User Reviews

The day of Tanya and Clive's wedding has arrived, and a party is held at Grandma's house, Simon is given bad news about his accommodation arrangements, but gets a glimmer of hope when Ben Theodore arrives at the door.

I've worked my way through, I've binge watched it in a few days, series two was definitely better, sharper and funnier than series one, but I think it had run its course.

However, the final episode is full of good one liners, it's a cracking mix of quirky and awkward humour. Poor Simon, you can't help but feel a little sorry for him, he's kicked out, and has to face up to his actual relationship with Ben Theodore.

Finally we get an insight into how Lily is feeling, she's obviously suffering a huge amount of grief, but struggling to express herself, it's manifested as plate counting and kleptomania, Bassett has been awesome throughout, this was her best performance, the final realisation was terrific.

Iwan Rheon and Jessie Cave both add some laughs as quirky characters Ben and Zazzy.

What on Earth has become of Simon Amstell?

8/10.

Larry David has a lot to answer for. The popularity of Curb meant that the doors were opened wider for socially awkward to be green-lit and while that has often been a good thing, it has meant that some ideas were allowed through without enough behind them. The first season of Grandma's House was a fine example of that as I found it too contrived and self-aware while lacking spark and wit worthy of those in the cast. The second season got better reviews though so I decided it was worth a shot as I did think it had some potential and I have always liked Amstell's dry wit since he was on Popworld.

The quality is a bit better in this second season and it had more frequent lines that made me laugh out loud but mostly it kept the very contrived feel that robbed it of realism while also being too turned in on itself to really embrace it being an exaggerated version of reality (as Curb does so well). The plots are often too tidy and silly although the focus on Simon's career and various family situations do help it have a bit of grounding. Shame then that around these are normally too many silly things that don't work and don't fit with the very slight and introverted tone of the show. As with the first season Amstell himself is part of the problem – he has created this really loud family and placed himself in the middle but while everyone sells their characters, he remains too cold, too distant and totally out of place; his poor acting is a running joke this time which is funny for a while, but then you start being constantly reminded why it is a running joke, and it gets less funny.

The irony is that the show is supposed to be a family life but yet it lacks realism, spark or life in the most part and most of this comes from the writing not really having enough between the words and events. There isn't much there to be had and as a result I mostly found it quite unengaging and almost totally reliant on laughs alone to keep me going – laughs which didn't come frequently enough for this to work. It is a shame because, as before, the cast are deserving of better. Front and Spiro in particular are excellent while Front and Smith have simpler but equally funny characters. Hutchings is missed but his death is well covered for by the plotting.

Overall Grandma's House got a second season on the basis of its potential and it was a shame then that it never really delivers on it again. This season is funnier and a bit better structured but it still doesn't have enough about it to bridge the laughs with pathos and impact. Individual lines and scenes are still funny but as a whole it never really hangs together as you wish it would. Shame really, but Amstell doesn't manage to make this work as a vehicle for himself.