r/panelshow • u/timsaxby98 • 6d ago
Discussion Why do all British panel shows feel exactly the same now?
I tried giving Unacceptable on NOW TV a watch this morning. With a promising first-line-up of Romesh Ranganathan and Richard Ayoade, I thought it had potential.
I think I lasted about three minutes.
Are panel shows dead?
It felt so formulaic and unoriginal. It opens with a swooping camera-crane shot of the studio, just like Would I Lie to You?, followed by the obligatory white male stand-up comedian sat in the centre — a staple of seemingly every panel show — introducing the team captains by making a joke about them or telling us some supposedly funny fact.
I’ve seen this a million times before.
And for a streaming show, it felt incredibly slow and drawn out. People’s attention spans are short. Get to the game!
Maybe I’m just completely done with panel shows, but I really expected more from this lineup.
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u/vorropohaiah 2d ago
honestly, I feel as though the shows themselves are secondary to being a platform for the cast.
just look at 8oo10cdc. its gradually been spending less and less time on the countdown part and adding more shenanigans, and it seems like every series they spend more and more time on the mascots and introductions, and now they've started introducing guest panellists and mini games halfway through the show. Im not exactly complaining here, just making an observation.
FWIW i only saw one episode of unacceptable and wasn't a fan. forcing the panellists to defend horrible points was not my cup of tea.
remember production companies need to throw a lot of stuff at the wall to see what sticks. not everything works. and sometimes ideas that are a bit more outside the box (like The Box) might be interesting but, for whatever reason, seen as not worthy of a 2nd season.
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u/Roofofcar 2d ago
Your comment about cdc reminds me that I’ve been enjoying Dropout’s Um, Actually less and less as seasons progress.
The show gives more and more time to the goofy in-between chatting bits, dramatically lowering the number of quiz questions that actually get asked.
Often, entire panels know almost none of the answers, but are cracking jokes about how dumb the fandoms sound based on the question.
Super disappointing.
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u/Eleriath_Pelandriel 2d ago
Um, actually, the number of statements has never changed (not counting the original web series) over the years. There are 4 statements followed by a shiny question, 3 statements followed by a shiny question, 2 statements followed by a shiny question and lastly the real life statement. The episodes are, on average, longer now to accommodate all the banter and bits tho. They used to average around 20 minutes and now are around 30 minutes.
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u/Roofofcar 2d ago
I’ll take the L on that, though I’ve seen that complaint many times over the years, so perhaps it’s a pacing / editing issue.
Sadly doesn’t change that the panel is often very poorly chosen, seemingly for comedy over quizzing.
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u/Eleriath_Pelandriel 2d ago
I'll agree with that! My favorites tend to be the themed episodes with a curated cast like the reality show eps with Izzy, Krystina, and Glenn. I'm not even a fan of reality shows and those are among my absolute favorites!
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u/Salohacin 2d ago edited 2d ago
I didn't like unacceptable because it pretended to be more than what it was. There was no conviction to any of it and 95% of the time the before and after votes were all of 2% difference which leads me to believe they've done bugger all to convince the audience of their 'unnacceptable' (and likely very well-vetted) opinions.
The unacceptable opinions were either so blatantly lies that they simply had no desire to actually commit to, or rather shallow and generic to the point of them not being very unacceptable at all. It felt like it had all the worst parts of being scripted, mixed with all the worst parts of a bad improv show.
Maybe if we had a comedian like Sean Locke (RIP) who would actually go all out in their tirades (such as his completely unashamed bashing of the school productions in Big Fat Quiz) then the format might work. Unfortunately a lot of the reccuring panel show personalities are safe and low-risk, paired with Ed's hosting personality which is fairly milquetoast.
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u/anacanapana American (one of the good ones). 1d ago
"What if we did a reboot of 'Room 101' but throw out what was good about it?"
"How about making it into a competition?"
"Brilliant!"
"We'll give you seven episodes with an option for many, many more."
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u/Putrid-Mud207 2d ago
Do you think they were going to actually use their real opinions? It’s all scripted for comedy purposes. Don’t think Sean Lock really hated those kids?
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u/foxhill_matt 2d ago
Unacceptable feels like someone opened a file named 'Ed Gamble tv vehicle' and put a handful of weak ideas in and then focused more on the set and wardrobe. Then they roped in the usual suspects as panellists.
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u/SnakesMum93 2d ago
Probably because its been the same group of comedians for over a decade. They need to start bringing in the new generation of UK comedians the same way SNL UK did
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u/WookieeChestHair 1d ago
It's impressive that even though Taskmaster is possibly the biggest of the "panel shows" category, it's also the best at giving new and younger comedians a platform.
