Father Ted - Season 1 product reviews

I had an Irish friend and when he heard that I had never seen any Father Ted, he took it as a challenge to get me to watch at least one episode but he almost spoilt the whole thing by giggling and laughing and telling me I have to watch certain scenes and going into detail of such scenes.

I have watched Father Ted a few times still can't believe how popular it is due to how silly some of it is, how do you lose the west side of the island? and a lot of other such nonsense. It shows the catholic faith in a very silly way and the people are portrayed as being of limited brain capacity. The actor who played Father Jack was done in a good way, he was a man of limited interests (one was not his faith) and of even less words, he is the one that made the biggest impact on me when watching.

I do watch this from time to time but only when I'm in the mood for nonsense shows and mindless laughing. Some of the topics are serious but then you watch Father Ted and wonder what the producers were thinking as they reduce the faith to jokes and not much else.

Not surprisingly, even this classic series suffered from a common ailment of many 'niche' UK TV series such as Blackadder - it started out a little dull, but got better as it went along. Series one is probably one of the most important series, in that it helps to introduce and define all the important characters that shape the following episodes, the three Craggy Island priests we will come to know and lov - The fiscally-inept and morally-ambiguous Father Ted Crilly, the somewhat brain-dead and disaster-prone Father Dougal, and the eternally-drunk on anything and everything Father Jack - their 'evil doppelgangers' on Rugged Island - led by Father Dick Byrne, Bishop Brennan - who put them all there in the first place as penance for their various misdeeds, and of course the various residents of Craggy Island itself who are ministered to by our three delightfully dodgy protagonists.
Though the episodes are a little 'flatter' than memory would have me believe, I do recall many episodes in later seasons that had my sides splitting, so it was a little sad to see that season one - though firmly entrenching this franchise as a classic in the making - was not quite as entertaining as I recalled. Maybe the years have softened the wit, or maybe my youth was more inspired by the innuendo-laden one-liners, character names and situational comedy. Either way, this season was still fun, just don't expect the really classic laughs just yet. For that, aim for Season 2 I would say.
All in all, still well worth getting, and if dry Irish humour is more your kettle of wit, this may be already pretty close to bang-on for you.