this. I'm better than Morse!"

Incidentally, my parents enjoy Morse.

- As Jez cleans the apartment, we get a POV shot from the vacuum cleaner. This is the only POV shot from an inanimate object that I can think of.

- Mark and Johnson seem only recently acquainted in this episode.

- Jez: "Mark likes Israel, I'm Palestine. Makes it more interesting when you pick it."

- Bizarrely, Jez can drive yet Mark can't. This little quirk comes up a few times throughout the series, particularly during the last act of the sixth season's sixth episode.

Is this sort of thing normal in the London area? Are otherwise accomplished men in their late-20s living lives without their drivers licenses? From my perspective it's amusing that Jez can manage a vehicle while Mark has no idea.

- Mark growing a moustache in emulation of Johnson is a really great gag. Subtle at first, and then just embarrassing. And nobody says a word about it.

- Whenever this show needs some 2nd party to look at the main characters talking (so that a scene doesn't become a series of bland shots of one character looking at the other), they're pretty clever to subtly set it up, like a pedestrian walking by, or a guy sitting at the next table or something. The show is pretty good about sticking to its POV rules.

From what I gather (off Wikipedia, of course), the actors and writers credit the POV conceit with the show's low-ish ratings. Maybe it's just me, but it's never really bothered me, and I didn't notice it until someone else pointed it out. But perhaps the common man just doesn't buy it.

- Johnson's drinking beer in this one. In the third season, he tells Mark that he's been sober 15 years. We could reason that he's drinking non-alcoholic beer, but I doubt any bars have that on tap. Maybe Johnson's just in denial about his alcoholism?

- Barbara is mentioned. The one who interviewed Jez in the second episode. She shows up again this season, but I don't know if she makes any appearances beyond that.

- The Stalingrad book is still on Mark's nightstand, where it was last episode. I really wish they'd kept hiding it throughout the series.

- There's a look right outside their apartment, from the living room window. In the first two seasons, they filmed in an actual apartment. Wikipedia tells us that starting in the third, it's a set in a carpet warehouse, making shots like that impossible. This is something I never noticed, and I doubt you could tell, either.

- Jeremy says that he's insured through his mom. First, if Jez is as old as Robert Webb, the actor, he'd be 31 here. Rather old to be on one's mom's insurance, no?

More interestingly, this suggests, perhaps, that Jez' parents are divorced. Indeed, when we finally meet his mom in the fifth season, they are. Maybe I'm reading too much into these little throwaway lines, but the show is fairly consistent about this sort of seemingly-minor stuff.

- This episode is the beginning of the antagonistic relationship between Jez and Johnson. It's pretty funny and begins to pay off later when Johnson steals Big Suze, among other things. It mirrors Super Hans' dislike of Mark.

- One of the main characters getting his dick sucked by a drugged-out male friend is one of those great, hilarious things you'd never see on an American sitcom. Obviously. It's part of Peep Show's appeal, but far from the only thing it brings to the table.

- One wonders if Mark's intense like of Johnson stems from a lack of a father figure he can love and care about. Perhaps his bizarre, almost homosexual attachment, is a reaction to his never having had a normal father-son relationship in his life. Perhaps.

"Floss is boss!"

UK References:
- Mention is made of "Clarkson," who I take to be Jeremy Clarkson, from Top Gear. I guess you can watch Top Gear on TV here, but I doubt you could go around talking about "Clarkson" and have people know who you're talking about. In the third season, Clarkson is mentioned approvingly by Mark's racist friend, Darryl.

- The VAT: Or "Value Added Tax." So far as I can tell, it's some tax in the EU.

Firsts:
- Johnson's first appearance. Oddly - unless I missed it - it's not really established here that Johnson is Mark's boss, necessarily. We get that he's a higher-up in JLB, but there's no indication by episode's end that we'll ever see Johnson again. Thankfully, we do.
- I think this is the first time Mark's last name, Corrigan, is mentioned.
- The truck horn noise that follows any mention of the El Dude Brothers, along with the arm pulling, makes its first, triumphant appearance.
- First mention of Mark's book, "Business Secrets of the Pharaohs." We never do get a good idea of what it might be about, but judging by the title, it seems, like Mark, too clever for its own good and destined to fail.

Season 1, Episode 3: "On the Pull"

Mark, partying hard

In this one, Mark takes a teenage girl bowling and brings Jez and Toni along.

Thoughts:

- This episode opens with Mark and Jez shopping. This isn't the last time we see them in this grocery store.

