We're two episodes in and I already watch this with a cringe on my furrowed, furrowed brow. Channel 4 has a history of putting out cool young peoples comedy/dramas, you only need to look at Skins, Inbetweeners, Phoneshop, Misfits of how much C4 focuses over the top marketing on them and Fresh Meat is no different. Unfortunately, Fresh Meat is all but fresh.
With a very clever and timely release date to coincide with Freshers Week all over the country comes Fresh Meat. Instead of enjoying your first weeks of uni you can stay in on a Tuesday night to watch yourselves (not literally) going out and doing mad shit and saying, 'omg, that is so true,' 'so relatable' and 'they've literally made a tv program about me.' No, they haven't. They are taking boring stories of people, not doing very much all. EP1 - Go to the Pub EP2 - Have party. Hardly riveting stuff is it? 'Yeah, it's gritty and real,' No, it's boring. Boring, boring, boring, boring filler! First of all, the program does not need to be nearly 1 hour long. Who let that happen? It could have easily be squashed into a 30 minute episode.
I thought the first scene of the first episode with the ducks was really funny. It was so fucking outlandish you were like, wtf? ducks? being dried on a with a hairdryer? but then quickly turned into a stale and dull altogether boring piece of turd.
Obviously, it's still early days but what I've seen so far is less than impressive. Let's take a look at the characters.
Kinglsey (Joe Thomas) - Well, after The Inbetweeners movie about them going off on a summer holiday then this coming out as term begins, this could so easily as been Simon. He's just the same character but with less gel in his hair. I'm assuming the story between him and Josie is the main focal point as they're putting a lot of emphasis on them. But seriously, this character is weak! All he does is moan and be awkward. At least if it has been Simon you could have had a few Inbetweeners cameos (that said, the Robert Webb cameo was terrible, really highlighting who is the brains in his double act with David Mitchell).
Josie (Kimberley Nixon) - What a terrible character! No depth, no fun and what an awful example for women/female students to follow. Moves in, gets emotionally attached to Kingsley within seconds of meeting him and then has sex with JP just to spite him. Oh, and it turns out she has a boyfriend of two and half years. So, this girl has cheated on her boyfriend on the FIRST NIGHT of uni and will obviously end up with Kingsley too. Worst of all everyone thinks she's nice! I think even she thinks she's nice! Seriously, so far she's the MAIN character and I hate her! She's awful!
Howard (Greg McHugh) - Good character (finally) who's given a painfully small amount of screen time in comparison to the rest. This guy needs his character developed further and hopefully will get it in the next few episodes. Unlike the rest of the characters, looks really comfortable acting his role.
Vod (Zawe Ashton) - Meh. Ok. Very stiff actress who doesn't add much to the whole story, but again might have more development soon.
Oregon (Charlotte Ritchie) - No, no, no! Has not had any meaningful contribution so far, purely comic relief. 'Yeah, she's like the Jay (Inbetweeners) of this show.' You can't just throw a character in JUST for laughs, they need some story too. Jay had story that showed real life issues and emotions not just telling lie after lie. GET OFF MY TELEVISION!
JP (Jack Whitehall) - Right, we've got a posh comedian, how should we cast him? I know let's just make him an extension of himself. A posh student. Again, comic relief but he definitely has some depth to him unlike above. You just think though, they could do so much more with his character. Whitehall's real life, posh-but-a-bit-stupid character is far funnier than this contrived and cliched dickhead.
VERDICT: You've got a lot of work on to save this sterile piece of junk. Keep it up and don't expect a second season! If you want proper student comedy go and watch The Young Ones.
