I think we make it a few seconds into the third season of this show when Stewart Lee first breaks out of his routine (it seems) and starts to deconstruct his show, himself and his audience. Specifically it is a section in Lee Mack's book that does it, but it really doesn't matter what is the first because it is a style that Lee fans will know is the norm and one that he can do very well. Other examples of course include the frequent framing scenes where he appears to be in some sort of therapy with Chris Morris where they break down him as a comedian.
There is a lot of this type of stuff but, although some will accuse him of being arch or smug, I thought it worked very well with material with more of a structure and theme, to provide a frame that holds the shows together but also makes the internal analysis stuff work better for it. With these aspects working together I found the season consistently satisfying; I won't pretend that everything landed as well as everything else, but generally the shows were very funny and built on good topics, with some being out and out comment (Paul Nuttal of UKIP) while others are more abstract as standup (a phone conversation regarding businesses names to be connected to the places they operate – it works much better than I just made it sound. The writing is very strong here and even when him lingering on a bit is part of the joke, it never feels like he spent too long on anything.
It also helps that Lee is a very good actor; maybe it is genuine but even if there is an element of truth to it, he still does a great job of delivering reflection, anger, disgust and sadness – all of which makes the material funnier because it adds to his approach of deconstructing things as he goes rather than doing straight jokes. He may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I am not sure why, since this third season is a very strong example of how good he can be and how well his specific approach can work – there is a lot of intelligence and laughs in what he does here and it is a season well worth seeing in a series that is a great example of how good Lee is.
There is a lot of this type of stuff but, although some will accuse him of being arch or smug, I thought it worked very well with material with more of a structure and theme, to provide a frame that holds the shows together but also makes the internal analysis stuff work better for it. With these aspects working together I found the season consistently satisfying; I won't pretend that everything landed as well as everything else, but generally the shows were very funny and built on good topics, with some being out and out comment (Paul Nuttal of UKIP) while others are more abstract as standup (a phone conversation regarding businesses names to be connected to the places they operate – it works much better than I just made it sound. The writing is very strong here and even when him lingering on a bit is part of the joke, it never feels like he spent too long on anything.
It also helps that Lee is a very good actor; maybe it is genuine but even if there is an element of truth to it, he still does a great job of delivering reflection, anger, disgust and sadness – all of which makes the material funnier because it adds to his approach of deconstructing things as he goes rather than doing straight jokes. He may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I am not sure why, since this third season is a very strong example of how good he can be and how well his specific approach can work – there is a lot of intelligence and laughs in what he does here and it is a season well worth seeing in a series that is a great example of how good Lee is.