Season 4, Episode 3: "Gym"

Mark joins a gym to avoid Sophie, while Nancy comes back into Jez’ life.

- I don’t particularly enjoy this one, possibly because it involves Nancy, but more likely because the way in which Mark and Jez deal with Matt, the personal trainer, is pretty awful, even by Peep Show standards. Funny, but awful.

Consequently, I don’t have much to say about this episode.

- Jez’ doodles reappear in this one. He has an amusing, though limited, artistic side that is hinted at occasionally. I guess he’s a bad musician and a bad drawer.

- Mark refers to his “misshapen scrotum” for the first time in a long while. This used to be a staple of the first season.

- Nancy works at a health club. When we last saw her, she had to leave her sham wedding early to go to an interview for a job at a health club. The only trouble is that, prior to working at the club this episode, she evidently went about and worked elsewhere. Perhaps she got the job back at the end of the second season, and they kept it on-hold while she went on sabbatical? In any case, again, the show is very good about staying consistent with the most minor details from years-old episodes.

- Toni is referenced, along with the Robin Williams movie nights Jez and Nancy used to enjoy.

- Once again, in desperation, Mark will do crazy things, like, say, claiming that his personal trainer sexually assaulted him. The scene in which Mark does this is one of the show’s most awkward.

- Mark making the assault story up on the spot is reminiscent of his Hofmeister/kettle chips/”not even a proper cocktail” speech at the drinking support group. Both are funny.

- This one ends on a bizarre note. Just how do the main characters resolve the situation (Matt about to beat them up while they hide behind Sophie and Nancy)?

- Nancy comes back in this one, and for a few more episodes scattered across the season. I’m not entirely sure why she’s back, though, seeing as how she has very little presence in any subsequent episodes.

Quotes:

- Jeremy: "I don’t need to pay money to join a gym. The world is my gym. The hills, the trees, the rivers – they are my gym."
Mark: "Yeah, well, the world is my gym, too. It’s just the bit of it that’s actually a gym, that’s gonna be my gym."

Mark, watching someone (revealed to be Jeremy) setting the mail on fire: “Jesus, what’s that man doing? I should do something. If decent people like me do nothing, then what? Then they’ll come for the trade unionists – although that, to be honest, wouldn’t bother me too much.”

- Mark wants to marry Soph because it’s his “chance to be a proper human being.”

UK Stuff:

- Alain de Botton: A Swiss writer and TV presenter who lives in the UK, according to Wikipedia. I take him to be a philosopher of some sort.

- Edward and Mrs. Simpson: A TV show from the late-70s about the Abdication Crisis.

- Punnet: A basket to keep fruit in.

Season 4, Episode 2: "Conference"

“Great, now I’m getting an angry lap dance. Brilliant.”

Mark tackles “Project Zeus” while Johnson makes a move for Big Suze.

- This is a fun one, perhaps in large part because it does a good job of integrating secondary characters like Big Suze and, best of all, Johnson. Also, Mark and Jez have distinctive, amusing plots of their own.

- Project Zeus is inherently an unworkable, terrible idea. This is, perhaps, a hint at the unhinged Johnson we encounter in season six.

- This episode introduces us to Gerrard, who plays minor, yet amusing, roles in upcoming episodes.

- Lisa first shows up here. She’s an employee at JLB who shows up in a very limited capacity from time to time.

- Jez and Johnson, obviously, still hate each other. This is the first time they’ve had any sort of meaningful confrontation, and it’s very appropriate that it leads to Johnson stealing the love of Jez’ life.

- This episode continues to portray Mark as a character who reacts very poorly to stress. With Project Zeus a shambles, he alienates everyone around him, including his fiancée, with his poor behaviour. Once it all starts falling down around him, he tries to make a desperate escape from civilization. In previous episodes, we’ve seen him pissing on a supervisor’s work and cutting his forearm to get attention, in reaction to stress.