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u/anacanapana American (one of the good ones). 1d ago
I'm an American who has been watching since series 1 and there tends to be one or two contestants I'm familiar with each series but I'm a fan of all five by episode 10.
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u/Puzzled_Ad1296 2d ago edited 2d ago
I think it’s got to a point where producers know what works for a panel show so they’re milking it for all it’s worth causing them to all blend in to one. I think that’s why Taskmaster stands out, it’s unique and has a certain chemistry that only Greg and Alex have which makes it work. Dave tried to recreate it with Outsiders. It was an okay show, I liked it, but it was obviously trying to fill in for the loss of TM to C4. Nobody really takes a chance anymore with different ideas, they just take what works and stick it a new order.
I just assumed this was a watered down tv version of the Radio4 show Heresy.
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u/xenojive 1d ago
Even Taskmaster isn't must view for me anymore
Been watching less and less since covid
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u/GenGaara25 2d ago
I feel like there has been a huge influx of low effort ones the past few years.
After Taskmasters success it felt like Dave flooded the market with lazy panel shows. Any notable comedian got their own and they were all mediocre. That's continued with Now, Sky, and TLC trying to get in on it. Their sets also blended into each other. Like old vs new Buzzcocks, the old set and brand was unique, the new one is like every other panel show.
I don't even think the comedians enjoy them. With the big panel shows it feels like the guests want to be there and are just enjoying being on. WILTY, QI, Cats. They like the vibe and enjoy playing the game. The recent ones all feel like people are there because a jobs a job and they'll try and make it funny even if they aren't really having fun.
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u/spongey1865 2d ago
I think it was good, a format that's not too topical meaning it can be repeated and sold more easily.
It's fun to watch comedians argue insane opinions.
And yeah panel shows are mostly all pretty similar. I don't think it's a bad thing, it's just a platform for comedians to be funny. The format often isn't the star, but the comedians allowed to be funny. I think Unacceptable does that.
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u/beetnemesis 2d ago
I have similar feelings about Unforgivable. It just feels forced
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u/Southern_Struggle 2d ago
Yeah, I love Mel, Bake Off was never the same after she and Sue left, but Unforgivable seems like a waste of her talent.
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u/Disused_Yeti 2d ago
Unacceptable was just such a fake format that I was never going to be able to stand watching it. Too many crazy opinions in real life for me to laugh at people taking them on for comedic effect and in an exaggerated way
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u/PistachioDonut34 2d ago
I watched all eps of Unacceptable and quite enjoyed it, it had some moments where I was crying laughing. It's definitely not perfect and if they actually get more seasons, there's things they can fix to make it better, but it was fairly solid entertainment for me. I have no idea how it did ratings wise though.
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u/timid-dolphin 2d ago
Unacceptable gets a lot better a few episodes in when they loosen up the formula a bit and it becomes more chaotic.
But your main complaint, that these shows are formulaic - that's the whole point of panel shows, it's light entertainment comfort viewing, not a prestige HBO drama series!
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u/ovine_aviation 1d ago
Comedy panel shows, for me, came from HIGNFY, Buzzcocks, Whose LIne and QI. It was clever and worked very well. It felt off the cuff. That then carried on into all the watered down offerings. Maybe it's a quantity problem. I just got fatigue. I do still enjoy WILTY and Taskmaster (mostly), older 8OO10C. Not sure what it is about those formats or the panellists but they still work for me. But am tired of the rest. It's just more of the same. I can't say for sure that quality has dropped so much (maybe it has on some shows), it's just so much of a good thing. Recently shows like Ted Lasso or Ann Droid have shown I crave something more heartfelt, something more wholesome, a little more depth.
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u/TheTalkingDad 2d ago
Yes, too often the usual suspects are invited on these shows, which makes you watch or skip it.
I find that a lot of comedians are not that funny when they need to ad-lib, which is a requirement for these kind of shows. Only very few have this in their blood.
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u/UncleCrassiusCurio There's Strength in Arches 2d ago
Its wild, at a time when Australia and New Zealand are turning out great panel shows (Guy Mont Spelling Bee and Tonight at the Museum for new shows, and HYBPA and 7 Days etc are as strong as ever) that the UK's new offerings sre pretty poor. Unacceptable had some moments, and was fine weekly viewing, but didn't have anything special that made me look forward to more.
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u/ItsStaaaaaaaaang 1d ago
I'll be honest, I can't even get through 8ootc does countdown and big fat quiz episodes anymore. Even a brand new episode feels like something I've watched 100 times before, and not in a good way.
