JinRoz For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Suman Roberson It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

alissabonnett My father caught me watching this and sneered. It's one of those programs that remains 'meh', hence the 5/10 rating. An 'alrighter'. An 'it's decent, yeah' one. The acting is what you'd expect from a bunch of comedians: they behave as they usually do, being humorous over deep. Sometimes there are moments of character building, but the amount of care put into them is shallow. Alan Davies was surprising, as he managed to play quite a different character than his QI persona, and, out of all the team, I'd say he was the most interesting.The saving grace of this one is the fact that Jo Brand has had experience with social work and the greatest pits of human suffering. When watching, you get the impression she may have pulled this from reality, which makes Damned more touching to watch. The scenes expressing mature or morbid lives in less fortunate households do work, and the viewer finds themselves rooting for the poorly funded, barely functioning team.The plot, whilst working when it needs to, does often feel bare, with reality somewhat being prioritised over interest. There's a lot of filler, so to speak. It relies on the banter to keep it going, which is moderately humorous, but nothing above what you'd hear two strangers on a bus laughing about. I think for Damned to have been more successful, it should've really taken control over the resources it has, since the setting is that of room of sweating, miserable people. There was room for a darker sense of humour, true gallows, mischievous stuff. It might've retracted from the message, but that's precisely the problem. Damned is a social commentary, and that's respectable, but it's not educative ENOUGH for it to work, and nor is it risky enough to be truly comical. It's in a grey area, and it had to push one way or the other to be anything above 'decent'.

icefire-51225 Just binge watched this show up to the current episode and I have to say, I love it. While certainly this isn't jolly laughs, it's very in depth and very realistic. This show is very much comedy, however it's done in such a way that, it replicates real life in many ways, it leaves in many depressing and unfunny moments which is really atmospheric and really makes you sympathise with the characters. One other thing this show does well is it's ability to know when to end things. There are many overarching plot lines but with each episode there are definitive ends and good developement towards characters and setting. It also cuts out many times where I have not wanted to continue, i.e. Awkward situations, for which I am thankful for.

anthony-goreham This comedy was marketed as 'bittersweet', which should be a warning it's not light-hearted nor full of belly-laughs. The style of the show will be instantly familiar to anyone who has watched "Going On" (also co-written by Jo Brand). The philosophy is very much "if you didn't laugh, you'd cry".The show is about a team of social workers, working in child services. So obviously they encounter a range of disturbing situations, involving children - i.e. neglected or abandoned children, accusations of child abuse, drug use, and so on. So you can see why the comedy is dark and offbeat. The show seems fairly realistic about the challenges faced by public services these days - pressure of public expectations, autocratic management, budget cuts, etc. Having said that, the comedy often comes from the slightly less realistic / exaggerated behaviour of some characters (and their significant others) plus the dire state of the office kitchen. The characters are a mixture of experienced / weary social workers (primarily Jo Brand and Alan Davies, with Kevin Eldon), a new social worker out of his depth (Himesh Patel), their stern manager (Georgie Glen) and the not-very-bright temp assistant (Isy Suttie). Overall it works very well, providing a sympathetic view of an under-appreciated workforce, with a comedic twist, in fact several parts are very funny (the team meeting scenes especially).

david-kraft I really wanted to like this. Alan is such a character on Q.I. and I haven't really seen him outside of it. The setting is something that could have the potential of being something like The Office, but I got a serious headache out of it and only half way through the first episode I had to stop watching. It wasn't funny at all and I generally love all the comedy that is produced on Britich television. It was such a mess with phones ringing all the time and very short and seemingly unimportant encounters that you just wanted it to end. Everything seems to have been filmed by a 6-year old too because it's very shaky and badly filmed. I hope it does become better after half the first episode, but even if it does, it has to be so much better that I actually think it will be impossible.:(