- Mark is such a complete cock when dealing with people when his job is at stake. That’s funny.

- Suze’s place isn’t the same one as seen in season three, episode one. I suppose she’s moved out from Michelle’s.

- Again, this show is very very good at casting incidental characters. Johnson’s friends that go to the strippers’ are very believably, as Mark says, “literally the worst men in the world.”

- There are actual tits in this episode. Real-life tits. Such is UK TV.

- This is perhaps not entirely a huge surprise, but I quite like the stripper who gives Mark a lap dance. Some bizarre part of me would like them to end up together. Moreso than most other women he meets, she, bizarrely, seems his intellectual equal.

- Jez and Soph kiss briefly in this one. This becomes a minor issue in the season finale, and is a precursor to them actually having sex later on.

- Jez calls Mark “Captain Corrigan.” This is the nickname Mark has for his penis.

- Jez, evidently, has been with more than four men.

- There’s a good Jeff scene at the end, where he gives Mark the finger after Mark comes to him in desperation. It reminds us that Jeff hasn’t had much to do in a while.

- Johnson stealing Big Suze from Jeremy is inspired. Their domestic life is fairly amusing, in season six.

Quotes:

- Johnson, providing motivation for Project Zeus: Hi guys. I just want to drop by and say “have fun.” Tonight should be a free-fire idea zone. Watch a DVD, eat some pizza… fuck each other. I’m serious. Fuck a chicken if that’s what it takes. Watch a chicken fucking a horse.

“That’s a great piece of real estate you’ve got there.”

- Johnson: In business, Jeremy, you learn that every man has his price and I judge yours to be, what… 530 pounds?
Jeremy: What?
Johnson: I’m not going to beat around the bush, Jeremy. I want to make you a real life… indecent proposal.
Jeremy: An indecent proposal?
Johnson: I want to sleep with your girlfriend, Jeremy. But I don’t like playing the game with women. I don’t like listening to them, I don’t like talking to them, but I do like some of the things… they do, so…
Jeremy: 530 pounds? To sleep with Big Suze?
Johnson: That’s my… indecent proposal.
Jeremy: Certainly is an indecent proposal!
Johnson: You have a property of which I which to make a use. Is that so very different from hiring a solicitor, or leasing out a Spanish villa?
Jeremy: Well it is a bit different because you’d be putting your dick right-
Johnson: What’s your answer, Jeremy?
Jeremy: Maybe you could finger her for 300?
Johnson: I’m not going to bargain with you, Jeremy.
Jeremy: He obviously thinks I’m some sort of skag addict bedroom DJ who can be bought off. But… no-one’s going to give me a medal for saying no, and I am pretty broke and… Okay, it’s a deal. Is this a terrible idea? It can’t be, it’s in a film. They wouldn’t put a terrible idea in a film, they’d get sued.

- Mark, expressing reservations about the strippers: “Wasn’t the last one a bit… thin?”

- Jeremy: What’s Johnson done for Black people lately?
Suze: You mean apart from his mentoring and charity work?
Jeremy: Yeah, apart from that.

- Mark says that his getting an erection during his lap dance is “grimly predictable.” That’s a saying I’ve come to adopt as one of my own.

- Mark, coming in on Sophie and Jez about to make out: "Why are they being so nice? Maybe they’ve been having a big chat about me and they’ve suddenly realized that I was right about North Korea, I was right about the European constitution, and by god I think I’m right about the congestion charge."

UK Stuff:

- Skag: Heroin! Who’d have thought?

- Bernie Winters and Schnorbitz: Bernie Winters was a comedian, and Schnorbitz was a St. Bernard in his act.

- Congestion charge: A not-insignificant toll on vehicles entering downtown London.

- I have a feeling that Jez and Big Suze are watching the UK Apprentice on TV in the hotel. With the oft-mentioned Sugar!