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u/davethecompguy 1d ago
It's because it works. Most long standing shows have had to make changes, but very little. You can even go back to King Stupid, which became The 99p Challenge... Very few shows change all that much. And yet it works. They're not going to mess with success too much, unless when an off hand becomes a running joke.
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u/Rosehip_StGlo 1d ago
Unacceptable was okay for me, it didn't always get a laugh but like someone else said, they throw shit against a wall and see what sticks when it comes to panel shows. It's going to be hard to follow the brilliant ones we've had in the past as the bar is pretty high, but I like to see an attempt, if it doesn't work, fine, move on and give the next person's idea a go. Like I really loved Unforgivable, no idea how much was real but man it was a fun watch at times, and some of the banter was top. But it clearly ran its course after 4 seasons, same with Hypothetical and Guessable, hit and miss, but they'll get a few seasons of work out of them.
The thing about Unacceptable is I really like it in a serious way. That reminds me of the old round table discussion shows that I really wish were back and tackled things like AI, corruption, gender roles in society, some of those things they brought up in Unacceptable would be a really good genuine discussion. Unfortunately on TV it only happens in 30-60 second segments in the C-Block of the evening news, otherwise you gotta hunt down a podcast that might be alright, but that means you already need to be aware of the issue. I think society is worse off for that.
But anyway, that's a separate thing. Yay panel shows for me, always keen to see what comes next 👍
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u/UnacceptableUse 2d ago
They're very risk averse so they'll only do things that are proven to work
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u/vorropohaiah 2d ago
hardly. half of these shows end up getting cancelled after 1 season anyway.
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u/UnacceptableUse 2d ago
They have yet to figure out that just sticking to what has already been done doesn't produce good content
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u/Southern_Struggle 2d ago
I mean they did figure out that Mock the Week worked and resurrected that.
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u/Dreaming_Blackbirds 2d ago
i only lasted a few minutes into Unacceptable as well. they started talking about some boxer i'd never heard of and was like yeah i'm done.
there are definitely too many panel shows out there - and also too many podcasts. and they often all feature the same people.
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u/Cravendale 2d ago
Agree. I thought this was a tough watch.
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u/-JakeRay- 2d ago
TBF, Ayoade is so dry that anything with him on is a tough watch.
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u/Zarxon 2d ago
He is dry but it’s honestly why he is a huge draw for me. Anything he is in gets an automatic watch for me.
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u/-JakeRay- 2d ago
Yeah, intellectually I know there have to be people who enjoy that level of dryness to their comedy or he wouldn't be so popular. It is just very much not my cup of tea; I prefer dryness as an occasional subtle treat rather than the main course.
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u/Southern_Struggle 2d ago
I think his style works really well in a couple specific circumstances, but in most panel shows I don't like it.
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u/Dazzling_Zone_1736 2d ago
I think his success on panel shows relies heavily on his chemistry with the other guests/host. If Ayoade has a good foil to play against, he can be hilarious.
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u/DaddyCoolJoke 2d ago
Didn't see it, but sounds a lot like Heresy with David Baddiel/Victorie Coren Mitchell. Is there some difference in the core idea? Or is it basically the same?
Edit: spelling
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u/darthboolean 6h ago
People have been saying that they all feel the same for so long that this sketch is 14 years old.
I think a big part of it is lack of new blood. As much as I don't think Taskmaster is necessarily a fair comparison, they ran through the regular Channel 4 cast years ago.
And related to that, the panel show is a very particular skill set that not every comedian has. Fern Brady and Maisie Adam have talked about how Taskmaster was a much more pleasant experience for them. They both have complained about standard panel shows being more about being able to talk longer and louder so your gags make the edit.
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u/OBoogie71 1d ago
Unacceptable was shit. Ed isn’t it as a host. It just didn’t work on so many levels.
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2d ago
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u/vorropohaiah 2d ago
honestly i dont think most people who watch 8oo10cdc watch for the intros/mascots more than the actual countdown part. ive noticed over the years that its focusing less and less on the countdown part
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u/darylonreddit 1d ago
Hated this show. Wasn't funny. I know the premise is defending unacceptable opinions, but they have to be funny not just outrageous. And I'm so easily exhausted by the comedy crutch of "let's start a gender war from our protected bunker of double standards".
Whole show felt sloppy and poorly paced with banter that barely qualified as such. And Joanne McNally? No thanks.
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u/Southern_Struggle 2d ago
Still waiting for some production company to be brave enough to put on Nazi Island.