[PSW] Shunned

TV Programme: Peep Show
Season: 6
Episode: 6
Date I watched this episode: 24/10/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 7 days.

This episode was the third to feature a wedding: strangely enough, all even season finales of Peep Show (seasons 2, 4 and 6) have featured one. However we didn't really get that far this time: things went a bit "pear-shaped" to say the least. The ending sequence, which lasted for almost a quarter of the entire episode, featured some incredibly awkward moments and some very sudden revelations such as Jeremy's affair with Elena, Mark's failure to pass his driving test and Jeremy's murderous streak.

In fact it was actually Jeremy who featured most heavily in this episode, despite the fact that it was really Mark's event that marked the climax of the episode (the birth of his child). Jeremy's emotions are understandably all over the place, but we've rarely seen him so intense or worked up. His feelings for Elena are stronger than anyone before, even Nancy, and possibly due to the shenanigans he has had to go through to get her. Unfortunately, we likely won't see her again.

Mark on the other hand is really pitted against his rival Jeff in this episode. It's quite believable that Mark would go to such lengths to earn "naming credit" (which was a hilarious concept in itself) and his emotional state at the end of the episode was quite understandable given what he had gone through psychologically. Jeff himself is just getting incredibly annoying (not in a bad-writing kind of way, but more in an i-want-to-punch-you-in-the-face kind of way).

The episode itself was pretty simple in structure and most of the important stuff happened in about a 30 second period right at the end. In addition, we find out that Hans actually has kids, who will apparently feature strongly in season 7. That season is looking less promising than this one, but I'm sure they'll come up with some new crazy storylines to keep us going.

This season in general has felt a bit more connected than earlier ones, though the humour has not been consistent throughout. It feels like it wants more in terms of season length, in order to satisfy the storylines, and in that sense the connectedness is somewhat of a poisoned chalice. I'm going to say though that this one is better than season 5 and possibly 4 as well, though there's not much in it.

Generally though the episode was average, not amazing. I guess it ranks quite low in all of Peep Show's season finales, but considering the story was telling, it told it in a pretty captivating way.