Season 4, Episode 1: "Sophie's Parents"

Mark makes a good first impression

Mark and Jez head to the countryside to meet Sophie's parents.

- Partly because this is one of the better episodes, I think I’ve seen it the most. I recall how fresh and different it felt the first time watching it, what with the introduction of so many amusing characters in Sophie’s family.

- This episode has a total of two Seinfeldian quirks. The first is Mark’s new facial hair at the start of the new season, not unlike Jerry and George’s at the start of season… eight, or so? Or Adama’s at the start of the New Caprica stuff. Always good for a laugh.

The second, and more important, is the notion that one of the main characters has entered into an engagement with a character he doesn’t actually love, but is determined to go through with it all the same. Seinfeld got a season of decent material out of it before Susan was killed off, whereas Peep Show takes the concept to the wedding day itself, and beyond.

- Jeremy being so pissed off at Mark for wearing the same shirt is pretty funny. I imagine Jez’ distinctive shirts are a large part of his identity, so to see someone else in the exact same one as he’s wearing must be quite an existential threat.

- Jez actually going along for the occasion of Mark’s first meeting with Sophie’s parents is a bit… convenient. That wouldn’t actually happen outside of a sitcom, I don’t imagine.

- Mark says that the doubts he expressed to Jeremy about marrying Soph were just “pub talk.” But, no, they weren’t! They were on the moor and totally sober when they had that conversation!

- Sophie’s dad, Ian, is one of the show’s better characters. He’s shown up in three episodes since, but not for too long. He really needs to be featured again.

- Sophie’s mom, Penny, is believably hot. She does a good job of seeming a tad frumpy at first, and then, you know, might have quite a bit of potential upon second glance.

- Sophie’s brother, Jamie, is a curious character. In an episode next season, a cousin, Barney, shows up (the one who idolizes Jeremy and eventually sucks Super Hans off). This cousin is exactly like Jamie in every conceivable way. Surely he was supposed to have been Jamie, but perhaps the original actor was unavailable. Either Jamie or Barney shows up, briefly, in the wedding episode, flinging rice at Mark as he leaves the church.

- Jamie mentions “Outrageous,” Jeremy and Super Hans’ song from way back in the first episode. Only massive fans of the show would get that.

- Mark ripping the bird’s head off is a fairly memorable scene.

- Mark and Ian have a few pints at The Round Bush. The Internet tells me that this pub is in Hertfordshire, about an hour (my estimate!) to the north of London. So I guess that’s where Sophie grew up. Hertfordshire.

- The whole thing with Jez and Penny is great. Even after having watched scenes where, say, two straight male characters suck each other off, I was still surprised they went for that. Perhaps it speaks more to my innate innocence than anything else.

- Tony Blair announces his resignation around the time of this episode. According to Wikipedia, that would have been on September 6^th, 2006. The episode was aired in April the following year, indicating that the time at which the episode occurs and its airdate are not necessarily the same thing.

Of course, there was also snow on the ground in Hertfordshire during the episode, presumably in September. So that doesn’t work, either. In the end, maybe it’s best not to think of such things.

- I like how Mark figures out Jez has had sex with his fiancee’s mom just by looking at him.

- Jez, of course, is the one who has to drive the pair to Sophie’s. Mark’s inability to drive has been, and will be again, a plot point in a few episodes.

- A question to leave you with: If this is how Mark met Sophie's parents, how and when did Sophie meet Mark's? That would be an interesting "lost" episode.

Quotes:

- Mark, despondent about the turn his life has taken since becoming engaged: “How the fuck did it come to this?”

- Sophie, motioning to a shirt in a department store: “Try this on.”
Mark: “This is just a zip. There’s no pocket to this zip.”
Sophie: “So?”
Mark, internally: “That’s the way things are these days. ‘Let’s just put a zip here, a swastika there. Why not? Who knows what these things were once used for? Who the hell even cares?’”