- One of Jez' comments indicates he's gone the better part of the year without sex. I find this at-odds with later episodes, where Jez seems to do pretty well for himself with the ladies. Maybe this was a particularly bad 9 months for him.

- There's a very rare and very brief flashback in which Mark is hitting on Sophie in a supply closet. Not only that, the flashback is seen from a 3rd person perspective (with a blue filter over the lens, no less). This sort of thing only ever shows up in the first season.

- Mark mentions Das Boot. Not only is this more WW2 stuff from Mark, he also tries watching this film with her in a later episode.

- There's a quick establishing shot during the party that Mark and Jez go to, where the speed is cranked up as we go through the room. This seems to be another one of those weird first season quirks that never shows up again.

- One gets the sense that Valerie, the girl Mark picks up at the party, is one of the few females Mark could ever get along with.

- This show is absolutely perfect at capturing the feelings one has in the constant pursuit of women. Says Jez after some guy cuts in on him dancing with a girl, and begins to make out with her: "the dream is over. I am detritus."

- This episode is a nice reminder that even guys like Mark score now and again in the real world. I think a conventional sitcom would play up Mark's forced celibacy, but here he makes it sometimes, and sometimes he doesn't.

- Perfect Mark, after Jez proposes they do drugs: "What if I lose it? I'm not going to do a poo, am I?"

- Perfect Jez, as he tries to win it for Mark and himself: "I could say we've both got enormous cocks. Might be the clincher."

- Good Toni line: "I had a steward eat me out in the multi-faith area at Dubai airport. God, that was depressing."

- This episode is very strange, in the sense that Mark - a man at this point in his mid-late 20s - has sex with a teenager. It's very bizarre in retrospect that Mark ever had this opportunity, and, furthermore, that he went for it.

- Jeff is set up in this episode as a romantic foil for Mark. The actor is just a perfect pick. I really believe that he's a massive fucking douchebag in real life. I want to add, "... but he's probably not," but... no, I dunno, Jeff the character is such a total prick that I have a hard time believing the actor isn't, even a little bit. He's perfect for this role.

- Toni is so insecure. I love that she feels threatened even by Mark's teenage date.

- Lazer Bowl, where they eventually find themselves, is a real place in Piccadilly Circus. Someone really needs to arrange a Peep Show tour. Maybe see the sights of Kettering.

- Tony, Toni's ex, shows up here. I think this is one of two appearances for him, making him one of the rare minor characters to get more than one go. The previous episodes, Toni had been distraught over some ex-boyfriend who we can assume is Tony.

- Mark, on Jeff possibly having sex with Sophie: "Don't think about it. If you don't think about it, it won't happen."

- There's a bit of non-diegetic music between scenes (as we move from the bowling alley to Mark's bedroom) that I don't think ever shows up again. Like the little noises between other scenes, this one is derived from the theme song.

- Good UK slang: Toni says that Tony ran off with "a scrubber called Lyndsay!"

- Mark is pleased that Valerie hasn't said anything about his nuts.

- The Stalingrad book is underneath the box of kleenex Mark grabs at the end of the show.

This is a pretty good conventional episode. After establishing the characters in the first two, the show presents a typical sort of sit-commy situation and has Mark and Jez run through it. I hesitate to say that it's good since... well, they're all good. But it's good.

Season 1, Episode 2: "The Interview"

Jez enjoys a drink in the tub

In this episode, Mark leaves an embarrassing message on Sophie's machine, while Jez deliberately tries to fudge an interview with JLB. Jez also takes a detour in the definitely not pyramid selling business.

- Mark tries to get Jez a job at JLB. This exact same setup recurs in the sixth season premiere, with different results (mainly, it works the second time).

Some firsts:
- Big Suze is first mentioned, though she won't show up till the third season premiere.
- First mention of the El Dude Brothers. Specifically, Mark refers to he and Jeremy as "Jez and Mez, the El Dude Brothers." This odd nickname for Mark never comes up again, so far as I can recall. Though I always understood that the "El Dude" moniker first came up while they were at the fictional Dartmouth University together, no mention of ole Dartie is made here.
- It's established here that Jez and Super Hans' "band" doesn't have a name. Or, it doesn't keep a name for any length of time. Names mentioned in this one include "The Hair Blair Bunch" and "Momma's Kumquat."
- During the JLB interview, we find out that Jez used to be a nurse. That's a very strange job for him to have had. This experience rarely ever gets mentioned again, though it does pop up once or twice after this.

- Quite often, Mark makes reference to the Second World War (and, more often than not, specifically, Germans and Nazis). Hitler also comes up regularly. In this episode, I counted five occasions on which Mark made some crack about WW2, or drew a swastika, or was reading a WW2-related book. If we include his bit about the Treaty of Versailles and its inevitable backlash, we have five and a half.

