Twitch

And why should you care? Well, I came in because two of the stars (Tamsin Grieg and Mark Heap) were major players in two other Twitch faves (Black Books and Spaced, respectively). I stayed because of the dead solid writing and the guarantee of at least four or five laugh out loud moments per episode.

What is it? Well, I've seen it commonly labelled a comedy-drama-soap opera hybrid. The only reason I can see for the 'drama' and 'soap opera' parts of that description are some structural elements lifted from both. This is a comedy, through and through, and a very funny one at that. The cast is massive - the principal characters number well into the double digits - and the show compensates by rapid cutting from scene to scene, character to character, at a breathless pace. It moves very fast, is very dialogue heavy, and definitely demands that you pay attention.

The large cast could crush a lesser show but each of the characters is so well fleshed out that there is no problem keeping track. I sat Mack down to watch the first episode again today and was once again amazed by the economy of the introductory sequence - no more than thirty seconds each with a mitt-full of characters and yet you absolutely have a handle on every one of them five minutes into the show. One line, one mannerism, is often enough to define and fix each in your mind. It's a pretty fantastic technical achievement and the fact that you'll be laughing constantly throughout the intros only seals the deal. In the first couple episodes all of the rapid-cutting can seem a bit of a distraction but by the time you reach mid season the show has a level of complexity to it with so many connections between characters and important parralel plot lines that the method pays off handsomely.

Set in a hospital the show revolves purely around the staff - doctors, nurses, HR, IT - to the complete and utter neglect of and sort of patient interaction. You've got your new to the scene character; your crass, womanizing anesthetist; the aging obsessed HR director; a wildly neurotic radiologist; irreverant student doctors; the bored into madness staff counsellor, and on and on and on ... the show breaks so many comedy rules with it's massive cast and hour long run time but it pulls it all off seemingly without breaking a sweat.

Surreal and absurd, beautifully shot and edited, no laugh track to be found, simply stellar writing ... I can't say enough about how much I like this show. I've been looking for something to fill the hole left by the passing of Spaced and this is doing quite nicely, for the time being. I'm a little surprised that Mark Heap's character is so John Cleese derived but derivative or not Heap is a fantastically funny man and that is seriously the only negative thing I could say about it.

They're taking some time off now while Greig is pregnant, but word is that the first season will hit DVD in October and Season Two should be hitting the air in early 2006.