- Mark, hunting: “This is what farmers do. They go around shooting crows and trespassers and eventually, because of the EU, themselves.”

- Jez, thinking Penny’s offer over: “Suck mommy’s finger? Do I suck the finger?”

- Jez, catching on: “Okay, it’s not going to be just about the jam.”

- Mark, reacting to Jez’ affair with Penny: “You’re not James Bond, you’re disgusting.”
Jez, internally: “I am James Bond.”

- Jez: “I’m a mother fucker. That’s literally what I am.”

UK Stuff:

- The Big Chill: Some music fest.

- Hollyoaks: “A long-running television soap opera.”

- Ian going around his farm with a metal detector seems odd, yet I understand this is something of a regular thing for such people. The past year alone, two major discoveries of Anglo Saxon loot have been announced.

- Scrumping: To steal fruit, usually apples.

- Café Nero: It offers, according to its website, “the finest Italian-style coffee in the UK.”

WW2 Stuff:

- This one is stretching, but Mark says that, after fiddling with his goatee, he eventually looked like an “evil overlord.” Hitler moustache, perhaps?

- Mark says that Penny “probably had a ration book,” although, since rationing in the UK went on into the mid-50s, this one, again, is stretching it.

- Mark’s dream is to live in the Ardennes. Given that I can find no information online to indicate that the Ardennes is some sort of tourist/rich person hotspot, I have to assume that his interest in living there is entirely related to its position as a key battleground in the Second World War.

Actually, all three of these are only tenuously connected to WW2, but I'm gonna put them in anyway.

Season 3, Episode 6: "Quantocking"

Mark and Soph get engaged on a romantic weekend retreat, while Jez and Super Hans tag along.

- This is a great episode, although I tend to watch it too often. Even the talky bit when they’re lost on the moor is a good scene.

- Jez aiming for the bullseye while playing darts is completely in-character.

- Mr. Patel is once again mentioned. He saves hotel vouchers in newspapers for Mark.

- Super Hans calls Mark “the abdominizer,” whatever that means. In an earlier episode, he gave Mark the nickname of “Professor Yaffle.”

- The scene of Mark and Sophie having a very bland, mildly passive-aggressive conversation while trying to find a restaurant is fairly true to life.

- Super Hans doesn’t particularly affect the plot, but he does bring the laughs.

- Mark’s gay feelings for Johnson are mentioned here, and in the previous episode.

- There’s a long-distance shot of both Mark and Jeremy walking along the moor, yet… from whose POV is this shot? In the commentary, they thought they might set things up so that it’s from a cow’s perspective, but they figured that bringing animals into the POV mix was a bit much.

Of course, we all know that in season one’s “Dream Job,” there is a brief shot from a dog’s POV.

Regardless, this is the one shot in the entire history of the show whose POV I can’t account for.

The shot in question

- This episode establishes that Mark doesn’t actually love Sophie. This is a key turning point in the show and colours many episodes to come.

- Sophie mentions the juice bar in Bristol where her friends from the previous episode work.

- It looks like, strangely, Mark is drinking booze when he finally gets back in the morning.

- Jez giving recovering addict Super Hans the crack at the end is actually kind of sad.

Quotes:

- Super Hans calls a can of beer a “sauce bottle.” I’ll have to start using that term.

- Super Hans, tied to the bed, trying to convince Jeremy that he’s in a rational state of mind:

“It’s all becoming very clear to me now, Jez. I want some drugs.”

- Jez to Super Hans, who is rolling up a joint with his feet: “Are you trying to skin up with your feet again? Because it doesn’t work, does it? It just makes a mess.”

- Mark, exasperated: “Why won’t that stupid bitch let me propose to her?!” Not unlike his reaction to stress in the first season, when he peed on Barbara’s files and had to go into therapy.

- Mark, after having a straight drink at the hotel bar: “Ahh, that smarts! Stupid… whisky.” Very understandable reaction.

