What's everyone's problem with this? Why should silly scattershot humour without an 'ironic' or 'post-modern' or 'adult' twist suddenly be so taboo? Some of the comments about it misrepresenting the police force etc are just pathetic. It's obvious 2 minutes into any episode that the show is meant to be far removed from reality and is more in the slapstick visual tradition of silent film and the absurdist bungling comedy partnerships such as Laurel & Hardy, Abbot & Costello etc.
Yes it is definitely hit and miss. But it makes such a change to be able to watch a sitcom which looks good visually, is not studio-bound, without canned laughter, and without all the horrible anodyne PC humour of BBC1 comedies or the 'ironic' hipness of Channel 4 (ie swearing, vulgarity, pointlessly random hand-held camera-work and flashy editing).
Yes it is definitely hit and miss. But it makes such a change to be able to watch a sitcom which looks good visually, is not studio-bound, without canned laughter, and without all the horrible anodyne PC humour of BBC1 comedies or the 'ironic' hipness of Channel 4 (ie swearing, vulgarity, pointlessly random hand-held camera-work and flashy editing).