- Mark says that while brown toast is savoury, white is the treat. The joke is on everyone else, Mark thinks, as he, in fact, prefers brown. This is a perfect example of one of Mark's prosaic little thoughts that - in their own way - reveal a lot about us and how we deal with ourselves and social expectations. It's pretty much the meat and potatoes of the show. I mean, brown toast really is better, and you really do feel as though you're pulling one over on the universe for preferring it. Once Mark (or, less often, Jez) vocalizes thoughts like this for you and you realize you're not the only one who has them, the show begins to grow on you.

- Incidentally, Jez mentions the brown savoury/white treat dichotomy in a later episode. Mark's stag party, I think?

- Jez mentions his mom and dad. While his mother shows up in the fifth season's "Gunny" episode, his father has yet to be seen.

- Bob Ross - the guy with that giant head of hair who painted on PBS - shows up here. Well, his TV show does, at any rate. Mark and Jez watch it at least one other time, I think, in the fourth season's "Gym" episode.

- Mark's Stalingrad book from the previous episode is on his desk at JLB. I'm not certain if it ever shows up again.

- Mark has a fantasy magazine in his closet. This is one of the few instances - aside from an occasional Star Wars mention - where it's implied that Mark is an all-out nerd. Years later he plays a Wow-like MMO with Dobby and Gerard and goes Larping with them, but I suspect this was mostly to woo Dobby. Between the magazine and the MMO, I can't think of any particularly nerdy things Mark engages in, even though we might expect him to do such things often.

- This episode has one of two scenes (that I can think of) where we're inside Jez' head as he jerks off. In both cases, he's creating a bizarre fantasy based on whatever imagery he can get his hands on at the time. Here it's the fantasy elf girl in Mark's magazine, and years later it's the picture of the Queen on a bank note.

- Evidently, Mark has at this point not yet met Big Suze. This is bizarre, since a later episode establishes that Jez lived with her for a year and a half; if the El Dude Brothers have been such great pals since university, how did Mark not meet Jez' girlfriend and housemate during those eighteen months?

Obviously this is a case of writers inadvertently coming up with stuff that is at odds with previously-established other stuff. Still, if you run with it, it presents interesting possibilities. Did Mark and Jez have a falling-out sometime after Dartmouth? And how long have Mark and Jez been living together at this point, anyway?

- Another reference to Mark's strange balls.

- Says Mark of Jez' expectations in life: "Nothing you want is ever going to happen."

- Sophie is really nice and almost demure in these first two episodes. She's not quite the fun-loving, self-destructive Sophie she eventually becomes.

- Jeff himself shows up in this one, after being briefly mentioned in the first episode. He seems like just a normal guy in the office, until his last line (he sings the song Mark left on Sophie's machine), which hints at what a grade-A prick he's going to be throughout the series.

- At the end of the day, a pretty decent episode that does a good job of properly setting up the Mark/Jez relationship (after their odd dynamic in the first one), as well as the Mark/Sophie plot. There are quite a few clever lines in this one that I was surprised to find were from so early an episode.

Season 1, Episode 1: "Warring Factions"

An unusually-confident Mark goes after Toni

Not that anyone blogs anymore (who has time to bother with more than 140 characters?), but for the record we begin today the first of a series of exhausting "reviews" of the television programme Peep Show - to be completed either when I run through all episodes, or just stop wanting to do this. I put "reviews" in quotes because I think this will degenerate more into me randomly mentioning things I think of when I watch, rather than any sort of critical analysis. It will only be of use to someone who has seen it.

If you're reading this you are likely already familiar with this wonderful show; in the event that you're not yet hip to things, it's this sitcom from the UK about two oddly-matched friends living in the south end of London, in which we are constantly privy to the thoughts of the two protagonists. To give you a rough idea of their personalities, the actors play the Apple/PC guys in the UK versions of those ads. That doesn't really sound like much, but it's genuinely the best, funniest TV show ever made.

We begin our reviews, appropriately, with the first episode, "Warring Factions," which Wikipedia tells us was broadcast in September, 2003. From what I remember from the DVD commentary, this wasn't the first one filmed, but the network thought it would make the best premiere episode. Perhaps. I think Mark is a tad out-of-character in his pursuit of Toni, so I don't personally recommend it as a jumping-on point.

- Jeremy's introduction is fairly spot-on: he's dancing topless in front of a mirror while he listens to his own song. If this hadn't been intended to be the first episode, I wonder how such a perfect scene ended up at the start.