- Mark: “Nobody dies in southern England, Jeremy. That just doesn’t happen, okay?”

- Super Hans, feverishly chasing after a bag of drugs taped to a thrown Frisbee: “Drugs! Drugs! Druuuugs!!”

- Jeremy to Mark, upon discovering that the engagement is on, after all: “So… what the fuck?”

UK Stuff:

- Quantocks: Via Wikipedia, the Quantock Hills are a range of hills in Somerset. That makes sense.

- Super Hans says that Mark gets his “morning horn off on the FT,” or, the Financial Times.

- Peter’s Friends: A British comedy/drama from the early 90s. Wikipedia tells us that “the film deals with themes of friendship, marriage, fidelity, materialism, and coping with death and loss.”

- Sugar and The Apprentice (see last episode) get mentioned. See, now you get the joke! Unless you’re from the UK, in which case it’s not a big deal.

- Des Lynam: A TV and radio presenter.

- Jimmy Carr: A dark humourist, it would seem.

- Public right-of-way: Those paths through farmers’ fields that anyone can use.

World War 2 Stuff:

- When looking for a restaurant, Marks says that they must “push on to Moscow,” perhaps mindful of how futile the search has become.

- Jez makes a rare reference to WW2 in this. After discovering that Mark has been stingy with the chocolate rations, he sarcastically remarks that the “spirit of the Blitz lives on!”

Season 3 Episode 5, "Jurying"

"Look, maybe I didn't play by the rules this time."

Jez starts a relationship with a criminal while Mark gets roped into going to a rave.

- This one, more than others, can be either annoying or perfect, depending on my mood. I suppose that says more about me than anything else, but there it is.

- There’s yet another scene in a grocery store with Mark and Jez. This happens in a lot more episodes than you would think. I might go so far as to say that of all sitcoms, this show features the most scenes in a grocery store. I quite like that, as roommates in real life often go there together.

- This one introduces us to the reckless Sophie that shows up more often later. I really like this side of her character. It’s very believable that she would turn to this as she enters her 30s and life hasn’t worked out how she expected.

- The actress playing Carla, the defendant, is perfect. She really does seem trashy.

- The guy playing the foreman of the jury is a judge in the movie, “Magicians.” Yet another Peep Show/Magicians connection.

- The guy playing Sophie’s gay friend, Dom, is perfect, yet… where does he go? I don’t see him in any scenes beyond the first one he shows up in, although he’s supposed to have gone clubbing with them, surely?

- The scene with Mark, the homophobe, talking his way into a gay bar is pretty good.

- Mark’s speech on the necessity of capitalism is one of the character’s finest moments. It really encapsulates everything he believes. And it’s true.

"There are systems in this world for a reason!"

Quotes:

- Jeremy, on his philosophy as a juror: “Whatever it is, I’d let them off.”

Mark: “Jeremy, don’t try and upset me.”

- Jez: “This isn’t wrong, just illegal. Like drink driving.”

- Jez, mockingly: “’Oh, I’m the foreman. Only I get to talk to the judge.’ Fuck you.”

- Mark, reluctant to try E: “Is there not a slim chance I might… die?”

- Mark, pretending to be on E: “I might be getting the famous ‘munchies.’”

Sophie: “Really, on E? I’ll get you some water.”

- Mark, to the ravegoers squatting in his house: "It's only through the miracle of consumer capitalism that means you're not lying in your own shit, dying at 43 with rotten teeth, and a little pill with a chicken on it isn't going to change that.

Now, come on. Fuck off.”

UK Stuff:

- Skinner and Baddiel: A comedic duo.

- Rymans: A stationery store.

- Goose Green: The site of a Falklands War battle.

- Hen night: A bachelorette party. Jez likens women’s prison to this.

- Sugar: Alan Sugar, who Wikipedia tells me is a “British entrepreneur, media personality and political adviser.” He has Donald Trump’s role on the UK version of “The Apprentice.”

War references:

- Mark likens himself, positively, to Rommel.

Season 3, Episode 4: "Sistering"

Jez at work

Jez gets involved with Mark’s sister, while Mark might have something going with Big Suze.

- Mark’s sister Sarah makes her first appearance, after having been mentioned twice (the first time was way back in the very first episode). She’ll show up in… one future episode? The party episode in season six, at least. (Which might just be the best one, incidentally.)

- The actress playing Sarah looks quite a lot like David Mitchell. I mean, not identical or anything, but one could honestly believe that these two people are siblings. Good casting.

- Sarah mentions (what my ears perceive to be) “Grange Terrace, before the move.” There’s a Grange Terrace in Edinburgh, although I doubt the Corrigans are from Scotland. I’m not entirely sure where she’s talking about, or when it happened (it seems to be somewhat recent, if Sarah is trying to come to terms with it now) although evidently everything there, “before the move,” was fine. The Corrigan children seem to make a distinction between pre- and post-Grange Terrace.

- Sarah hasn’t met Jez until now. This isn’t particularly notable, given that Mark likes to stay as far away from his family as possible.

- Jez has symptomless Chlamydia. Can’t that be treated? Did he just recently acquire it?

- Sarah is 29. I’m not exactly sure why, but I think she’s older than Mark. It’s strange when your TV heroes are suddenly (at most!) your age.

- Big Suze is evidently an actor of some sorts. I could be wrong, but I don’t think this is ever mentioned in another episode.

- Mark believes Big Suze to be smart in this episode. Now, while she’s never an outright idiot, I would say that in none of her subsequent appearances has she ever come off as particularly perceptive or intelligent.

- Mark was privately educated until his dad’s British Aerospace shares “went kaput.” More Corrigan family insight.

- Mark’s reaction to jogging is just about right. It seems amazing for about 30 seconds, and then it’s painful and utter shit. Moments like this – shining a light on essential human experiences - are just pure Peep Show.

- When Mark and Big Suze are jogging, they set up very cleverly a few shots of Big Suze looking back at Mark. This show is very good about sticking to its POV rules.

- Jeremy is playing his sex mix from an earlier episode.

- There have been various infidelities in the Corrigan family. While hinted at in previous episodes, I think this is the first time it’s implied that these were a recurring problem.

- This episode suggests that Mark and Big Suze could have been an item, and it’s actually somewhat believable. It would be interesting to see this idea followed up in another episode.

- The final scene between Sarah and Mark (where Mark “breaks up” with his sister) hints at the dysfunctional Corrigan family dynamics.

“What an idiotic boob I was back ten or eleven seconds ago.”

Quotes:

- Mark, playing a video game: “Can’t stop now. Gotta win the war for the Nazis.”

- Mark, reacting to Jez putting the moves on Sarah: “Oh my god, he’s doing it – his routine. He’s doing his routine on my sister!”

- Jez, after Sarah gets him a job: “Turns out getting a job doesn’t involve spending hours and hours making sure you spelled every word on your CV right, eh Mark?”

- Jez: “Who still uses talcum powder?”

- Jez, excitedly: “Let’s crack open the gin!”

- Sarah, to Mark: “You’re loving this, aren’t you?” Evidently it’s not just Jez who uses this line. Perhaps Sarah picked it up from him?

UK stuff:

- Mark and Jez meet up with Sarah at the Dolphin. An Internet search reveals this pub to be in Hanwell, in London’s west end. Considering this is far from Croydon in the south where Mark and Jez live, we might assume that, perhaps, Sarah lives nearby?

- Digby, the biggest dog in the world: Some giant dog from a 1973 children’s film.

- Mark and Suze go to a Hawksmoor church. Nicholas Hawksmoor was an architect who designed a few churches in the 17^th-18^th centuries. Big Suze is related to a Hawksmoor through her mother.