- Similarly, Mark's introductory scene - an awkward encounter with a female - perfectly sums up who he is and what he thinks about women and social conventions.

Some firsts:
- Jeremy's song shows up now and again in the background throughout the series. A music video for it is on the first season DVD, and floating out there on YouTube.
- Jeff is first mentioned in one of Sophie's first lines, "what do you make of Jeff's memo?". Very easy to miss, fellow Peepers!
- Mark mentions his lawyer sister, who shows up years later in two episodes years apart.
- Mark references the awful relationship he has with his father. This gets mentioned often, but we've yet to really meet Mark's dad. He's definitely a character I'm waiting patiently to see (he showed up for literally one second in the fourth season finale), and I'll feel cheated if we don't.
- Mark's weird testicles are mentioned for the first time. This is a recurring gag for quite a few episodes.
- Mark's interest in the Second World War (or is it an interest in Nazis?) comes up.

- The kids who harass Mark are perfect. There's no way some casting agent auditioned them. If they're actors, they each deserve a... Bafta? I guess? I imagine the producers just found some shitty little hooligans on the street and told them to do what they would normally do in front of the camera. The way they jump and spit on the wall - there's no way someone would script that. Just genius.

- One of the kids calls Mark a "clean shirt," which is one of the more memorable lines from the series (I use "series" in the proper, North American sense). One of the robbers in the fifth season premiere calls him the same thing. So far as I can tell, this put-down is a Peep Show original.

- Jez' half-painted orange room is perfect for the character.

- Super Hans is spot-on in his first appearance, with his rant about the logo in the foam and power brokers "getting their dicks sucked by big Alsatian dogs." With the possible exception of Johnson, Super Hans is word-for-word the funniest character on the show.

- More overtly than usual, Super Hans' dislike of Mark shows up in his scene. It's in the background in subsequent episodes, but there's always the implication that Mark and Super Hans don't particularly care for each other. Perhaps appropriate, as Super Hans and Mark stand in direct opposition to one another - much moreso than mismatched Mark and Jez.

-Come to think of it, Super Hans is sort of like Jez without any warmth or redeeming qualities.

- This one makes for an odd first episode, for two reasons. First, the way in which Mark aggressively pursues Toni is entirely out-of-character for someone who is normally a fairly awkward, introverted man. Second, Jez and Mark are in constant opposition to each other for almost the entirety of the episode. While it's pretty hip these days to have characters hate each other in sitcoms, the animosity in this episode is way off the charts for these guys.

- Mark tries to get the name of an acupuncturist for Toni's leukemia-stricken sister. In later episodes, I don't think even a lust-driven Mark would stoop to such a move, so devoted to Reason and the Scientific Method that he is. Oddly, it's Jez who eventually voices opposition to acupuncture.

- Toni's a pretty fun character. She eventually disappears after the second season, but it would be nice if she popped up at some point in a future episode, particularly since she played such a big role in these earlier seasons.

- Toni gets a pretty good line when she protests she's "not some kind of next-door fuck jar."

- Toni's sister, Paula, shows up again muuuch later, in the fifth season premiere. She's one of a tiny handful of tertiary characters who make more than one appearance (Mark's sister is the only other one I can think of, but surely there are others). Her role in that one is so small and unspecific to her character that I wonder why she came back at all.

Peep Show, naturally, mentions a few UK-specific things that I've never heard of. Among them:
- The Hampton Court Maze: A maze dating back to the 17th century, a bit to the west of where Mark and Jez live.
- Tim Henman: A tennis player that Mark evidently likes. This episode implies that Mark is a big tennis fan (or at least a big Tim Henman fan), yet this interest is never mentioned again.
- Rizla: A weed-based party game whose popularity is, from my research, confined entirely to the UK.
- The offy: The off-license, or place outside of a pub where you can grab booze.

- The fellow who does eventually get Toni (and Paula?) is very Jeff-like in his alpha male put-downs of Mark and Jez. Perhaps he's a sort of proto-Jeff.

- This episode has a rare fade-out near the end, clashing with the point-of-view rules the show eventually rigidly adheres to. I think there are very few incidents like this outside of the first season (another example would be the omniscient third-person perspective during the flashback when Jez and Super Hans do the "bad thing").

- This season has the quirky, almost off-putting minimalist theme song. It eventually gets dropped for some out-of-place rock tune. I'm not saying the original is brilliant, but it's interesting how much at-odds it is with the song they eventually settle on. Surely the change was forced on them by Channel 4. The original song lives on, of course, in the little beeps and boops around the episodes' ad breaks.