- Mark playfully compares Suze to Christopher Wren, a rival – of sorts - of Hawksmoor.

- Jacket potato: A baked potato.

- Steve Cram and Steve Ovett – “Dominant middle distance runners” during the 1980s, Wikipedia asserts.

War references:

- At the very start of the episode, Mark is playing a real-time strategy game on his computer, “Blitzkrieg.” This game does, in fact, exist.

Season 3, Episode 3: "Shrooming"

"Is that... normal pooing you're doing?"

Mark’s illness puts a damper on Jeremy’s shroom party.

- “This is bullshit!” is said by multiple characters throughout this episode. It’s slowly becoming a very common line. The funniest is, of course, Super Hans’, when he freaks out in the washroom and kicks the door out.

- “Oh for God’s sake!” and its variants also show up about three times. It’s a great line, particularly since when Jeremy says it, his indignation is almost never warranted, whereas Mark’s is.

- Super Hans’ father made alcohol at home, and Hans was forced to watch over the still.

- The guy playing the carpenter, is, again, just the best working-class casting ever. Like I said, at this point I’m starting to wonder if the country isn’t just entirely full of these people, making their casting on TV shows incredibly common.

- Johnson comes to rescue Mark from his locked room. When Jez answers the door, their mutual disdain is apparent. I quite like how that relationship is pretty consistent, if subtle.

- Johnson first meets Big Suze here. And by “meets,” I mean that they’re in the same shot for about four seconds, and they don’t exchange any dialogue. Tellingly, perhaps, Johnson gives her a look-over. I vaguely recall that when he later makes his “indecent proposal” to Jeremy, it’s as if he’s laid eyes on her for the first time. But there is definitely something in that look. Check it out yourself!

- The pooing scene at the end is really a highlight. The show almost never does humour like that (and I don’t generally think it’s the greatest), but something about it works here; probably Super Hans, Johnson and Jeremy’s reactions.

-Mark mentions his sister, Sarah, by name. He had previously alluded to her in the very first episode, saying that she was a lawyer. She finally shows up in the next episode, and her character is entirely consistent with what Mark had set up before.

I wouldn’t normally be blown away that the show follows its own continuity, if not for the fact that: 1) almost no other shows bother keeping track of this stuff, and 2) some of these little mentions are just one-off lines that almost nobody would remember, particularly the bit about her being a lawyer.

"Doesn't sound normal. Doesn't smell normal."

Quotes (quite a few of them this time):

- Jez: “If people only did what they wanted, everybody would spend all day sitting on the carpet watching the poker channel and wanking, and eating those expensive German biscuits. Probably.”

- Jez, feigning outrage at discovering that Super Hans is eating out some girl in Mark’s bed: “They didn’t go in there, did they? Oh, that is too much. I’m annoyed now.”

- Mark, on the perils of getting too chummy with contractors in your home: “You have to maintain the barrier, or they’ll retune your radio to a commercial station.”

- Jez, on his afternoon: “To him it looks like I’ve done literally nothing since lunch. Well, the washing up isn’t nothing, mate, and I’m going to be doing that any bloody minute!”

-Jez, pleased with himself: “God, look at me talking with a builder like we’re both on the same level.”

- Mark, after learning that a strike in Frankfurt has, mercifully, delayed his flight: “God bless those overunionized European economies.”

- Jez, after purposely giving Mark too much Nyquil: “It’s not like I’m going to rape him. I could rape him. I’m not going to rape him.”

- Jez: “I almost certainly haven’t killed him.”

- Super Hans’ date at the shroom party: “Before I did shrooms, I was stuck at HSBC doing the 9 to 5.”

Super Hans, supportively: “Yeah, and now you’ve got your room in the centre and you’re making your masks.”

- Mark: “Locked out of a party in my own home! It’s Sarah’s 18^th all over again!”

UK Stuff:

- The Sick Man of Europe: Used since the mid-1800s to describe any European country undergoing some sort of economic trouble. Mark and Jeremy might be more familiar with its use during the 70s, when the moniker was often applied to the UK.

- Rick, from “The Young Ones”: Wikipedia tells me that “The Young Ones” was a 1982 sitcom with “anarchic, offbeat humour.” Rick was himself “a pompous, would-be anarchist.”

War References:

- Absolutely none. Very disconcerting.

Season 3, Episode 2: "Sectioning"

"He was running around with his cock out, saying it was on fire!"

Mark and Jez get their friend sectioned.

- This is one of the more depressing episodes, and I tend to avoid it whenever I want to casually watch a Peep Show. It also only has one plotline (with a bit of Mark/Sophie stuff off to the side) and gets a tad boring. That said, a boring Peep Show is better than anything else, bar none.

- We’re introduced here to Canadian Mary, from Mark and Jez’ days at Dartie. This is, so far as I recall, one of the show’s two references to Canada; the second comes in season six, when Gail (Elena’s fiancée) is said to have family in Quebec.

- Super Hans mentions that he once ran a pub.

- Mark can’t even enjoy a day at the carnival with his girlfriend. As Jez says to him later in the episode, “Mark, do you have to live quite so relentlessly in the real world?”

- Barbara at JLB is mentioned once again.

- Super Hans mentions his disdain for “logos in the foam” again, as he did in his very first appearance.

- It’s implied that Mark and Mary have hooked up; to be specific, that’s how Jez remembers it and, when pressed, Mark dodges the issue.

- Super Hans’ proposed name for the pub, “Free the Paedos,” is one of the show’s funnier bits.

- The El Dude Brothers horn makes an appearance.

- This is the first mention of Mark and Jez’ friend Pedge – one of those sitcom characters who is mentioned but never seen. In this episode, we discover that he works at HMV.

- It’s said that Pedge also knows Mary – implying, perhaps, that he went to Dartie with Mark and Jez. If that’s the case – and if I’m remembering my later episodes correctly – it may be that Mark and Jez met Super Hans through Pedge (I get the impression later that Pedge and Super Hans are good friends, but I might be making that up).

- A “European Bob” is mentioned, but, unlike Pedge, I don’t think we ever hear of him again. One gets the sense that Mark has met all his friends through Jez, given how strange they are.

- Super Hans really shines in this one; he has a stake in the proceedings and actively gets involved. He’s a good character to have in the background doing funny things, but it’s also nice to have him come to the forefront now and again.

- It’s implied that Sophie might have slept with someone in Bristol. Later on (I think!) she tells Jez that she’s only been with four guys. Up to now, we have Jeff, Mark, possibly the Bristol guy and then, presumably, whoever the first guy is.

Mark gets barred from Free the Paedos

Quotes:
- Mark: I’m just a normal, functioning member of the human race, and there’s no way anybody can prove otherwise.

- Super Hans: I’m really particular about the kind of establishment I run, though. It needs to make a political statement; a very strong political statement.
Jez: Does it? Are you sure? Because I really don’t think it does – if it’s a pub.

- Super Hans: “People like Coldplay and voting for the Nazis; you can’t trust people.” – not a statement I’d disagree with.

- Jez to Mark: “You’re loving this, aren’t you?” – a phrase that pops up occasionally, said by either one of them.

- Super Hans, making out as though Mark is insane: “He thinks there’s a pigeon in Catalonia who’s in control of his legs!”

UK Stuff:
- NHS Direct: Via Wikipedia, a “health advice and information service” over the telephone, presumably not unlike our Telehealth Ontario. This is pretty clear from the episode itself, of course.

- Sectioning: A UK term which, clearly, means to be institutionalized involuntarily. A good word, that one. I keep meaning to use it in everyday life, but always forget.

War References:
- Again, none. Very bizarre. Super Hans does mention Nazis generally, though.